The 2019 Women’s World Cup semi-final between England and the USA was watched by a record television audience of 11.7 million in the UK. It lived up to the hype, with England missing a penalty in the final minutes of a tense and fiercely fought-out match; fans were left agonising over what could have been, as the Lionesses rued a lost opportunity to reach the final and potentially win the most prized trophy of them all for the first time.

Kath Woodward argues that the 2019 World Cup was a pivotal moment for women’s football, which until then had largely been ignored by mainstream media in comparison with the men’s game. Indeed, football fandom has tended to focus on memorable achievements in the history of men’s football. 

In the UK, women were actually banned from establishing their own league by the FA in 1921, despite matches drawing tens of thousands of spectators. This, combined with the difficulties female players faced in finding the time to practice the sport, made it increasingly difficult for the women’s game to become accepted in wider society. 

In the second half of the 20th century, however, women’s football became immensely popular in North America; its popularity gradually spread across the globe and captivated audiences worldwide. On the world stage, English players such as Kelly Smith and Lucy Bronze have produced some memorable moments, and there will undoubtedly be more to come. Defining moments are stories that bring fans together, creating communities as well as legends.

...all this and more in the 14th episode of the Football and Society podcast.

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Follow Kath on Twitter: www.twitter.com/woodward_kath

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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.

Soweto, located in the city of Johannesburg, South Africa is a township beset by crime and unemployment. In the midst of all this, however, its residents - especially the youngest - find an escape from the danger and violence of the ‘street’ through football.

Jo Grønlund embedded himself in Soweto's grassroots football scene and in the process discovered the ways in which local, small-scale football helps to create meanings and identities for township dwellers. 

In this podcast, he discusses the (perhaps naive) distinction that residents created between the danger zones of the ‘street’ and the footballing arena, where it was perceived that discipline and responsibility reigned. 

Jo also built strong relationships with local coaches, who presented themselves as father-like figures, and the players in turn treated them as paternalistic figures of authority; in this way, grassroots football clubs operate as ‘families’ where a hierarchical power structure is in place to manage relationships. 

...all this and more in the 13th episode of the Football and Society podcast.

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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 history of sports participation for people with visual impairments can be traced back to the early 19th century. Since then, sport for people with visual impairments has become accessible across the world thanks largely to institutional developments, including the creation of the International Blind Sports Federation in 1981.

In this episode, we speak to Keon Richardson about his involvement in introducing blind football to Zimbabwe. Keon, working with Zimbabwe’s National Paralympic Committee, spearheaded one-day coaching clinics for specialist teachers and students with visual impairments; the sport is now played in all ten of the country’s provinces. 

Keon's study highlights how students’ physical health improved and their participation allowed them to challenge dominant ideas about being visually impaired. These findings offer national governing bodies, schools, and organisations rich information on removing barriers to participation not only in Zimbabwe, but across the rest of the world.

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

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Follow Keon on Twitter: www.twitter.com/finallykeon

***

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.

While women’s football has grown in popularity in the last few decades and female superstars now grace our television screens alongside the stars of men’s football, there remain significant challenges in altering attitudes towards wider female participation in the sport, as well as limited discussion of the experience of female footballers who take part in mixed-sex football.

Kate Themen has explored notions of physicality and the gendered body in the context of mixed-sex football. By participating in mixed settings, female players are actively contesting the dominant discourse whereby physicality is undesirable in female bodies, and mixed-sex football therefore allows female players to challenge gender stereotypes which define the masculine as the doer and the feminine as the non-doer. 

The research for this study was conducted in the north-west of England, and involved narrative interviews with 8 participants aged from 23 to 58. Many of the participants revealed they had started playing football much later than is normal for male players, due to a lack of opportunities to do so that consequently restricted their access to ‘physical capital’. The difficulties in obtaining and employing physical capital for women are exacerbated by a system that provides limited resources for them to practice and receive guidance from professional coaches. 

Mixed-sex football, however, provides a ‘third space’ in which the boundaries of gender and physicality are tested, and the precariousness of ‘gender’ as a construct is challenged by the female players’ physicality.

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

***

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 Kate on Twitter: www.twitter.com/KateThemen

***

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 decade, President Erdoğan and his Justice and Development Party have promoted a vision of a ‘New Turkey’ undergoing a process of Islamization and distancing itself from its secular, modern Republican past. This social engineering project has attempted to make changes to one of the symbolic domains of the secular, urban middle classes, namely football.

Turkish football has a fascinating history, which Dr Dağhan Irak explored in an article published in the Soccer and Society journal in 2020. Football was first introduced during the last century of the Ottoman Empire and formed one of the strongest links with Europe and ideas of modernity. Today, over 80% of Turkish football fans support one of the so-called ‘Big Three’: Beşiktaş, Fenerbahçe, and Galatasaray. 

Fandom practices among these sets of supporters are shaped in the secular stronghold of Istanbul and in conflict with Erdoğan’s Islamization process. Fans of the Big Three were heavily involved in the anti-Erdoğan Gezi Park protests in 2013. Subsequently, the Erdoğan regime introduced measures designed to crack down on dissident supporters, which included banning political slogans inside stadiums and introducing an e-ticket scheme. Furthermore, the regime renamed two football clubs in municipalities run by Erdoğan’s AKP party, in an attempt to create a pro-AKP fanbase. Başakşehir and Osmanlispor, however, have received limited support and in some cases employees of the municipality are forced to attend games. Erdoğan, a former semi-professional player himself, is effectively seeking to recreate football and fandom in line with the new regime, ignoring its historical links with the Western world.

