scholarly journals Tackling Social Media Abuse? Critically Assessing English Football’s Response to Online Racism

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 64-79 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Kilvington ◽  
John Price

Although English football has, to some extent, managed the problem of racism in and around football matches, recent years have seen an increase in football-related racist content published on social media. Footballers are frequently the target or subject of such abuse and occasionally the source of it. In this context, this article explores and critically assesses the response of English football’s institutions, organisations, and clubs to the problem of racism on social media. Its findings are based on interviews with key officials from the Professional Footballers’ Association and Kick It Out and with safeguarding and media officers from football clubs across the English Premier League and English Football League. It concludes there are a number of systematic failings undermining or hindering football’s attempts to address this issue including poor coordination, a lack of clear guidelines, ad hoc educational provision, a shortage of resources, and a culture of secrecy at many clubs. This article concludes with some recommendations about how these weaknesses may start to be improved.

GYMNASIUM ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol XIX (2) ◽  
pp. 44
Author(s):  
Christos Koutroumanides ◽  
Panagiotis Alexopoulos ◽  
Athanasios Laios ◽  
John Douvis

In the last years football clubs games broadcasting rights selling process, internet and mobile phone packages are included too. Internet is a widely accepted and useful mean of communication, something that was immediately recognized by the football authorities and clubs in all countries. Same ways, the gradually increased use of smart phones led to the inclusion of the mobile broadcasting rights in the total selling rights packages. The latest rights auction is of paramount importance, not only because the rights value will break a new record, but also because among the interested parties and bidders are some of the world’s tech giants such as Amazon, Google and Netflix. Live streaming Premier League matches looks to be the next frontier and PL hope tech giants like Amazon, Google, Facebook and Netflix will enter the auction and push the price of the UK package above its current standing of £5.14billion


2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 185-199 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesco Audrino

Abstract We address the fiercely debated question of whether the strongest European football clubs get special, preferential treatment from match officials in their decisions on the teams’ players over the course of the teams’ trophy winning streaks. To give an empirical answer to this question, we apply a rigorous econometric analysis for causal effect estimation to a self-constructed data set. We consider the two clubs in the Italian Serie A that experienced a prolonged winning streak during the period 2006–2016, namely Internazionale Milan (Inter) and Juventus Turin, as well as one team from the German Bundesliga (Borussia Dortmund) and one from the English Premier League (Manchester United) that also experienced a winning streak during the same period. This allows us to perform an analysis with enough statistical power to be able to estimate properly the effect of interest. The general opinion among fans, sports journalists, and insiders that the strongest clubs are favored by match officials’ decisions is supported only by the results of the analysis we run for Juventus, whereas for the other clubs under investigation, we did not find any significant bias. During its winning streak, more yellow cards and total booking points (an aggregated measure of yellow and red cards) were given to Juventus opponents. These effects are not only statistically significant, but also have a sizeable impact.


2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. e000675
Author(s):  
Eyal Eliakim ◽  
Elia Morgulev ◽  
Ronnie Lidor ◽  
Yoav Meckel

BackgroundIn individual sports, the effect that injuries have on an athlete’s performance, success and financial profit is implicit. In contrast, the effect of a single player’s injury or one player’s absence in team sports is much more difficult to quantify, both from the performance perspective and the financial perspective.ObjectivesIn this study, we attempted to estimate the effect of injuries on the performance of football teams from the English Premier League (EPL), and the financial implications derived from this effect.MethodsOur analysis is based on data regarding game results, injuries and estimations of the players’ financial value for the 2012–2013 through the 2016–2017 seasons.ResultsWe found a statistically significant relationship (r=−0.46, 95% CI −0.6 to 0.28, p=0.001) between the number of days out due to injuries suffered by team members during a season and the place difference between their actual and expected finish in the EPL table (according to overall player value). Moreover, we can interpolate that approximately 136 days out due to injury causes a team the loss of one league point, and that approximately 271 days out due to injury costs a team one place in the table. This interpolation formula is used as a heuristic model, and given the relationship specified above accounts for a significant portion of the variance in league placement (21%), the remaining variance is related to other factors. Calculating the costs of wage bills and prize money, we estimate that an EPL team loses an average of £45 million sterling due to injury-related decrement in performance per season.ConclusionProfessional football clubs have a strong economic incentive to invest in injury prevention and rehabilitation programmes.


2017 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 133-150 ◽  
Author(s):  
Renan Petersen-Wagner

Arguably, the later process of globalization served to reshape how socializations are fostered and maintained across time and space. In addition, in the last 15 years, a new phenomenon that reinvigorated time and space compression has emerged: social media. Moreover, it is argued that the conjunction of those processes can be seen as taking place on a distinct Age—the Anthropocene or the cosmopolitan epoch. Arguably, those processes have the capacity to alter the way individuals enact their football fandom. In this light, this article seeks to conceptualize one particular football support identity that takes into account this fragmented period. Based on an 18-month ethnographic research with supporters of one English Premier League club, this article conceptualizes the football fan in the Anthropocene as the cosmopolitan flâneur. I conclude by pointing out to some prospective avenues for future research based on a cosmopolitan imagination.


2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Øystein Røynesdal ◽  
Tynke Toering ◽  
Henrik Gustafsson

The aim of this study was to explore: (a) sociocultural features of a first team environment perceived to influence a player's progression, (b) the ways in which young players should manage these features and (c) how coaches operate to assist young players during specific phases in the youth-to-senior transition. Semi-structured interviews with eight elite development coaches in English Premier League football clubs generated two higher order categories: fitting in with standards of first team environment (e.g. handling social dynamics in the first team group) and facilitating shared perception of transition across key stakeholders (e.g. communicating with first team staff). Together, these findings indicate the need for young players to navigate between conforming, adapting to and breaking with specific features of the first team environment to successfully progress in the youth-to-senior transition to professional football.


2016 ◽  
Vol 40 (6) ◽  
pp. 814-833 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marina Bagić Babac ◽  
Vedran Podobnik

Purpose Due to an immense rise of social media in recent years, the purpose of this paper is to investigate who, how and why participates in creating content at football websites. Specifically, it provides a sentiment analysis of user comments from gender perspective, i.e. how differently men and women write about football. The analysis is based on user comments published on Facebook pages of the top five 2015-2016 Premier League football clubs during the 1st and the 19th week of the season. Design/methodology/approach This analysis uses a data collection via social media website and a sentiment analysis of the collected data. Findings Results show certain unexpected similarities in social media activities between male and female football fans. A comparison of the user comments from Facebook pages of the top five 2015-2016 Premier League football clubs revealed that men and women similarly express hard emotions such as anger or fear, while there is a significant difference in expressing soft emotions such as joy or sadness. Originality/value This paper provides an original insight into qualitative content analysis of male and female comments published at social media websites of the top five Premier League football clubs during the 1st and the 19th week of the 2015-2016 season.


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