The rivalry between the two Glasgow-based teams Celtic and Rangers is one of football’s fiercest, and one that has been marred by sectarian divisions between the city’s Catholic and Protestant communities in the past. But how do Glaswegians from other religious and ethnic backgrounds view the ‘Old Firm’ derby?

Today Dr Kieran James joins us to discuss the experiences of Glaswegians of Pakistani descent for their views on the derby. The majority of fans of Pakistani descent who Kieran has spoken to preferred Celtic, for a variety of reasons, including the club's support for the state of Palestine, which includes campaigns and donations made by supporter groups, was highly influential in some of the respondents opting for Celtic over Rangers as their preferred team. 

…all this and more in the 34th episode of the Football and Society podcast.

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If you like the podcast, please subscribe and give us a review via your platform of choice.

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Each week, Ash, Chris and Norman explore societal issues through the lens of the beautiful game. From the ethics of gambling sponsorship to what a stadium move means for fans, we’ll be covering it all each week with expert guests from the worlds of sports journalism and sociology.

Éder Lopes’s goal in the 2016 European Championship Final won Portugal its first ever major football trophy, and catapulted him to the status of a ‘national hero’. A recent article argues that the celebration of Éder, born in the former Portuguese colony Guinea Bissau, and other racialised players depends on their ability to perform and assimilate ‘Portuguese culture’.

In this episode, Pedro Almeida joins us to discuss the relation between football, race, nation and colonial past.

Pedro has studied press discourses in Portugal, particularly the narratives that emerged during the 2016 European Championship; in addition, the study draws on interviews with various agents including journalists and former professional players. While the success of the national team in 2016 was perceived and presented by some as a symbol of the re-definition of Portuguese national identity to reflect a multiracial and diverse society, in reality it hasn’t weakened the idea of ‘a national ‘we’, Portuguese and implicitly white, as opposed to ‘they’, African and implicitly black. Pedro writes that Portugueseness is still conceived of today as something innately white in the national imagination.

…all this and more in the 33rd episode of the Football and Society podcast.

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If you like the podcast, please subscribe and give us a review via your platform of choice.

Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/footballsocpod

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Each week, Ash, Chris and Norman explore societal issues through the lens of the beautiful game. From the ethics of gambling sponsorship to what a stadium move means for fans, we’ll be covering it all each week with expert guests from the worlds of sports journalism and sociology.

In 2016, Iceland stunned the footballing world with its performance in the European Championship Finals. The nation of 340,000 reached the quarter-finals of their first-ever major tournament, claiming the scalps of England and Austria along the way.

In this episode, Vidar Halldorsson joins us to discuss Iceland's position as a ‘Black Swan’ in modern elite sport: because of their extraordinary performances

In Iceland, there is no distinction between ‘participation sports’ and ‘performance sports’ as there is in many other countries, and resources tend to be channelled into youth sports rather than elite sports. Regarding Iceland’s success at elite football level, Vidar argues that ‘the key characteristics of the Icelandic national teams, such as players’ enthusiasm, character, sacrifice, friendships and agency, are in part a result of their socialization in the youth sport system.’ He also notes that countries who once adopted the customary international sports model are now turning to the Icelandic model as a way of organising and playing sports.

…all this and more in the 32nd episode of the Football and Society podcast. 

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If you like the podcast, please subscribe and give us a review via your platform of choice. 

Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/footballsocpod 

Follow Vidar on Twitter: www.twitter.com/VidarHalldrsson

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Each week, Ash, Chris and Norman explore societal issues through the lens of the beautiful game. From the ethics of gambling sponsorship to what a stadium move means for fans, we’ll be covering it all each week with expert guests from the worlds of sports journalism and sociology.

In the 1980s, the president of the African Football Confederation stated that 'African football must make a choice' with regards to the exportation and retention of homegrown talent. Yidnekatchew Tessema was highlighting concerns still present today, as more and more African football players opt to play for the European nations where they seek employment as professional athletes.

This week we speak to Professor Wycliffe Njororai Simiyu about the history of African footballers playing in Europe as well as the experiences of players of African descent today. 

The earliest players tended to be from French colonial territories, such as Raoul Diagne, who was the first Black footballer to play for France in the 1930s. Other popular destinations for talented players from Africa included Portugal, Belgium, and Britain, and over time these nations have been transformed into multiracial, diverse societies. However, Njororai notes that the ‘mining and export of indigenous football talent for consumption in European markets’ is reflective of ‘broader imperialist and neo-imperialist economic exploitation’; the recruitment of African players is effectively a continuation of the historic economic exploitation of the African continent, within a global capitalist system whose terms are determined by Western industrialized nations. 

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If you like the podcast, please subscribe and give us a review via your platform of choice.

Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/footballsocpod

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Each week, Ash, Chris and Norman explore societal issues through the lens of the beautiful game.

From the ethics of gambling sponsorship to what a stadium move means for fans, we’ll be covering it all each week with expert guests from the worlds of sports journalism and sociology.

The first FIFA video game was released by EA Sports on 15th July 1993, and since then it has become the most popular and successful soccer video game ever. While in most countries FIFA's popularity followed the popularity of soccer itself, in the US it seems interest in the video game preceded - and may have even boosted - the popularity of the sport.

With his colleague Adam Green, today's guest Andrei Markovits has explored the growth of soccer’s cultural presence in the United States over the past 10–12 years, arguing that one of many factors in soccer’s surge in popularity in the United States has been the FIFA video game series. The game's creator, EA Sports, has actively targeted the US market, using popular American celebrities in its campaigns as well as featuring American soccer stars on the cover of the game itself. 

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If you like the podcast, please subscribe and give us a review via your platform of choice.

Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/footballsocpod

***

Each week, Ash, Chris and Norman explore societal issues through the lens of the beautiful game.

