ABSTRACT

This chapter highlights the qualitative shift that has taken place in football, a game increasingly in the grip of a business ethic. Implicitly at least, UEFA's message is that the football industry may well have become a by-word for the commercialization of sport in neo-liberal times, but it would seem to fall foul of what is core to a capitalist organization: turning the surplus value generated into profits. In terms of football club involvement in sponsorship deals, the sovereign wealth funds are also taking a close interest. UEFA would appear to be reminding its national associations and their member clubs that it is this capacity that remains obstinately missing or, at best, only partially developed in relations currently underpinning the football industry. It would be fair to say that football's political economy is the political economy of speculation and debt; sustainable profit derived from surplus value remains a largely unredeemed promissory note gathering dust in a bank vault.