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

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Follow Dağhan on Twitter: www.twitter.com/daghanirak

Dağhan will be speaking at a seminar entitled 'Athletes and Politics: The Fallacy of "Stick to Sport" as a Global Phenomenon' on 11 February 2021. Email Dr. Errol Salamon ([email protected]) for access.

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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.

As women’s football has grown in popularity, there has been a corresponding growth in attention on female players, yet little attention has been paid to non-playing roles. One recent study, however, explored the experiences of female officials in men’s amateur football in the UK.

Alison Forbes, Lisa Edwards, and Scott Fleming explored the experiences of four officials in Warwickshire and Somerset. They used participant observation and in-depth interviews to analyse the techniques employed by female officials to overcome hostile attitudes and sexist abuse. The study identified tensions between the officials’ gendered and refereeing identities; in the face of sexist comments, some participants noted that male officials also encounter abuse and considered it normal in football for people to criticise officials in this way. 

However, the participants also felt that they were representing female football officials in general when they officiated, and there was therefore additional pressure to conquer negative stereotypes concerning women’s participation. Because of this negative stereotyping, it is argued that female officials must actually perform better than their male counterparts to become accepted within male football culture. The authors state that, while women remain a minority within men’s football, if female officials do not complain about or confront abusers there is little incentive to rid the sport of sexism; it also means that other female officials in the future, especially those younger and with less confidence, may suffer as a result.

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

***

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

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Follow Alison on Twitter: www.twitter.com/allygg99

***

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.

Throughout the history of modern football, dictatorships have attempted both to suppress football and to use major footballing events on the world stage to showcase their power.

‘States of exception’ is a term used by Tamir Bar-On in an article published in 2018, referring to states experiencing war, revolution, terrorism, or severe economic and political disturbances, where any existing order is suspended indefinitely. 

Salvador Allende’s Unidad Popular, who governed Chile prior to the 1973 coup, was a keen advocate of football’s role in creating and promoting ‘spaces of popular sovereignty and participation’. The arrival of General Pinochet, however, marked a new era of repression and brutality towards civil society, including amateur football clubs. 

In this podcast we explore the careers of two Chilean players, Elías Figueroa and Carlos Caszely: one of whom was a vocal supporter of the regime, and the other of whom was a fierce critic. 

Today, with changes in the world order resulting from globalisation, the focus has shifted from sovereign states to global networks of power and influence. We are now in a ‘neo-medieval era’, Tamir claims, where states share power with international organisations such as FIFA or the UN.

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

***

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 Tamir on Twitter: www.twitter.com/OnTamir

***

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

From the ethics of gambling sponsorship and the trauma of a stadium move to the experience of female officials and 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.

At the turn of the 21st century, the UK’s New Labour government championed ‘Football in the Community’ initiatives as a way of addressing issues such as crime and unemployment among so-called ‘hard-to-reach’ young people. One such initiative, Premier League Kicks, was launched in 2006.

Thomas Fletcher and Keon Richardson conducted a case study focussing on a Premier League Kicks initiative run by Tottenham Hotspur in the London borough of Haringey, interviewing young participants as well as coaches who had once been participants themselves. 

Thomas and Keon suggest that participants need to create and convert various forms of capital, including social and sporting capital, in order to establish connections with people from outside their community as well as those within. In theory, these connections would then allow them to make the most of opportunities for social mobility and ‘get ahead’. 

However, the study revealed that although Premier League Kicks offers one-to-one mentoring and individual guidance on career and education choices, the participants themselves lacked the necessary social competencies and knowledge of the systems governing football:

...all this and more in the seventh 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

***

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

From the ethics of gambling sponsorship and the trauma of a stadium move to the experience of female officials and 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.

Watching football games being played behind closed doors lately has highlighted how important supporters are in creating that unique atmosphere on a matchday. But have you ever thought of supporters as ‘magicians’?

This is the view proposed by Katarzyna Herd who has explored the practice of magic among Swedish football supporters. 

Katarzyna’s work builds on the notion of ‘magic’ as described by the French sociologist Marcel Mauss, who defined magic as a means of creating a socially constructed space, in which certain rites are performed to foster a collective belief in the power of these practices to influence events.

Drawing on her experience attending games with the radical supporters of Malmö, Katarzyna argues that the core elements of magic as Mauss describes it are present at matches with the most radical fans engaging in behaviour considered taboo by other supporters (boisterous chanting, lighting flares, and displaying aggression towards the opposition).

...all this and more in the sixth 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 and the trauma of a stadium move to the experience of female officials and 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 1998, the French football team won the World Cup for the first time, on home soil. The nation fell in love with heroes such as Zinedine Zidane and Patrick Vieira, who came to be celebrated as symbols of assimilation in the postcolonial age, but the French had not always held the sport or its athletes in such high esteem.

After the euphoria of France’s World Cup and European Cup triumphs in 1998 and 2000, the team’s relationship with the French public deteriorated. Disappointment on the pitch, combined with behavioural and disciplinary issues off it, led to tension. The culture of football celebrity seemed to fuel public antagonism towards uneducated athletes, who were accruing vast sums of wealth at a time when the country’s economy had been crippled by the 2008 financial crash. While some have argued that criticism of these players was often racially coded, today's guest - Dr. Lindsay Krasnoff - suggests that the anti-soccer backlash is less to do with overt racism and more about what it means to be French culturally.

...all this and more in the fifth 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 and the trauma of a stadium move to the experience of female officials and 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.