The general aim of the thesis is to contribute a better understanding of women’s football. Literature that looks at women’s football falls into the broad areas of governance (Lopez, 1997; Williams and Woodhouse, 1991; Williams, 1994a) and sexualities and sexual identity (Caudwell, 2004, 1999; Cahn, 1994, 1993; Cox and Thompson, 2001; Pfister et al, 1999; Scraton and Flintoff, 2002). Women’s football in historical, and to a lesser extent in contemporary terms, is marginalised by a tradition which sustains the notion that playing football is unfeminine. In this context, the problem for this research is how to account for women’s experiences in football and then to obtain empirical evidence that will foreground their narratives. The ‘third-space’ (Bhabha, 1994a:54) is utilised as a theoretical framework to give voice to non-traditional voices that can contest hegemonic masculinities. The elements of third-space found in mimicry, disavowal and hybridity correspond to the thematic sections of the thesis related to the research questions; complicity, negotiation and transformation, with the aim of testing the utility of these conceptual devices to instigate critical debate on gender in football. The synthesis of theoretical and epistemological frames initiate a narrative for understanding how margins and exclusion illustrate the variety of ways in which women have forged spaces to play football. Using empirical data gathered from 17 in-depth open interviews with amateur female football players, ages ranging from 18 – 60, emergent themes organised around complicity, negotiation and transformation, focus on topics of governance, friendship networks, identities and mixed-football. These experiential narratives foreground the complex and varied nature of the sample and, importantly, illustrate how the subjective voice contributes to disrupting the grander narrative that maintains gender inequality in football.

This thesis is oriented towards the investigation of the opportunities for ‘positive futures’ in and through sport in Serbia. It critically explores the social significance of established and emerging sports—football (grassroots programme) and rugby league—in the challenging social context of Serbian society via the theoretical prism of social capital. Contemporary debate on sport’s social role, underlining its multidimensional capacity in the creation and maintenance of social capital and associated socially cohesive processes—social inclusion, social integration and active civic participation—in and through sport, is often instigated within the developed world academe, and has not been oriented to questioning the link between sport, social capital and community benefits in the contexts of ‘transitional’ societies residing at the European semi-periphery. This thesis seeks, hence, to address this void by examining the social implications of sport for a multitude of communities in the context of semi-peripheral Serbia. In particular, it investigates the extent to which, and the ways in which, selected sports foster or impede the creation of different forms of social capital instrumental in sport and community development, including the role of wider social and sport policy contexts in these endeavours. Methodologically, the study deploys a qualitative multiple-case study approach using semi-structured individual and group interviews in conjuction with content analysis of official documents and direct observation of selected cases. The exploration of evolving contexts of selected sports against the backdrop of Serbia suggests that the representation of different forms of social capital varies among researched cases relevant to their position within the meso sporting context and to specific traits of the wider social context. In this vein, as a dynamic and transferable social construct, social capital generated and maintained in and through explored sports floats between bonding and bridging points on an axis with linking social capital residing closer to the bonding point on this axis. In these constellations norms of reciprocity are positioned as the key cultural element of the emerging social capital models that assist in opening up the opportunities for expanding social cohesion via social inclusion, social integration and active civic participation. Likewise, the evidence from the study challenges a dominant social capital conceptual approach by portraying the ways cultural elements of the concept—trust and norms of reciprocity—are mutually interwoven, context-dependent and how they interact in their structural webs within extracted sport social capital models. As evidence from the research further shows, the nature of social capital in regard to the explored sports corresponds to the ways socially cohesive processes are established for different scale community benefits. Yet, the reflextion of the correlation between the nature of social capital and the nature of socially cohesive processes in and around selected sports indicates that bonding social capital generated in and through sport may have the capacity to maintain socially cohesive processes while an inherently positive association between bridging social capital and community benefits in and through sport in this particular social context needs to be revisited. Finally, in examining the environment for sport and community development in Serbia, it is indicative that a pro-social sport policy context should comprehensively account for the wider social relevance of sport and its ability to imbue bottom-up cultural change at both sport and society levels. This awarness is central to policy recommendations formulated in the conclusion of this thesis. This study thus provides an original contribution to knowledge by probing the nexus between investigated sports and the nature of social capital created, the role, position and interrelatedness of distincitive structral and cultural social capital elements within the created sport social capital models, associated social benefits and pro-social sport policies in the semi-peripheral context of Serbia.

