Sport and power: globalization and merchandizing in the soccer world

Abstract

Purpose

Management ideology is spreading everywhere. Not long ago, it was restricted to market enterprises, which methods, values, and goals now predominate also in other fields. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the changes that occurred in the arena of football by the construction of a worldwide field and by the creation of an international market.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper discusses the force relations among the actors in the football's field, of which analysis is based on a dialogue between Pierre Bourdieu's notion of social fields and Furtado's centre‐peripheric theory. Also, the Bosman arrest and Charleroi case are taken as keystone events in the establishment of a capitalistic football market.

Findings

By the history of general capitalism development, one finds a process of liberalization of the sport's production factors (the players), as well as the loss of centralized power by the decline of Fédération Internationale de Football Association and the tendency towards the monopolization of the this sport on a world professional level – concentration of power in several key clubs. In this sense, an increasingly dominant intervention of European clubs in the poorer countries' markets can thus be envisaged.

Originality/value

The discussion of a cultural organization's field is often forgotten in the management debates, and seems to be reserved for sociologists and anthropologists. But, it is precisely this sheep‐herding management method – and its widely dispersed ideology – that is the changing instrument of this aspect of the field. The paper underlines the meeting between the theories which prove themselves productive concerning this subject.

Citation

Madeiro, G. (2007), "Sport and power: globalization and merchandizing in the soccer world", Society and Business Review, Vol. 2 No. 3, pp. 287-298. https://doi.org/10.1108/17465680710825479