ABSTRACT
Spectator football has evolved into a truly global phenomenon. At the time of writing, the world football organization FIFA counts 204 member states. The top events such as World Cup finals, the European Champions League and large domestic leagues are transmitted by television across the world. On British terrestrial television alone viewers can now choose between English, Scottish, Italian, Dutch and North and South American football. Alongside these distribution patterns, football clubs have themselves become increasingly international. During the research for this book Chelsea FC employed four Italians, three Frenchmen and two Danes as well as players from Nigeria, Uruguay, Spain, Finland, Norway and Russia in addition to their ten English players. In Germany 205 out of the 495 players in the Bundesliga were carrying a non-German passport at the beginning of the 1999/2000 season.