It is commonplace for many high-performance coaches to be former elite athletes in the same sports they coach (Christensen, 2013; Mielke, 2007; Werthner & Trudel, 2009). In many cases, such individuals are ‘fast-tracked’ through formal coach accreditation structures into these high-performance coaching roles (Rynne, 2014). The reasons why former elite athletes dominate coaching roles in professional sports clubs and why a ‘fast-track’ pathway from elite athlete to high-performance coach is supported remain unclear. The project builds upon existing research on coach development to understand the social processes for how high-performance athletes negotiate the career transition into post-athletic high-performance coaching roles in men’s association football and rugby union. The project employed a Straussian grounded theory methodology which consisted of three iterations of empirical data collection and analysis. The first and second iterations respectively sampled eight senior club directors and 11 academy directors of men’s professional association football and rugby union clubs on why they appointed ‘fast-tracked’ coaches and how they valued particular sources of coaching knowledge. Data were abductively analysed (Blaikie, 2009) and signified Bourdieu’s concepts of habitus, capital and hexis in addition to Foucault’s concepts of docile bodies, surveillance and technologies of power. The data suggested that elite athletes were drawn through within their clubs into high-performance coaching roles based on three main themes: a) to ensure the perpetuation of specific playing and coaching philosophies; b) clubs’ former athletes were regarded to act as docile bodies when embodying the clubs’ values in their coaching, and; c) ‘fast-tracked’ appointments were often based upon enhanced levels of symbolic capital and the perceived ability to gain player ‘respect’. Such appointment processes imposed symbolic violence onto other populations for whom competing in male elite sport is inaccessible, most distinctly women. The final iteration investigated how current or former elite athletes negotiated a ‘fast-tracked’ career trajectory when developing their coaching identities. Current or former elite athletes (n=15) were interviewed on two occasions over a 10-12 month period whilst registered onto their respective national governing body’s level three coach qualification. Both courses were designed only for senior professional athletes to attend. The resulting grounded theory provides an original contribution to the field of coach development by signifying a number of distinct social process for how the athletes negotiated the ‘fast-track’ coaching pathway for developing their coaching identities. The difficulties the coaches encountered in balancing the values imposed on them by their clubs during the process of consolidating their own coaching identities are critically discussed in alignment with Bourdieu and Foucault’s conceptual frameworks. Recommendations for the provision of formal coach education programmes are made concerning how coaches mediate developing their own coaching philosophies against imposed structural regimes of truth, along with conceptualising the value the coaches attributed to informal mentors over formal mentors. Recommendations are also provided to inform the policies surrounding coach recruitment at the high-performance level in the hope that directors’ recorded subconscious discriminatory practices are addressed.

Since its creation in 1992, the Premier League has sold exclusive media rights for live football matches to broadcasters on behalf of member clubs. The collective selling method removes any price competition between the clubs, whom would otherwise compete against each other to sell rights to their matches (commonly seen in other European Leagues). A key issue with monopoly power is that the Premier League could distort the market for its product or abuse its dominant position in the market as the sole seller of the rights (contrary to Article 101 and 102 of the Treaty of the European Union). In defence, the Premier League argued that matches broadcast live on television can be considered as a substitute for watching at the stadium. A Competition Commission investigation concluded that the potential benefits of collective selling arrangements are for the redistribution of revenue to promote solidarity at all levels of football. After some amendments to the auction process, collective selling continues. Contributing to the applied industrial economics literature, this thesis examines the key arguments for using collective selling methods in the Premier League. Results from empirical economic analysis find firstly, that there is no evidence to suggest a negative impact on match day revenue from live broadcasting and the revenues from rights sales heavily outweigh such an impact. Secondly, that sharing revenue between clubs will only enhance solidarity (competitive balance) if the amount shared is much larger than at present, however, a greater uncertainty of match outcome reduces demand for spectating at the stadium whilst increasing demand for television viewing. Finally, the impact of investment in talent is far greater for weaker teams whilst participating in the Champions League and Europa League has no impact on domestic league performance. This thesis concludes that the Premier League should offer a greater number of rights to broadcast matches and should increase the amount of revenue shared (including revenues from European Competitions) in order to increase competitive balance. This would increase the number of television viewers for live football broadcasts but would likely reduce the numbers of fans spectating at the stadium.

