Footballer Wives: Communication and Coping at Home in Absence of Spouse

Abstract

This chapter examines changes in Nigerian family roles because of the gap that exists in communication between left-at-home footballers' wives and their absentee husbands who are working at significant distances from their families' permanent residence. Based on a study of 12 football (i.e., soccer) players in the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) and contextualized within the field of sport labor, the study adds knowledge about the impact of footballer migration on left-behind families. The interview data produced five major themes: long-distance marital communication, effects of a paternalistic family culture, extended family issues, effects of father's absence on children, and effects of loneliness and loss of intimacy on wives. The results demonstrate changing roles among the married couples and extended families who were investigated in this study, perhaps indicating what is happening among similar families in Nigeria. It is notable that although the demands of professional football create this impact on families, there is considerable cultural resistance to role changes, because these changes grant the women new and possibly unexpected roles and increased domestic power. Their husbands, despite being away from home, appear to resist these changes and struggle to assert traditional power from afar. In many cases, the women expertly maneuver around this struggle and, in cases where disagreements emerge, they often use effective strategies to resolve problems and maintain a united family.

Citation

Onwumechili, C. and Akpan, U.S. (2023), "Footballer Wives: Communication and Coping at Home in Absence of Spouse", Ortiz, S.M. (Ed.) Family and Sport (Research in the Sociology of Sport, Vol. 19), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 89-105. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1476-285420230000019007