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The Czechoslovak national team finished as the runners-up of the 1934 FIFA World Cup in Italy but it was welcomed as moral winners by hundreds of thousands in their home country. Never before had a sporting event been followed so keenly by the largest social strata, thanks to the live radio broadcast of the final match. The tournament left a deep imprint not only in the collective memory but also in popular culture. This paper traces the reception of the event, showing how its image was used as the showcase of the First Czechoslovak Republic, how it was transformed and misused gradually by the communist regime that presented it as a deterrent example of elitism and prima donna behaviour in professional sport, and finally reinvented at the beginning of the 21st century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has heavily affected a wide range of stakeholders in the sport sector. Yet, some professional sports managed to gain exceptions from the restrictive anti-COVID-19 policies. The current paper assumes that the effects could have been ambiguous. On the one hand, professional sports could have benefitted from its position as provider of live TV events. On the other hand, the exceptions for professional sports could have stirred the anger of a frustrated public. We explore these questions by examining two unique dataset on TV ratings for and identification with the German men's national team during the EURO 2020. We find that the national football team, which has been depicted as last national 'campfire', has been a relative loser in terms of viewership, which might, however, also reflect the team's long-term decline. We find also that approval of a special treatment for professional football has been linked to higher team identification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has, among other things, a significant impact on the economic situation of sports in general and professional soccer in particular. Our paper points out the main effects of the crisis on professional soccer. To this end, the general effects of the pandemic on sports will be briefly outlined, followed by a discussion of matches played behind closed doors. Based on the general conditions and particularities of the team sports industry, possible solutions for dealing with any problems arising from the pandemic will be discussed from the perspective of economics. As a result, we prefer intra-industry market-based solutions such as a solidarity fund or measures of self-regulation to possible state subsidies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Swedish football is an industry not yet being as commercial as the big leagues and is regulated in terms of ownership of clubs. This implies a need for management of stakeholder relations for a Swedish football club. This paper identifies important stakeholders in Swedish football and discusses the multitude of - sometimes conflicting - objectives in managing these relations. The empirical base of the study is founded in a case study of Malmö FF, one of the dominant clubs in Sweden, with a qualitative single case research approach. Data are collected by means of semi-structured interviews and participant observations. The results of the study show a number of tensions as paradoxes for stakeholder management, suggest management dispositions to reconcile these paradoxes and suggest areas for further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic is giving sports a timeout. Due to the risk of infection, in Germany no sports events with live spectators were allowed for weeks starting on March 13. The question arises, what would be the impact on spectators and with that on live broadcasting for different sports? While professional sport leagues like handball and hockey (ice hockey) stopped, the football (soccer) league restarted games without spectators on May 16. Using two approaches of sports action as a public presentation of performance and the consumption capital theory, the share of revenues like media, spectators, sponsoring of the biggest sport leagues in Germany is compared. Following this up, the economic impact of COVID-19 on professional sports in Germany is explained. As a result games without spectators ('ghost games'), the gap between major sports and minor sports seems to be becoming larger. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the gendered nature of sport fan ethnographies and addresses the often-overlooked relationship between a researcher’s gender identity and their research environment. It seeks to critically explore the debates that surround female researchers in masculine settings, and argues that the position of a female researcher is both enabling and limiting within the scope of data collection on football fans. Drawing on a qualitative data-set that examines football fans of Everton Football Club, observational data collected over the 2012–2013 Premier League seasons are used to illustrate how the researcher reflexively celebrated, negotiated, subverted and at times froze her femininity. The silencing of the female ethnographer in sport research is attributed to the prominent position that both male sports fans and male scholars occupy in the field. This paper advocates for an alternative approach to the study of sports fans that encourages more reflexively on behalf of the researcher. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While compared with the big four professional sports in the United States, soccer remains a marginalized spectator sport; yet it has gained a sizable following over the past two decades. TV audiences and stadium attendance for domestic club matches are growing and supporters' groups that follow the professional sides have emerged and established themselves. Rather than being introduced to the game as fans of their local clubs, however, many passionate soccer fans in the United States continue to enter soccer fandom via the Men's and Women's National teams. The 1994 FIFA World Cup on home soil as well as the success of the Women's National Team thus play a prominent role in drawing new fans to the game, some of whom begin to follow the sport regularly in the form of domestic club games. For many of these fans, 'club' and 'country' remain complementing objects of soccer fandom rather than competing points of reference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Professional sport is a highly marketable product, whereby favourite teams often become ‘overseas sweethearts’ for millions of satellite supporters and their imagined community of like-minded fans. Scandinavia has historically proven to be a fertile market for English football and is home to some of the largest supporter groups for English clubs, in particular the Liverpool FC. This article examines the origins of Scandinavian identification with the Merseyside club and how satellite supporters in the region maintain a connection with the famous brand. Scandinavian supporters highlighted the importance of the media, especially the popularity of state-run television programmes such asTippekampen, the team’s playing style and the presence of star players in their initial support for Liverpool FC and explained how they had turned to a virtual ‘third place’ to regularly connect and engage with fellow fans and the brand in cyberspace. In a global marketplace, satellite supporters are critical for the future of many brands and this article offers a valuable case study for those who seek to exploit these markets, monetize these consumers and build equity for their team brands. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Football is not only the most popular sport in Greece; it is also a sport with remarkable economic and political dimensions. Operating in such a perplexing environment, managers of professional football clubs are often confronted with equally complex tasks. In order to make the best possible decisions, managers need to prioritize these tasks based on identifying the stakeholder who really matters at any given time. This article, hence, uses the lens provided by the Mitchell et al. framework to identify the most salient stakeholders in Greek professional football that managers should pay attention to, and suggests practices that could or should be adopted for the best possible results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on various factors that affect the governance and the economy of football and other sports in various countries including England, Italy and New Zealand. It mentions that the income-generating ability of traditional fans provide finance to the success of professional sports. Meanwhile, the television broadcasting of sports has a great influence on the economics of sports and on the stability of sports competitions.

Indian football has a long and rich heritage as a mass spectator sport. Indian national teams once occupied a pivotal place in Asian football and had also carved a niche at the international stage. But since the 1970s, the game lost its way in India due to a complex medley of reasons. This essay tries to explore the problems that have crippled Indian football from the late 1960s. It also suggests that it is high time for the All India Football Federation to take steps to eradicate the anomalies as otherwise India’s journey towards the nadir of FIFA rankings will continue unabated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Explores the background and philosophies of the presidents that have led La F é d é ration Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) since its formation in 1904. Impact of business ethos on sports ethos rooted in beliefs and idealism; Effect of the combination of global market expansion and personal greatness; Asset of FIFA; Profiles of the FIFA presidents.