ABSTRACT
This chapter examines aspects of the relationship between professional football managers and their players, with particular emphasis on the ways in which managers maintain control over players at professional football clubs. It focuses on the ways in which disciplinary codes are established by managers and the sanctions that are imposed on players for breaches of club discipline. The chapter highlights the arbitrary character of these codes and the central part played by intimidation and abuse, both verbal and physical, as aspects of managerial control within clubs. One of the most commonly used sanctions in football clubs, the imposition of fines, is a traditional sanction that has now been almost universally abolished in every other modern industry. Abuse, intimidation and violence are routinely used by football managers to impose their authority on players. Abuse, intimidation and violence are aspects of managerial control in professional football.