From the ethics of gambling sponsorship to what a stadium move means for fans, we’ll be covering it all each week with expert guests from the worlds of sports journalism and sociology.

Over the past 20 years Qatar has hosted international tournaments in a range of sports including tennis and golf, but it has never hosted a sporting mega event such as the football World Cup. The 2022 Men’s World Cup, to be held in Qatar next year, will be the first to be hosted by an Arab nation.

Preparations for the tournament have been surrounded by controversy, with allegations of bribery during the bidding process as well as the reported deaths of foreign workers employed to build the venues, but a recent study suggests that Qatar has demonstrated greater flexibility and sensitivity in its response to these controversies than many people think. In an article published in the Soccer & Society journal in 2019, Dr Thomas Ross Griffin focuses on the manner in which the Gulf State has addressed the concerns of its critics.

...all this and more in the 28th episode of the Football and Society podcast.

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If you like the podcast, please subscribe and give us a review via your platform of choice.

Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/footballsocpod

Follow Thomas on Twitter: www.twitter.com/RossGriffinQU

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Each week, Ash, Chris and Norman explore societal issues through the lens of the beautiful game.

From the ethics of gambling sponsorship to what a stadium move means for fans, we’ll be covering it all each week with expert guests from the worlds of sports journalism and sociology.

In Indonesia, soccer is everywhere: on newsstands, a city’s soundscape, fashion boutiques, and in the graffiti and murals of city walls. While in recent years violence has erupted between fans and corruption scandals have rocked the domestic league, it remains arguably the most intensely fought-over cultural product in contemporary Indonesia.

Andy Fuller has explored fandom in the two cities of Solo and Yogyakarta, two long-established cultural rivals both claiming to be heirs to Javanese high culture. An ex-player interviewed for the study reminisced over the ‘good old days’ and lamented the decrepit state of Indonesian soccer today, partly due to allegations of corruption involving his old team PSS Sleman, who were accused of match-fixing when their game against PSIS Semarang saw five own goals scored after the 87th minute. The domestic league has also been plagued by violence that saw the death of Muhammad Ikhwanuddin, a PSCS Cilacap supporter, at the hands of PSS Sleman supporters in October 2014. 

The rise of PSS Sleman and its supporter groups, Andy states, is a result of the ‘era of decentralization’ that led to a greater sense of identification with one’s team. Indonesian football is effectively an intersection of mainstream politics, identity politics, and negotiations of hetero-normative masculinity, and also the playing field for a diverse range of religious and youth gangs.

...all this and more in the 27th episode of the Football and Society podcast.

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If you like the podcast, please subscribe and give us a review via your platform of choice.

Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/footballsocpod

Follow Andy on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ReadingSideways

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Each week, Ash, Chris and Norman explore societal issues through the lens of the beautiful game.

From the ethics of gambling sponsorship to what a stadium move means for fans, we’ll be covering it all each week with expert guests from the worlds of sports journalism and sociology.

In recent years, the money invested in sports betting has reached staggering levels. In the EU alone, the value of online betting is estimated at £16.5 billion. But it’s not only in Europe that sports betting has become so widespread. Soccer-betting houses are an emerging and growing phenomenon in Zimbabwe.

In this episode, Dr Manase Kudzai Chiweshe joins us to discuss the history of sports betting in Zimbabwe and the forms it takes today. 

Betting was virtually non-existent in pre-colonial Zimbabwe, but the introduction of a money economy after its colonisation created both a market for gambling and the accompanying sporting activities. However, as the colonial government of Southern Rhodesia at the time was concerned with the social problems gambling might create, legislation was introduced - forcing punters underground until the mid-20th century. Today, economic hardship and unemployment in Zimbabwe have fuelled the rise of sports betting and, in a worrying trend, gambling in soccer-betting houses as a livelihood option is becoming more and more common among the unemployed. 

...all this and more in the 26th episode of the Football and Society podcast.

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If you like the podcast, please subscribe and give us a review via your platform of choice.

Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/footballsocpod

Follow Manase on Twitter: www.twitter.com/manasekudzai

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Each week, Ash, Chris and Norman explore societal issues through the lens of the beautiful game.

From the ethics of gambling sponsorship to what a stadium move means for fans, we’ll be covering it all each week with expert guests from the worlds of sports journalism and sociology.

In the past three decades, English men’s football has undergone considerable structural and social change. Ongoing commitment by the footballing authorities to tackle discrimination has led to the diversification of fandom inside English stadia, including the emergence of LGBT Fan Groups throughout the country.

Dr Rory Magrath interviewed 35 gay male fans of various professional clubs for a study looking into their experiences and their sense of place in football. The study found that English football is now an overwhelmingly inclusive environment, evidenced by the growing number of LGBT fans attending matches and the decline of discriminatory chanting. 

This is partly attributed to the increase in LGBT fan groups, of which there are over 40 across English professional football; among the participants were seven founders or co-founders of such groups. Most of the supporters interviewed for the study said that Fan Groups provided the chance to establish a safe community and a sense of belonging, with the potential to affect social change on English football. While it was clear that these groups had encouraged greater involvement among LGBT fans, some argued that fan groups were now redundant given the increasingly inclusive environment at stadia, and even went so far as to state that Fan Groups nowadays are actually ‘othering’ gay fans unnecessarily. 

...all this and more in the 25th episode of the Football and Society podcast.

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If you like the podcast, please subscribe and give us a review via your platform of choice.

Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/footballsocpod

Follow Rory on Twitter: www.twitter.com/RoryMagrath

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Each week, Ash, Chris and Norman explore societal issues through the lens of the beautiful game.

From the ethics of gambling sponsorship to what a stadium move means for fans, we’ll be covering it all each week with expert guests from the worlds of sports journalism and sociology.