Football capital: what is it and why is it important?

ABSTRACT

Rationale/Purpose: This paper examines the role and importance of football in the lives of male players from a Sunday league football club in the north-east of England. The study employs a predominantly Bourdieusian analysis to consider how various forms of capital are accumulated and operationalised by different individuals to gain status and influence. Football capital is introduced as an emergent concept which offers a greater contextual relevance within the “football industry”.

Methodology: Drawing on a three-year ethnographic study, influenced by the researcher’s role as founder and manager of the club, a deep insider status allowed access to all aspects of club life.

Findings: Data demonstrate that individuals accumulated football capital through a diverse range of behaviours, competencies and connections.

Implications: The implications for the adoption of football capital as a concept are linked to the ease with which those within the game can draw upon it to influence potential social change.

KEYWORDS:

• Football capital
• power of football
• Sunday league football
• Bourdieu

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 More details on the area and team’s original make-up can be seen in Tucker’s (2016) article detailing some early findings of the same study.

2 Interviews were all transcribed as spoken to more honestly reflect the words of the participants. Interviewee names used in the paper are pseudonyms.

3 Whilst the Constitution is a major theme of the wider PhD research it is beyond the scope of this paper to give a detailed account of its importance and use.