While the field of football studies has produced an abundance of literature on professional, top-league football, there is little research output to do with the non-top level football. This book explores the relationship between the top and lower leagues, laying open the drastic schisms that exist between the different levels.
The study links the developments at the top level of English and German football in the past 30 years to transformational processes in lower league football. Illustrating how the hegemonic status of top football weighs hard on the spheres below, it depicts how it also serves as a blueprint for lower league football clubs’ strategies in coping with a threefold dilemma of institutional legitimacy that shows itself in economic, cultural and social dimensions. Taking the different club structures in both national contexts as a starting point, it portrays both the efficacy of institutional frameworks and how these can be challenged from below. This research will be of interest to students and scholars across football studies, sports studies, the sociology of sport, and organisation studies.
Author(s): Daniel Ziesche
Series: Football Research in an Enlarged Europe
Publisher: Palgrave MacMillan
Year: 2020
Language: English
Pages: 324
City: Cham
Preface
Acknowledgments
Contents
Abbreviations
List of Figures
List of Tables
Introduction: Football Clubs, Community and Legitimacy
‘At the Heart of Their Communities’
Research Objective and Relevance
State of Research
Scope and Method
Key Theoretical Concepts
Legitimisation and Isomorphism
Glocalisation: Local Responses to Global Effects
Structure
References
Setting the Scene: Structural Differences and Theoretical Considerations
Structures: ‘The Great Divide’, or: Institutional Prefigurations and Their Long-Term Impact
Implications of the League Systems
Club Vs Verein—Concepts and Implications of Structural Differences in Germany and England
Implications of Structural Alignments
Football Clubs and Civil Society
Theoretical Framework and Concepts: Football Clubs as Social, Cultural and Political Actors
Communities, Collective Identities and Locality
Politicisation and Third-Party Interests
Communitisation and Societisation—The Sociocultural ‘Dual Function’ of Football Clubs
Societisation and Communitisation in Practice
References
A Threefold Dilemma of Legitimacy
Economic Crisis: Number Games
Wages, Revenues and Foreign Capital Investments
Foreign Investments
TV Money
Up and Away: The Widening of the Gap
Sword of Damocles: Administration and Liquidation
References
Cultural Crisis: The Great Divide
Historical Continuities in Clubs’ Community Relations
Disrupted Communities and New Football Politics
‘A Place for Thee’: The Community Value of Football Grounds
Topophilia and Genius Loci
Ground Moves, Relocations and the Question of Stadium Ownership
References
Social Crisis: Building Bridges
Politics Moving In
Public Opposition to Football Clubs
Community Schemes: Delivering Social Responsibility
Structural Setup and Agenda of Community Programmes
Interim Conclusion: Issues of Legitimisation and the Dual Function of Football Clubs
References
Ways Out of the Crises
Qualitative Case Studies from England and Germany
Case Selection and Methodology
Club Profiles
Established and Traditional Football Clubs
Chesterfield Football Club
Mansfield Town Football Club
Rot-Weiss Essen
1. Fußballclub Lokomotive Leipzig
Political and Protest Football Clubs
Affordable Football Club Liverpool
Football Club United of Manchester
Hamburger Fußballclub Falke
Roter Stern Leipzig
Membership and Attendance
Media Mobilisation
References
Economic Coping Mechanisms: Professionalisation, Or—Creating Sustainable Structures
Structural Professionalisation
Football Academies and Young Talent
Effects of ‘Big Players’ and Other Regional Impacts
References
Cultural Coping Mechanisms: Communitisation, Or—(Re-)Engaging with Communities
Club Image, Identity and Agenda Setting
Stadiums and Assets
Admission Prices and Membership Fees
New and Old Identities
References
Social Coping Mechanisms: Societisation, Or—Improving Credibility as Social Institutions
Structures of CPs at Football Clubs
Areas of CPs and Agenda-Setting at Clubs
Education, Social Work and Lifelong Learning
Community Activities at Clubs Without CP Structures
On the Inclusion of Women’s Teams
References
One Size Does Not Fit All: Comparison and Results
Differences in Adaptive Capabilities as a Result of Differences in Structure
Stadiums and Club’s Assets
Political and Protest Football Clubs: A Dream Come True for Football ‘Traditionalists’?
Hybrid Organisations and Sectoral Shifts
References
Conclusion: Towards Hybrid Organisations and Supermodern Football
Supermodern Football
References
Postscript: The End of Football, or: Football in the Time of Corona
References
Index