Some football fans go to matches, but what do others do? This thesis examines online football fan forums in order to explore the construction of fan identities and positions. By implementing a cyberethnographical approach supplemented by online interviews with fans, it explores how football fan communities operate, discussing aspects of forum management, control and hierarchies, all the while illustrating how these factors contribute to the development of individual and collective identities. In considering this, it presents football fans as inhabiting a multitude of complex positions, taking into account arguments of 'active' and 'passive' fandom and the importance of fan status (Hills, 2002.) I argue that that there has been a significant lack of research into 'everyday' football fandom, with both the mainstream media and academic perspectives preferring to focus on the extraordinary instances of performance and behaviour, which, I further argue, are simplistic in their treatment of fans. Mainstream media representations are addressed; with the latter sections of the thesis illustrating that discourses produced by fans themselves often contrast significantly with dominant narratives at play in the news media. The football fan is found to demonstrate articulate consideration for his/her own position, with this being frequently determined by the overriding importance of the team's success and the part that the fan plays in this. This is particularly apparent when considering national and regional allegiances, and how these can be seen to present regular areas of conflict in regards to dominant affiliation, yet all the while contributing to the fan's position as an extension of the football club.

Training stress in the absence of adequate recovery has been associated with a decrease in well-being and performance. Thus, there is potential for the high training and competition loads that elite English youth football players experience to have a negative effect on wellbeing and performance. The aim of the thesis was to assess the utility of well-being and physical performance assessments in managing the development of elite English youth football players. The first study (Chapter 4) examined the sensitivity of a subjective well-being questionnaire (WQ; developed ‘in-house’ by sport science practitioners at a category two academy and only taking < 30 s to complete), by comparing the player’s next day responses between two acute training bouts of varied duration; 15 mins (low load) compared to 90 mins (high load) high intensity intermittent exercise (Loughborough intermittent shuttle test, LIST). WQ items showed small to large deteriorations following the high load compared to low load (d=0.4-1.5, P=0.03-0.57). The ability of the WQ to differentiate between responses to high and low training loads indicated that this questionnaire could be used to detect training induced stress prior to training on a daily basis throughout the season. Other modes of monitoring assessment evaluated were either not sensitive to differentiate between high and low loads (countermovement jump; CMJ) or detected differences between high and low training load responses (HR indices) but lacked utility in detecting individual changes. The second study (Chapter 5) applied well-being and physical performance assessments to elite English youth football players during a high intensity, low volume pre-season training period. Trivial changes in perception of WQ items of sleep, recovery, appetite, fatigue, stress and muscle soreness were observed across weeks (P=0.35-0.93, 2 P  =0.02-0.08) with no negative WQ responses evident. Internal training load was lower to a large extent in week 1 (P= < 0.001, 2P  =0.54) yet no differences in internal training load were evident across weeks two, three, four and five. Trivial to small associations (r=-0.21 to 0.19) between internal training load and WQ responses were observed. Small to moderate improvements in aerobic performance were evident post training in comparison with pre training (P < 0.001-0.53, d= 0.33 – 0.94) with a large to moderate improvement in submaximal HR measures (P < 0.001 – 0.09; 2 P  = 0.34 - 0.74) observed across the training weeks. Trivial to moderate impairments in neuromuscular performance were evident post training in comparison with pre training (P < 0.001 – 0.21; d=0.17 – 1.00). Collectively, the preservation of well-being prior to each training session during a pre-season period and improvements in aspects of physical performance were indicative