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ABSTRACT
FIFA and UEFA are the two major football institutions in the global and European level, respectively. The recent scandals in both organizations and especially in FIFA, raised again discussion about the nature of governance in football institutions. This study focuses for the first time on the assessment of both organizations by using the tenets of institutional theory and MacIntyre’s virtues-goods-practice-institution schema. Through a review of the history of FIFA and UEFA, we identified the role of the context, agents and ethics. Our analysis shows that while FIFA has developed very much in terms of power and influence, both the agents and institutional context, have played a key role in the creation of a culture of corruption. On the other hand, UEFA had to comply with a stricter regulative system and powerful stakeholders, while its major agents appear to be less affected by corrupt practices, compared to those of FIFA.
Acknowledgment
The authors would like to express their gratitude to the two anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments and feedback. Special thanks to Heather Reid, Panagiotis Michalis and Jim Parry for their time and their valuable insights.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes
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8. Greenwood et al., The Sage Handbook of Organizational Institutionalism, 3.
9. Meyer and Rowan, ‘The Structure of Educational Organizations’, 84.
10. DiMaggio and Powell, ‘The Iron Cage Revisited’.
11. Washington and Patterson, ‘Hostile Takeover or Joint Venture’, 4.
12. Ibid., 4.
13. Friedland and Alford, ‘Bringing Society Back in’.
14. Tost, ‘An Integrative Model of Legitimacy Judgments’.
15. Meyer and Scott, ‘Organizational Environments’, 201.
16. DiMaggio, ‘Interest and Agency in Institutional Theory’; and Lawrence, ‘Institutional Strategy’.
17. Moore and Grandy, ‘Bringing Morality Back in’.
18. Munir, ‘A Loss of Power in Institutional Theory’.
19. Meyer and Rowan, ‘Institutionalized Organizations’.
20. MacIntyre, After Virtue, 26–27.
21. Ibid., 194.
22. Ibid., 187.
23. Ibid., 196.
24. McLeod, Payne and Evert, ‘Organizational Ethics Research’.
25. Nielsen and Massa, ‘Reintegrating Ethics and Institutional Theories’.
26. McCann and Brownsberger, ‘Management as a Social Practice; Brewer, ‘Management as a Practice’; Beadle and Moore, ‘MacIntyre on Virtue and Organization’; Dawson and Bartholomew, ‘Virtues, Managers and Business People’; and Dobson, ‘Alasdair MacIntyre’s Aristotelian Business Ethics’.
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28. Ibid., 16.
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30. Brown and Trevino, ‘Ethical Leadership’.
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33. Ibid., 393.
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42. Arcioni, Bayle and Rayner, ‘Sepp Blatter’, 38.
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44. Washington and Patterson, ‘Hostile Takeover or Joint Venture’, 6.
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47. Geeraert, ‘Football is War’, 141.
48. Ibid, 140.
49. Jennings, ‘Investigating Corruption in Corporate Sport’.
50. Sugden and Tomlinson, ‘Power and Resistance in the Governance of World Football’.
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55. Vieli, UEFA 60 Years at the Heart of Football, 109.
56. García, ‘UEFA and the European Union’.
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58. Henry and Lee, ‘Governance and Ethics in Sport’.
59. Sugden, ‘Network football’, 70.
60. Peeters and Szymanski, ‘Financial Fair Play in European Football’.
61. Budzinski, ‘The Competition Economics of Financial Fair Play’.
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64. Beadle and Moore, ‘MacIntyre, Neo-Aristotelianism and Organization Theory’.
65. Geeraert, Scheerder and Bruyninckx, ‘The Governance Network of European Football’.
66. Geeraert, ‘Football is War’, 140.
67. Zeidan and Fauser, ‘Corporate Governance and Corporate Social Responsibility’.
68. Moore, ‘Corporate Character’, 7.
69. McNamee, ‘Hubris, Humility, And Humiliation’, 38.