Commercialization, Governance Problems, and the Future of European Football—Or Why the European Super League Is Not a Solution to the Challenges Facing Football

in International Journal of Sport Communication

Click name to view affiliation

Ulrik Wagner University of Copenhagen

Search for other papers by Ulrik Wagner in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed Close
*
,
Rasmus K. Storm Danish Institute for Sport Studies and NTNU Business School

Search for other papers by Rasmus K. Storm in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed Close
*
, and
Kenneth Cortsen University College of Northern Denmark

Search for other papers by Kenneth Cortsen in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed Close
*
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1123/ijsc.2021-0049
Keywords:
soccer; communication gaffe; promotion; relegation
First Published Online:
03 Aug 2021
In Print:
Volume 14: Issue 3
Page Range:
321–333
Restricted access

Recently, 12 European football clubs launched the idea of creating the European Super League. After massive protests from fans, the Union of European Football Associations, politicians, coaches, and players, the initiative was stopped. In this commentary, the authors reflect on some of the problems facing football and argue that the creation of a European Super League is not a solution to the challenges. However, European football does face problems that require actions, and thus the authors provide some suggestions to progress.

Wagner is with the Dept. of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark. Storm is with the Danish Institute for Sport Studies and NTNU Business School, Trondheim, Norway. Cortsen is with the Dept. of Sport Management & Experience Industry, University College of Northern Denmark, Aalborg, Denmark.

Wagner (uw@nexs.ku.dk) is corresponding author.
  • Collapse
  • Expand

International Journal of Sport Communication

Cover International Journal of Sport Communication

  • Bennike, S., Storm, R.K., Wikman, J.M., & Ottesen, L.S. (2020). The organization of club football in Denmark: A contemporary profile. Soccer & Society, 21(5), 551–571. https://doi.org/10.1080/14660970.2019.1690472

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Binder, J.J., & Findlay, M. (2012). The effects of the Bosman ruling on national and club teams in Europe. Journal of Sports Economics, 13(2), 107–129. https://doi.org/10.1177/1527002511400278

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Cortsen, K. (2017). ‘Re-branding’ women’s football by means of a new Sports product: A case study of women’s football in Denmark. Soccer and Society, 18(7), 1058–1079. https://doi.org/10.1080/14660970.2015.1133410

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Cortsen, K. (2018). UEFA. In S. Chadwick, D. Parnell, P. Widdop, & C. Anagnostopoulos (Eds.), Routledge handbook of football business and management (pp. 441–458). Routledge.

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Cortsen, K. (2020). From positive momentum to economic turmoil: The influence of the Covid-19 pandemic on women’s professional football/soccer in Denmark. In P.M. Pedersen, B.J. Ruihley, & B. Li (Eds.), Sport and the pandemic: Perspectives on Covid-19’s impact on the sport industry (pp. 270–279). Routledge.

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Cortsen, K., Hird, J., & Kvistgaard, P. (2020). Målet om godt købmandskab i fodboldens kompleksitet og sammenhængskraft: AaB som case for den moderne fodboldklub. In K. Cortsen& M. Fast (Eds.), Godt Købmandskab i det 21. århundrede (pp. 209–254). Aalborg Universitetsforlag.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Cortsen, K., & Rascher, D.A. (2018). The application of sports technology and sports data for commercial purposes. In D.A. Marinho& H.P. Neiva (Eds.), The use of technology in sport: Emerging challenges (pp. 47–84). Intech Open. https://doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.80742

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Franck, E. (2018). European club football after “five treatments” with Financial Fair Play: Time for an assessment. International Journal of Financial Studies, 6(4), 97–19. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijfs6040097

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Franck, E. (2021). Introducing hard budget constraints without reducing entrepreneurs: The role of voluntary agreements in UEFA's club licensing and Financial Fair Play regulations. In W. Andreff (Ed.), Comparative economic studies in Europe (pp. 413–437). Springer Verlag.

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Funk, D.C., Filo, K., Beaton, A., & Pritchard, M. (2009). Measuring the motives of sport event attendance: Bridging the academic-practitioner divide to understanding behavior. Sport Marketing Quarterly, 18(3), 126–138.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Funk, D.C., & James, J. (2001). The psychological continuum model: A conceptual framework for understanding an individual’s psychological connection to sport. Sport Management Review, 4(2), 119–150. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1441-3523(01)70072-1

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Giulianotti, R. (2012). Football. In G. Ritzer (Ed.), The Wiley‐Blackwell encyclopedia of globalization. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470670590.wbeog213

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Hagen, J., & Cunha, M.N. (2019). The history of investing in football and factors affecting stock price of listed football clubs. International Journal of Financial Management, 9(4), 31–41.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Hasel, M.C. (2019). Der professionelle Fußballklub: Professionelle Vereinsführung–Fakten, Zahlen und Anekdoten für Manager, Investoren und Fans. Springer Verlag.

