Football, Power, and Politics in Europe: The German Case in Comparative Perspective (2024) (Europe in Transition: The NYU European Studies Series)

By: Timm Beichelt

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Synopsis: Football, Power, and Politics in Europe deals with the politics and policy-making in the field of football in a comparative perspective. Translated into English for the first time, this book systematizes political actors and their footprints not only in the field of sports, but in the political system as a whole—an approach unique in the broader literature on the societal dimension of sports. It offers an empirical analysis of power exercise with sociological means (field approach of Bourdieu) and helps us to understand the enormous relevance of football/soccer in European societies, shedding light on how (elected and non-elected) power holders use norms inherent to the field of football. While the analysis extends to various European countries and to the international arena, Germany and German football are in the centre of interest. Combining insights from political science, sociology, anthropology, and of course, sports studies, this book ultimately seeks to ask: How is political power exerted and controlled in a field where state institutions only have a limited leverage?