The spatial embeddedness of professional football clubs in Norway

Abstract

In tune with professional football in other European countries, Norwegian football has experienced increased commercialization and a growing international influence since the mid‐1990s. A conventional view is that such processes will result in a de‐coupling or dis‐embedding of the organization from its local context. By analysing the spatiality of the club–environment linkages, and the inter‐dependency between football clubs and its institutional contexts, our study puts this assumption to the test. The essay demonstrates that the practice of top football clubs is still influenced by their local context. In some aspects, the linkages between the club and its community have even been intensified. The organization of football clubs involves the recasting of social, economic and cultural processes both upwards and downwards in scale, rather than being reduced to the upscaling of processes from a local to a global scale. Clubs seem to intensify simultaneously their local anchoring and stretching their geographical scope. Thus, as the essay tries to show, it is important to identify the distinctiveness or the local flavour of this spatial rescaling in selected cases.

Acknowledgement

This study was financially supported by the Reseach Council of Norway through the program ‘Sport, society and the voluntary sector’.

Notes

1. Holt et al., ‘The State of the Game’.

2. See Gammelsæter and Ohr, Kampen uten ball, and Morrow, The People’s Game?

3. Goksøyr and Olstad, Fotball!

4. Jakobsen et al., ‘The Formalization of Club Organization’.

5. Giddens, Modernity and Self‐Identity.

6. See Scott, Institutions and Organizations; and Lounsbury and Ventresca, ‘The New Structuralism’.

7. Amin and Thrift, ‘Living in the Global’.

8. See for instance Amin, ‘Moving On’; Hayter, ‘Economic Geography’; and Hess, ‘Spatial Relationship?’

9. Granovetter, ‘The Impact of Social Structure’, 35.

10. Williams, ‘A Critical Evaluation’.

11. See Maskell and Malmberg, ‘The Competitiveness of Firms and Regions’; and Cooke, ‘Regional Innovation Systems’.

12. Polanyi, The Great Transformation.

13. Granovetter, ‘Economic Action’.

14. Gertler, ‘Best Practice?’

15. Dacin, Ventresca and Beal, ‘The Embeddedness of Organizations’.

16. Hess, ‘Spatial Relationship?’

17. Dicken and Thift, ‘The Organization of Production’.

18. Maskell and Malmberg, ‘The Competitiveness of Firms and Regions’.

19. Amin and Thrift, ‘Living in the Global’.

20. See Amin and Thrift, Cities; and Fløysand and Jakobsen, ‘Clusters’.

21. Hayter, ‘Economic Geography’.

22. Amin and Thrift, Cities.

23. Giddens, Modernity and Self‐Identity.

24. Henderson et al., ‘Global Production Networks’.

25. Swyngedouw, ‘Globalisation or “Glocalisation”?’

26. Dutton and Dukerich, ‘Keeping an Eye on the Mirror’.

27. Granovetter, ‘Economic Action’, 504.

28. Zukin and DiMaggio, ‘Introduction’.

29. Hess, ‘Spatial Relationship?’

30. Boschma, ‘Proximity and Innovation’.

31. Sack, Homo Geographicus.

32. Granovetter, ‘Economic Action’.

33. Polanyi, The Tacit Dimension.

34. Boschma, ‘Proximity and Innovation’.

35. Zukin and DiMaggio, ‘Introduction’.

36. Swyngedouw, ‘Globalisation or “Glocalisation”?’.

37. Amin and Thrift, Cities.

38. Fardal, Frå pølsebu til storhall, 42; translated by the authors.

39. The Mayor of Sogndal speaking at the gala banquet, quoted in Hompland, Sogdal e laget, 16; translated by the authors.

40. Representative of Sogn og Fjordane University College.

41. Representative of Sogndal Fotball.

42. Hansen, Hartviksen and Medby, Rød‐hvit fotballglede; translated by the authors.

43. Cashman, Sport in the National Imagination.

44. Hamil, ‘Football Clubs’, 4.

45. Morrow, The People’s Game?, 55.

46. Hague and Mercer, ‘Geographical Memory’.

47. Strategy Document, Tromsø IL 2003–2005; translated by the authors. Emphasis added.

48. Angelfoss and Hvalryg, Brann e best!

49. Murray, The World’s Game.

50. Morrow, The People’s Game?

51. Noteboom, Learning and Innovation.

52. Swyngedouw, ‘Globalisation or “Glocalisation”?’.

53. Brann did manage to win the top league in 2007. However, in 2008 it was back to ‘normal’. The club finished eighth in the league, and the coach was sacked.