UACES | 17:19, 22 September 2009

Amsterdam, 12-13 June 2009

The workshop brought together the contributors of an edited book project (with MUP) that seeks to advance research on the transformation of European football (and particularly the question of “Europeanisation” of football, i.e. the impact of European integration on domestic governance).

In his opening address Arne Niemann (University of Amsterdam), the workshop organizer, noted that there is a growing number of scholars working on the EU and sport, and that political scientists focusing on European integration are beginning to do some “serious” work in this area, which has recently witnessed important developments, including the Commission White Paper on Sport and the passages on sport in the Treaty of Lisbon. Jonathan Hill (UEFA) in his presentation on the role of UEFA argued that the EU’s political and regulatory impact on the structures and governance of European football, and the subsequent response of UEFA and other stakeholder, which were once highly technical and often mainly legal in nature, have increasingly become mainstream political debates, discussed by national politicians, media, supporters groups and other actors. Wyn Grant (University of Warwick) held that the Europeanisation process has been particularly complex in the UK case and that this arises from deeper tensions that are encapsulated in the Varieties of Capitalism literature: the UK tends to prefer a neo-liberal model to the coordinated capitalism model favoured in many European countries. One consequence is that sport is often conceived of as a profit maximising business rather than a source of social solidarity. This leads to tensions between the UK perspective and the developing European model of sport. Arne Niemann (University of Amsterdam) argued in his presentation that top-down Europeanisation pressures emanating from the Bosman ruling brought about a “system transformation” in German football concerning the nationality regime, which is indicated not least in the very large share of UEFA residents playing in the Bundesliga. Borja Garcia (University of Loughborough) in his talk on Spain contended that despite the sporting success of Spanish teams in European club competitions and the modernisation and global appeal of brands like FC Barcelona or Real Madrid, the structural transformations of Spanish football over the last decades seem to be mixed with a large degree of parochialism and intrusion by the national government. David Ranc (University of Cambridge) argued in his talk on “France – a case of UEFA-isation” that what has been perceived as the current decline of French club football was partly a consequence of the Bosman ruling and of subsequent top-down EU-isation. The decline is, however, rather seen through the prism of UEFA competitions and prompts an assessment that is purely transnational, making the transnational strand of Europeanisation the most important. Osvaldo Croci (Memorial University) noted in his presentation that several factors can be attributed to the most important transformations of football in Italy. Apart from Europeanisation pressures, he suggests that local/national dynamics have played an important role as well as “Anglocisation” trends.

During the second day of the workshop, Otto Holman, Rens Vliegenthart (both University of Amsterdam and Rik de Ruiter (University of Twente) discussed the problematic future of Dutch football which is largely seen as the result of (top-down) Europeanisation processes. The nationality issue of the Bosman ruling triggered a development whereby increasingly younger Dutch players are transferred to non-Dutch clubs, leading to a decreasing quality of Dutch league football. Arne Niemann argued that the Europeanisation of Austrian football has most visibly had two dimensions: The nationality issue of the Bosman ruling and a certain historical heritage. As for the latter aspect, Austria due to its heritage as a fairly multinational state (Austro-Hungarian dual monarchy), has been more internationally-oriented right from the beginnings of the game. Melchior Sczepanick (Loughborough University) suggested that for the Polish football league and clubs the post-1989 era was a period of intense Europeanisation as they were approaching the standards of professional and commercialised football of Western Europe. However Europeanised, Polish football still suffers from two major illnesses that have their roots in the communist era and today thwart its development: hooliganism and corruption. Dirk Lehmkuhl (University of St. Gallen) notes that the Swiss professional league is both young and international. He relates these important trends to developments of both top-down Europeanisation, more transnational Europeanisation dynamcics as well as other endogenous and exogenous factors. In the conclusion David Allen (University of Loughborough) wrapped up the workshop. He suggested that generalisation across chapters could  relate to the question of whether there are similar patterns of change across Europe in terms of the governance of football, and that generalisation could further be achieved by comparing (and deducing from) the explanations for these transformations (with Europeanisation dynamics assumed to play an important role).

The workshop was sponsored by UACES, the Centre for the Study of International Governance (University of Loughborough), the Institute of Sports and Leisure Policy (Loughborough), and the Amsterdam School of Social Science Research (at the University of Amsterdam). The book with Manchester University Press is scheduled to appear in mid-2010.

by Arne Niemann, University of Amsterdam