Covid 19 And The Soccer World

The spread of COVID-19 and the consequent pandemic since early 2020 have brought about unprecedented changes in all spheres of global life, creating a new sense of (in)security with social distancing, physical isolation, quarantine and lockdown becoming buzzwords to combat the disease. As in all spheres of life, the first wave of the pandemic posed serious challenges to the world of soccer, with diverse and intriguing responses across the globe. This book documents the early impressions and initial responses of various stakeholders of the soccer world to the challenges of COVID-19 in 2020. It reveals how the process of confrontation, negotiation, adjustment and overcoming against such challenges necessitated and inspired novel responses and strong improvisations from soccer bodies to players, referees to spectators, and journalists to sponsors. This process has revealed abrupt as well as radical changes in the organization, rules, spectatorship and telecast of the game, thereby affecting the game’s cultural dimensions, commercial prospects and political implications. The volume points out that the way soccer has adjusted to the ‘new normal’ standard of the ‘COVID Regime’ has elicited newer meanings and nuanced representations of the game. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the journal, Soccer & Society.

Is it possible to explain the science behind the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus pandemic in a simple way, and with football? “COVID-19 told through football” has done it. This book combines rigorous scientific information, supported by articles that are referenced, with anecdotes from the world of football that serve to create analogies and disseminate scientific knowledge about COVID-19. The author is a biomedical researcher, with more than twenty-five years of experience in prestigious research institutions, such as Harvard University, but he has also been an amateur soccer player and has written soccer books (Raticos de fútbol I and II, in Spanish). In this way, it has been possible to write a book that masterfully mixes two such different and powerful subjects like science and football. Two prologues, one from the world of science (Carlos Pedrós-Alió, scientist and writer) and the other from the world of football (Ibrahim Afellay, former FC Barcelona player and international with the Netherlands), complete a rigorous and fun book, which achieves the fusion of science and football, two topics that either don't raise any interest or produce passion.

This book examines contemporary issues of security at sports mega-events (SMEs). It focuses on the 2020 UEFA European Football Championship (Euro 2020) - subsequently postponed to 2021 - the third biggest SME in the global sporting calendar and a unique multi-city, multi-country event that took place in the eye of the COVID-19 storm. Drawing on stakeholder interviews, policy documents, media sources and existing research, the book explores the constructions, meanings, and perceptions of security in the efforts to secure this football mega-event. It argues that Euro 2020 is a powerful case through which to better understand wider security governance and security-related processes in present-day societies, which are increasingly preoccupied with notions of ‘security’, ‘safety’ and ‘risk’. It assesses the precautionary logic and transnational knowledge transfer processes that guide security constructions surrounding SMEs in an uncertain and threat-conscious world, and captures the dramatic moments in which COVID-19 transitioned into a security threat with severe impacts on the world of football and well beyond. Sport Mega-Events, Security and COVID-19 advances existing debates in the sociology of football and sport, offering a critical understanding of security and safety in the modern world, and giving an insight into the changing ‘new normalities’ of security between 9/11 and the COVID-19 pandemic through the lens of global sport. This is a fascinating reading for anybody with a professional or academic interest in sport management, event management, football, security studies, policing, risk and crisis management, the sociology of sport, the sociology of surveillance, or political science.

In the edited collection Restart: Sport After the Covid-19 Time Out, practitioners and international scholars explore the “restart” of sport and fitness following the initial period of lockdowns during spring 2020. The chapters provide insight into the sport and fitness landscape following the initial wave of the pandemic. The book focuses on challenges for sport providers, consequences for sporting participants, and opportunities for new ways of practicing sports. It contributes contemporaneous data, analyses, and insights into the global sport landscape that has been impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic. This book presents a variety of interdisciplinary perspectives in a total of nineteen individual chapters, organized around five main themes. The first four chapters deal with the restart of sporting events in four countries. This section is followed by an assessment of the Olympic Movement’s challenges after its postponement of the 2020 Summer Olympic Games to 2021. Chapters in the next theme provide analyses of how national governments handled restarting sport and fitness in different geographical locations. Finally, the last three chapters look at the role of the media during the restart phase, both in reporting sport and with regards to innovations and the implementation of new technology in staging and broadcasting elite sport.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had an impact on every aspect of our social, cultural, and commercial lives, including the world of sport. This book examines the ethical and philosophical dimensions of the intersection of COVID-19 and sport. The book goes beyond simple description of the impact of the pandemic on sport to offer normative judgments on how the sporting world responded to challenges posed by COVID-19, as well as philosophical speculation as to how COVID-19 will change our understanding and appreciation of sport in the long term. It examines the considerations that either influenced—or arguably should have influenced—decisions to continue or to resume the playing of organized sport in the midst of a pandemic. As a part of this analysis, a spotlight is shone on how sport intersected with political issues surrounding COVID-19. It also explores the configuration and meaning of sport in the COVID-19 era, touching on themes such as the nature of sport and its integrity and sport’s relationship to technology. Other themes include the changed nature of spectatorship, suffering in sport during pandemic times, and the impact of COVID-19 on the Olympic and Paralympic Games. A final chapter looks ahead and asks what sport might look like in a post-COVID world. This is fascinating reading for anybody with an interest in the ethics and philosophy of sport, the sociology of sport, event studies, politics, or public health.

This book looks at how sport and sports organisations have had to innovate during the COVID-19 pandemic. Against a backdrop of lockdowns, empty stadia and a fast-moving public health crisis, the book presents fascinating case studies of innovation and crisis management in sport, with valuable lessons to be learned for preparedness and resilience in future crises. The book explores how managerial processes have evolved during the pandemic in areas as diverse as sports communication, youth sport, sports events, esports, sports tourism, and physical activity, in both professional and community settings. It considers the fundamental importance of technology as a tool of innovation, and considers how different stakeholder groups, from governing bodies to athletes to fans, have developed new pathways of engagement and what that might mean for the future development of the sport industry. This book is fascinating reading for any student, researcher, practitioner or policy maker looking to better understand this profound moment in the history of sport and society, and to anybody with an interest in key themes in sport business and management, such as innovation, crisis management or consumer behaviour.

This book takes a close look at how the sport industry has been impacted by the global Coronavirus pandemic, as entire seasons have been cut short, events have been cancelled, athletes have been infected, and sport studies programs have moved online. Crucially, the book also asks how the industry might move forward. With contributions from sport studies researchers across the world, the book offers commentaries, cases, and informed analysis across a wide range of topics and practical areas within sport business and management, from crisis communication and marketing to event management and finance. While Covid-19 will inevitably cast a long shadow over sport for years to come, and although the situation is fast-evolving and the future is uncertain, this book offers some important early perspectives and reflections that will inform debate and influence policy and practice. A timely addition to the body of knowledge regarding the pandemic, this is an important resource for researchers, students, practitioners, the media, policy-makers, and anybody who cares about the future of sport.

The 2020/21 football calendar was like no other. The first full Premier League season played during a global pandemic saw the schedule shortened with games played seemingly every day between September and May. The stadiums were empty, revenues fell and coaches had to adapt as players tested positive for Covid-19, but the beautiful game carried on. Football in a Pandemic takes an in-depth look at the tactics and strategies used during this unique season, whether a side was competing at the very summit, clinging to survival or somewhere in between. From high pressing, to low-block defending, patient build-up play and quick-fire counter attacking, UEFA A-licensed coach Sam Hudson puts the game plans under the microscope, highlighting the many intricacies and micro-tactics used by some of football's finest coaching minds.