Search results

Introduction – Since the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon (2009), sport has, for the first time, become a policy area of the European Union (EU).

Purpose – The aim of this chapter is to investigate the EU’s anti-discrimination policy for sports.

Methodology – Firstly, all the agreements, regulations, directives, and court decisions regarding nondiscrimination in sports will be reviewed. Secondly, discriminative examples in different sport branches will be investigated. In fact, this research will examine discrimination in both professional and amateur sports, including discrimination towards men, women, and LGBTIQ+ persons. Thirdly, the bodies, institutions, or persons who are accused of any kind of discrimination in sports will be researched, including fans, officials of clubs and federations, referees, players, and sports media. Finally, recommendations will be presented for the development of an improved sports policy that is capable of increasing diversity and equal participation in European sports.

Findings – For many underlying reasons, which the author will try to address in this chapter, there is a tendency to ignore discrimination in sports. Although the EU has passed legislation specifically designed to prohibit discrimination in sport, neither the legal arrangements nor their applications in Member States serve to end any kind of discrimination in the realm of sports. Thus, this chapter will attempt to raise awareness of this crucial and unending problem.

This chapter explores social enterprises as an alternative and addition to traditional entrepreneurial ecosystems (EEs). It reviews the substantial social enterprise literature in order to identify the myriad of competing tensions constraining development and success of social EEs in areas of significant poverty and economic deprivation. Following this, the findings of several contemporary and novel studies are discussed. These collectively evidence ways social enterprises are overcoming the seemingly immutable constraints they operate under. In particular, the Social Enterprise Places initiative has been highly effective in supporting the development of flourishing social EEs in many locations in the UK. However, the growth of social enterprises, both in number and economic importance, presents further challenges that social enterprise owners and managers will have to contend with. Consequently, these organisations and their allied ecosystems require continued structural, financial and skills support.

The author explores the variety of ways in which sports brands have risen to prominence and how the development of particular activities and relationships, with athletes, fans, media and regulators, are designed to present them as authentic. This status is crucial given the cultural and emotional significance of sport alongside its ability to underpin forms of collective belonging. A range of examples, including Red Bull, Nike, Patagonia, Olympic skateboarding and Manchester United Football Club, are used to highlight these processes as well as the complexity of the contemporary social, cultural and political landscapes that such brands now operate in.

This chapter introduces women's football in a global, professional era. Key in this is an acknowledgement of the male-dominated roots of the sport in many contexts, which has historically served to restrict women's participation. However, we identify the significant growth of women's involvement in football, which has resulted in professional opportunities for women playing and working in the sport. Football organisations are increasingly taking the development of the women's game more seriously and football can be considered a legitimate career opportunity for women. The chapter then identifies the scope of the book, which includes contributions on the lived experience of professionalisation, the processes of professionalisation and the role of commercialisation and media.

This chapter aims to discuss the development within Norwegian football which has led to professionalisation of women's football in the country. In considering the professionalisation of women's football in Norway, the chapter is organised as follows. First, the theoretical framework with central concepts from Bourdieu's theory and the ‘Sport/Media Complex’ are introduced. Second, the international development of women's football and milestones with relevance are introduced. Third, an empirical investigation into the professionalisation of women's football is presented. Finally, the four phases of the development of women's football in Norway are presented and discussed, with a link to broader international development, before concluding on what this means for women's football in Norway.

The Women's Empowerment League, or WE League, was officially launched in September of 2021 as Japan's ‘first professional women's league’. While the WE League was indeed new and categorically different from previous semi-professional leagues in Japan, the declaration that it was the first professional league belied the fact that women's football in Japan had witnessed various forms and degrees of professionalisation over the course of more than 30 years. While full professionalisation is a logical and important goal as women seek equity with men on football pitches and in other sports, I propose that revisiting the history of Japan's women's League provides useful material for contemplating the diverse factors that have motivated support for women's football, driven and derailed international success, and prompted increased professionalisation. Additionally, I argue here that although commercial and advertising interests in women's football have grown in recent years in Japan, the WE League's platform of social welfare and ‘women's empowerment’ is simply the newest iteration of a discourse packaging women's football as emblematic of progressive politics and ‘first-world’ gender norms, which has motivated much of the financial backing – from both the Japan Football Association (JFA) and corporate ranks – of teams and women professionals for the last three decades. Numerous stakeholders have sincere desires to improve not only the status of women's football but also of women in their country; however, the marketing and promotional messaging aimed at furthering those goals commodify critical issues such as women's empowerment and equal opportunity, and thus run the risk of depoliticising them.