ABSTRACT
This study highlights the efforts of grass-roots, not-for-profit football clubs to create a sustainable game that, at the elite level, has become decoupled from the local communities most originated from. Examples are offered 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. Fundamentally, the task here is to contextualize these clubs in relation to their various points of resistance and involvement in the dynamics of commodification and decommodification and within this context to provide conclusions regarding the meaning and significance of these organizations. Thus located, it is argued that elements of the grass-roots game form part of an alternative social relation irreconcilable with the current social system that views us as passive consumers of the commodities it produces; a social relation which creates the possibility of a non-alienating system for the provision of our needs operating via a network of enterprises outside of the laws of the market.
