Football and justice devices: hybrid ethical narratives, sanctions and legitimacy of interests

Abstract

The concept of justice has gradually colonized sports’ narratives in general and professional football ones in particular. Discourses on justice often give rise to ambiguous, unclear narrations with a great deal of noise and opportunism. The aim of this article is to apply the concept of justice devices to clarify the range of measures used and link these to the diverse agents that attempt to gain legitimacy and power through them. In an initial characterisation, we highlight conventional and post-conventional models of ethics of justice. Subsequently, we compare these models to the systems of justice employed by football’s governing institutions, FIFA and UEFA. Finally, we analyse a paradigmatic event of judicial interpretation by various actors using the case of ‘Luiz Adriano’. In this article, we reveal some of the specific uses, settings and strategic aims of justice devices employed by the main actors involved in international football.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Steenbergen, Buisman, and Van Hilvoorde, ‘Meanings of Fair Play in Competitive Sport’; McFee, Sport, Rules, and Values: Philosophical Investigations into the Nature of Sport; Hardman, ‘Sport, Moral Interpretivism, and Football’s Voluntary Suspension of Play Norm’; De Morais and Velho, ‘Figurations, Tension-balance and the Flexibility of Football Rules’; and Pérez Triviño and Torres, ‘Abuso de derecho y fair play en el deporte’ [Abuse of Law and Fair Play in Sport].

2. Kohlberg, Power, and Higgins, Lawrence Kohlberg’s Approach to Moral Education.

3. Gilligan, In a Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women’s Development.

4. Benhabib, Situating the Self: Gender, Community and Postmodernism in Contemporary Ethics; Honneth, The Struggle for Recognition: The Moral Grammar of Social Conflicts; and Benhabib, ‘The Generalized and the Concrete Other: The Kohlberg-Gilligan Controversy and Feminist Theory’.

5. We are aware of the existence of other widely consolidated perspectives, especially, within the philosophy of sport (formalism, conventionalism and interpretivism), from which the analysis of this phenomenon can be tackled (see Note 1). On occasion, convergent aspects can be found among these perspectives. However, we have aimed to provide a different view from a theoretical perspective belonging to other lines of thought.

6. Pérez Triviño and Torres, ‘Abuso de derecho y fair play en el deporte’ [Abuse of Law and Fair Play in Sport].

7. Pérez Triviño, Ética y deporte [Ethics and Sport].

8. Panero, Derecho Romano [Roman Law].

9. Bourdieu, ‘Some Properties of Fields’.

10. Castro, El vocabulario de Michel Foucault. Un recorrido alfabético por sus temas, conceptos y autores [The Vocabulary of Michel Foucault. Issues, Concepts and Authors].

11. Kohlberg, ‘Moral Stages and Moralization: The Cognitive-developmental Approach’; Kohlberg, Power, and Higgins, Lawrence Kohlberg’s Approach to Moral Education.

12. Gilligan, In a Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women’s Development; Fascioli, ‘Ética del cuidado y ética de la justicia en la teoría moral de Carol Gilligan’ [Ethic of Care and Ethic of Justice in Carol Gilligan’s Moral Theory].

13. Piaget, The Origin of Intelligence in the Child.

14. Mead, ‘The Genesis of the Self and Social Control’.

15. Fascioli, ‘Ética del cuidado y ética de la justicia en la teoría moral de Carol Gilligan’ [Ethic of Care and Ethic of Justice in Carol Gilligan’s Moral Theory], 43.

16. Benhabib, Situating the Self: Gender, Community and Postmodernism in Contemporary Ethics.

17. Benhabib, ‘The Generalized and the Concrete Other: The Kohlberg-Gilligan Controversy and Feminist Theory’.

18. Boniface, ‘El fútbol, fenómeno global por excelencia’ [Football, Global Phenomenon Par Excellence], 12.

19. Wahl, La balle au pied. Histoire du football [The Ball at his Feet. History of Soccer], 63–64.

20. UEFA, ‘Eleven Values’.

21. FIFA, Code of Conduct 2012 Edition, 11.

22. Fortune, ‘Controversy! Shakhtar Striker Luiz Adriano accused over Unsporting Goal in Denmark’.

23. Press Association, ‘Shakhtar’s Luiz Adriano Banned One Game for Goal against Nordsjaelland’.

24. Churruca, ‘La sanción de la UEFA a Luiz Adriano es una vergüenza’ [The UEFA Sanction to Luiz Adriano is a Shame].

25. UEFA, Disciplinary Regulations 2012, 2.

26. Ortí, ‘Luiz Adriano, el villano incomprendido’ [Luiz Adriano, the Misunderstood Villain].

27. FC Shakhtar Donetsk, ‘Darijo Srna: Our Confusion led to such an Unpleasant Episode’.

28. FC Shakhtar Donetsk, ‘Luiz Adriano: I am very sorry about what happened’.

29. FC Shakhtar Donetsk, ‘Mircea Lucescu: To stand like Statues when they Score is Unsportsmanlike’.