of a balance between stress and recovery. The third study (Chapter 6) examined player perceptions of well-being and physical performance across a season in Elite English youth football players. Increases in training exposure (P < 0.05; 2 P  =0.52) and moderate to large deteriorations in perceptions of well-being (motivation, sleep quality, recovery, appetite, fatigue, stress, muscle soreness P < 0.05; 2 P  =0.30-0.53) were evident as the season progressed. A large improvement in Yo-Yo intermittent recovery test performance (Yo-Yo IRT; P < 0.05; 2 P  =0.93) and a small to moderate impairment in neuromuscular performance (P > 0.05; 2 P  =0.18 - 0.48) was observed as the season progressed. These findings show an imbalance between stress and recovery in English elite youth football players even when players experienced lower training exposure than stipulated by the elite player performance plan (EPPP). In summary, this thesis highlights the potential utility of subjective well-being assessments to inform the management English elite youth football player development. Furthermore, it highlights the high training volumes that English elite youth players are exposed can potentially lead to an imbalance between stress and recovery.

Dès 1890, les footballeurs français de haut niveau ont suscité l’intérêt de publics toujours plus nombreux. Mais s’ils ont été les premiers à attirer l'attention de l'opinion, il s'avère que les entraîneurs, qui sont demeurés longtemps méconnus, ont joué un rôle primordial dans l'évolution et les progrès du football français. A partir des années 1920, ils investissent le champ du ballon rond et tentent d'imposer leur vision de la pratique et de l'entraînement. Mais ils se heurtent à divers obstacles qui entraveront leur influence durant des décennies. L'ensemble des entraîneurs professionnels ne se constitue en véritable profession qu'à partir des années 1950, en s'appuyant sur une « Amicale », une organisation déterminante dans la structuration de leur identité, ainsi que sur une formation performante. Les entraîneurs deviennent plus visibles aux yeux du grand public depuis les années 1980. Mais en fait cette exposition médiatique est à double tranchant : si elle permet de souligner leur rôle dans les progrès du football français, elle met davantage encore en péril une stabilité professionnelle qui leur a toujours été contestée. L'histoire de la profession des entraîneurs s'organise autour de l'action d'individualités déterminantes comme Gabriel Hanot ou Georges Boulogne, mais également d'actions collectives souvent initiées par leur syndicat, mais aussi par leur hiérarchie représentée par la Direction Technique Nationale. Ces hommes et ces organisations ont pris conscience que l'action des entraîneurs ne se limite pas au terrain, ni à l'entraînement et à la compétition et que leur profession présente de nombreuses caractéristiques du travail des cadres. / Since 1890, élite French footballers have become the centre of interest for an ever increasing number of people. But although players were the first to attract attention, it is taken for granted that coaches played the most prominent role in the evolution and improvement of French soccer. However, they remained largely unknown for many years. As early as the 1920s, they invested the area of French soccer and tried to teach their own perception of how to train for an play the game. But they faced some difficulties, which would slow their influence for several decades. Coaching did not become a real occupation till the 1950s, when they created an organization called “Amicale”, which played a decisive part in establishing their own identity as well as creating an efficient academy process. Coaches have become better known by the general public since the 1980s, but this new media coverage is a two-edged sword: on the one hand, it gives them credit for their action in improving French football, but on the other hand it threatens more and more their professional stability, which they have always been denied. The history of professional coaching suggests we take a look at the action of decisive individuals like Gabriel Hanot or Georges Boulogne, but also at collective actions which were often driven by their own union, or by their hierarchy through the D.T.N. (National Technical Direction). These men and organizations have become aware of the fact that coaching does not amount to the practice pitch alone, nor to training and competition, and that their occupation shows many similarities to managerial work.