Africa S Place In The International Football System

Master's Thesis from the year 2007 in the subject Politics - International Politics - Region: Africa, grade: 70, Stellenbosch Universitiy, 180 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: For millions of people around the globe, football is an important part of everyday life. Similarly, many African governments have found in international football competitions one of the few opportunities to be internationally represented. Furthermore, through successful participation of their respective national football sides, they internally seek to foster nationhood. In fact, football is an integral part of African self-esteem with regards to being recognised by the rest of the world. However, to succeed in international sports means to succeed in a politico-economic structure far from equality and general solidarity. This thesis goes about the question why South Africa received the FIFA 2010 World Cup. Thereby it will distinguish the position of the African continent within the international football system. A historical analysis will clarify the processes and actors as well as the driving motivations which led to the FIFA World Cup host decision in favour of the African continent. The outcome of this study suggests that social interaction is driven by the interplay of two variables: normative principles and economic practices. The historical development of modern social behaviour from the 16th century until today’s global capitalism surely reflects the interplay of these two traits. At the hand of the historical development of the international football system this thesis is going to outline this interplay – as a European form of behaviour that came to encapsulate all social relations on the globe particularly by the spread of the cultural practice of football. This study reaches the overall conclusion that the decision to let an African nation host the FIFA World Cup meant that economic practice and normative principles were brought into perceived congruence.

Master's Thesis from the year 2007 in the subject Politics - International Politics - Region: Africa, grade: 70, Stellenbosch Universitiy, 180 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: For millions of people around the globe, football is an important part of everyday life. Similarly, many African governments have found in international football competitions one of the few opportunities to be internationally represented. Furthermore, through successful participation of their respective national football sides, they internally seek to foster nationhood. In fact, football is an integral part of African self-esteem with regards to being recognised by the rest of the world. However, to succeed in international sports means to succeed in a politico-economic structure far from equality and general solidarity. This thesis goes about the question why South Africa received the FIFA 2010 World Cup. Thereby it will distinguish the position of the African continent within the international football system. A historical analysis will clarify the processes and actors as well as the driving motivations which led to the FIFA World Cup host decision in favour of the African continent. The outcome of this study suggests that social interaction is driven by the interplay of two variables: normative principles and economic practices. The historical development of modern social behaviour from the 16th century until today's global capitalism surely reflects the interplay of these two traits. At the hand of the historical development of the international football system this thesis is going to outline this interplay - as a European form of behaviour that came to encapsulate all social relations on the globe particularly by the spread of the cultural practice of football. This study reaches the overall conclusion that the decision to let an African nation host the FIFA World Cup meant that economic practice and normative principles were brought into perceived congruence.

This book explores the role of FIFA in brokering the development of football in Africa and its relationship with that continent's football associations and regional governing body. Africa is no longer on the periphery of world football but the economic disparities between the first and the third worlds hinder the development of the game. The author shows convincingly how Africa's advance within world football is tied to its national political economy and how the balance of power within FIFA still clearly favours its European members.

This book explores various aspects of intranational elite football in Africa, drawing on the expertise of notable scholars from across the world. Africa’s Elite Football focuses on an area largely ignored by current scholarship on African football, where interest has focused on international migration. In exploring the intranational, the book is written in two parts. The first is a general focus on the continent, and the second is an examination of country cases. The general focus of the book is on the nature of elite tier leagues, the relationship between politics and football, the media, youth academies, intranational migration and fans. Notably, chapters on topics such as intranational migration present groundbreaking scholarship in this area. Currently, football discourses on migration focus on international migration of footballers, yet the majority of migration in African football is intranational. Thus, by addressing the intranational, this book brings attention to an area that is underrepresented in the current academic discourse. The second part of the book, which focuses on country cases, covers Botswana, Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The topics explored in those cases include religiosity, health, women’s football, media and management. The coverage of health-related issues is particularly important given that several books on African football rarely broach such a topic. With its unique approach to African football, this book will be of interest to scholars and students of sports history, African studies, politics in sports and African sports.

The sports of Europe and the United States were imitated and assimilated and became symbols of national and cosmopolitan identity. This work examines the national and international importance of sport and its role in shaping post-millennium global culture.

This is the first book to take an in-depth look at women’s football in Africa. Exploring the history, contemporary landscape, and future development of the women’s game on the African continent, this book offers an important new perspective on the rise of women’s sport more broadly. This book traces the history of women’s soccer in Africa from its introduction during the period of European colonization and its subsequent ban by colonial authorities, through to the present day period of rapidly increasing spectatorship, rising participation rates, and growing media interest. It reflects on the social obstacles to girls’ participation, including sociocultural and religious barriers, as well as important social issues in football such as homophobia, discrimination, and abuse, and considers why certain countries have dominated African competitions, including Nigeria, Ghana, and, lately, South Africa, Equitorial Guinea, and Cameroon. This book also examines the crucial role played by youth academies, and FIFA’s leadership role, and considers the challenges faced by African players, clubs, and countries on the global stage. This is fascinating reading for anybody with an interest in football, sport history, women’s sport, Africa, development studies, or the relationships between sport and wider society.

This book investigates the social, political, and cultural dimensions of Indigenous sport and nation-building. Focusing on the Indigenous Sámi of Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia, it addresses how colonization variously impacts organizational arrangements and everyday sporting life in a modern world. Through detailed case data from the Norwegian side of Sápmi (the land of the Sámi), this book provides a critical and contemporary perspective of post-colonial influences and their impacts on sport. The study uses concepts of conventions, citizenship and communities, to examine the tenuous roles of Indigenous-based sport organizations and clubs towards the building of an Indigenous nation. The book further draws together international, national, and local Sámi experiences to address the communal and assimilative influences that sport brings for people in the North Calotte. Taken together, the book signals the importance of sport in future community development and the (re)emergence of Indigenous culture. Appealing to policy makers and scholars alike, the book will be of particular interest to researchers in sport sociology, Indigenous studies and post colonialism. It also provides essential insight for public officials and administrators of sport and/or Indigenous issues at various levels of public office. The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.

Managing Football is the first book to directly respond to the rapid managerial, commercial and global development of the sport and offers a thorough analysis of how the football industry can meet the challenges that flow from these developments. Expertly edited by two well known specialists in football business management, it draws together the work of a world-class contributor team to form a comprehensive analysis of the most important issues facing the managers of football businesses across the world. The cutting edge analysis examines all the important business challenges in the football industry and the management of football businesses and covers all of the key football markets including England, Spain, France, Italy, Germany, Australia, North America, China, South Africa, South Korea, the Netherlands & Belgium, and Mexico. Managing Football is simply a must-read for anyone studying or working in football business management and is set to be an important landmark in this rapidly moving and globally expansive field.