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Hill, D. (2010). A critical mass of corruption: Why some football leagues have more match-fixing than others. International Journal of Sports Marketing and Sponsorship, 11(3), 38–52. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSMS-11-03-2010-B005

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Hoehn, T., & Szymanski, S. (1999). The americanization of European football. Economic Policy, 14(28), 203–240. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-0327.00048

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Karakaya, F., Yannopoulos, P., & Kefalaki, M. (2016). Factors impacting the decision to attend soccer games: An exploratory study. Sport, Business and Management: An International Journal, 6(3), 320–340. https://doi.org/10.1108/SBM-05-2014-0024

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Kesenne, S. (2010). The financial situation of the football clubs in the Belgian jupiler league: Are players overpaid in a win-maximization league? International Journal of Sport Finance, 5(1), 67–71.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Magee, J. (2002). Shifting balances of power in the new football economy. In J. Sugden & A. Tomlinson (Eds.), Power games: A critical sociology of sport (pp. 216–239). Routledge.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Millward, P. (2017). World Cup 2022 and Qatar’s construction projects: Relational power in networks and relational responsibilities to migrant workers. Current Sociology, 65(5), 756–776. https://doi.org/10.1177/0011392116645382

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Nauright, J., & Ramfjord, J. (2010). Who owns England’s game? American professional sporting influences and foreign ownership in the Premier League. Soccer and Society, 11(4), 428–441. https://doi.org/10.1080/14660971003780321

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Pedersen, P.M., Ruihley, B.J., & Li, B. (2020). Sport and the pandemic: Perspectives on Covid-19’s impact on the sport industry. Routledge.

  • Pouliopoulos, T., & Georgiadis, K. (2021). FIFA and UEFA: A critical review of the two organizations through the lens of institutional theory and MacIntyre’s philosophical schema. Soccer and Society. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/14660970.2021.1896498

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Rockwood, J. (2008). Fan perspective of football hooliganism (unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of Liverpool.

  • Rockwood, J. (2019). Access, security and diplomacy: Perceptions of soft power, nation branding and the organisational challenges facing Qatar’s 2022 FIFA World Cup. Sport, Business and Management: An International Journal, 9(1), 26–44. https://doi.org/10.1108/sbm-02-2018-0016

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Rohde, M., & Breuer, C. (2016). The financial impact of (foreign) private investors on team investments and profits in professional football: Empirical evidence from the Premier League. Applied Economics and Finance, 3(2), 243–255. https://doi.org/10.11114/aef.v3i2.1366

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Rohde, M., & Breuer, C. (2017). The market for football club investors: A review of theory and empirical evidence from professional European football. European Sport Management Quarterly, 17(3), 265–289. https://doi.org/10.1080/16184742.2017.1279203

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Satchwell, N., & Wagner, U. (2020). The Faroe Islands and the world society: The development of elite club football framed by commercial and local interests and international regulations. International Journal of Sport Policy and Politics, 12(2), 269–285. https://doi.org/10.1080/19406940.2019.1704826

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Shapiro, S.L., DeSchriver, T.D., & Rascher, D.A. (2017). The Beckham effect: Examining the longitudinal impact of a star performer on league marketing, novelty, and scarcity. European Sport Management Quarterly, 17(5), 610–634. https://doi.org/10.1080/16184742.2017.1329331

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Storm, R.K., & Solberg, H.A. (2018). European club capitalism and FIFA redistribution models: An analysis of development patterns in globalized football. Sport in Society, 21(11), 1850–1865. https://doi.org/10.1080/17430437.2018.1424136

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Storm, R.K., Wagner, U., & Nielsen, K. (2017). When sport meets business: A brief introduction. In U. Wagner, R.K. Storm, & K. Nielsen (Eds.), When sports meet business: Capabilities, challenges, critiques (pp. 3–10). Sage Publications.

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Sugden, J., & Tomlinson, A. (2017). Football, corruption, and lies: Revisiting “Badfellas,” the book FIFA tried to ban. Routledge.

  • Sugden, J., Tomlinson, A., & Darby, P. (1998). FIFA versus UEFA in the struggle for the control of world football. In A. Brown (Ed.), Fanatics! Power, identity and fandom in football (pp. 11–314). Routledge.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Szymanski, S. (2012). Insolvency in English professional football: Irrational exuberance or negative shocks? Working Papers 1202, International Association of Sports Economists, North American Association of Sports Economists. https://ideas.repec.org/p/spe/wpaper/1202.html

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Tjønndal, A. (2021). “What’s next? Calling beer-drinking a sport?!”: Virtual resistance to considering eSport as sport. Sport, Business and Management: An International Journal, 11(1), 72–88. https://doi.org/10.1108/SBM-10-2019-0085

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Wachter, K., & Fanizadeh, M. (2007). Racism in football–Football against racism: The FARE experience. UN Chronicle, 44(3), 30–31. https://www.un.org/en/chronicle/article/racism-football-football-against-racism-fare-experience

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
All Time Past Year Past 30 Days
Abstract Views 7623 1765 100
Full Text Views 233 129 8
PDF Downloads 197 55 3