ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book offers a broad analysis of the state of play of grass-roots football. Grass-roots football as a medium for alternative political ideas and practice gains some inspiration from the wider diverse constituency, which has come to be understood as the ‘do-it-yourself movement’. The book points out that Black, Asian and minority ethnic grass-root football clubs in England have emerged against a ‘black-resistant landscape’, which previous studies have tended to frame as forms of cultural resistance. It offer examples of clubs specifically set up in response to what are seen as unacceptable levels of infringement by the market into football, and of clubs that have been specifically set up as part of a wider organizational resistance to the ravages of neoliberalism.
