tag:theconversation.com,2011:/global/topics/fa-cup-10466/articlesFA Cup – The Conversation2022-09-22T20:16:17Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1909352022-09-22T20:16:17Z2022-09-22T20:16:17ZGrand design: why the AFL structure is unique – and has enabled competitive balance<p>Since 2017, Victoria has commemorated <a href="https://publicholidays.com.au/afl-grand-final-holiday/">AFL Grand Final Friday</a> as a public holiday, with a parade of the two competing teams through a festive Melbourne (apart from interruptions in 2020 and 2021 due to COVID-19). </p>
<p>Saturday’s match between Geelong and Sydney is especially anticipated because it welcomes back the grand final to the MCG after a two-year absence due to local COVID restrictions. So, the packed stadium and associated entertainment promise to demonstrate renewal in the wake of the pandemic. It is also a celebration of a unique game, Australian made and owned, with a goal of competitive balance.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/as-the-2022-aflm-season-comes-to-a-close-the-game-must-ask-itself-some-difficult-questions-especially-on-racism-190847">As the 2022 AFLM season comes to a close, the game must ask itself some difficult questions – especially on racism</a>
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<h2>Made in Australia</h2>
<p>Australian Rules football, as the name suggests, is a substantial part of this country’s cultural fabric. It began as a pragmatic effort to keep Melbourne cricketers fit during cold winters in the 1850s. Rather than an invention, this game was more of an adaptation, as the colonists who drew up the initial rules (1859) <a href="https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/australian-rules-football">took inspiration</a> from various informal “kicking” and “handling” ball sports in Britain.</p>
<p>In that respect, although this Australian brand of footy evolved to become unique, it was not conceived as a challenge to imperial orthodoxy. Soon after, Association Football (1863) and Rugby Football (1871) were formalised in Britain, then transplanted around the empire.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/485806/original/file-20220921-13-3797ax.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/485806/original/file-20220921-13-3797ax.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=364&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485806/original/file-20220921-13-3797ax.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=364&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485806/original/file-20220921-13-3797ax.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=364&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485806/original/file-20220921-13-3797ax.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=457&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485806/original/file-20220921-13-3797ax.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=457&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485806/original/file-20220921-13-3797ax.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=457&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">AFL began to evolve in Australia during the 1850s.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://aflinternational.com/history/">AFL International</a></span>
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<p>The unorthodox aspect to this story is that, despite the import of soccer and rugby, the Australian game not only survived, it began to flourish in many parts of the country. That was unexpected: the colonists typically saw themselves as British subjects, paying homage to the <a href="https://tinyurl.com/4zrcm3ww">cultural pastimes of the homeland</a>. This game, made in Australia, was not part of the apron strings of empire.</p>
<p>But it was a colonial project. Indigenous people were often <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-long-and-complicated-history-of-aboriginal-involvement-in-football-117669">not welcomed</a> to the sport in its development phase, and at the game’s elite level were all but absent until the last quarter of the 20th century. Despite this marginalisation, some believe the white man’s game of the 19th century was <a href="https://tony-collins.squarespace.com/rugbyreloaded/2016/3/21/siuywcatskl312en5lmtzj2q03n6gs">inspired by</a> an Aboriginal cultural practice, <a href="https://www.sportaus.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/704866/marn_grook.pdf">Marn Grook</a>. </p>
<p>It’s an <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-06-14/afl-latest-stance-proves-history-of-aussie-rules-is-in-debate/11202802">unproven position</a>, but a commonly touted explanation of how and why football was indeed “made in Australia”.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-long-and-complicated-history-of-aboriginal-involvement-in-football-117669">The long and complicated history of Aboriginal involvement in football</a>
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<h2>Owned by Australians</h2>
<p>Globally, sport is being shaped by seemingly irresistible money and power. Competitions like soccer’s English Premier League epitomise private ownership and the demonstration of extraordinary wealth. </p>
<p>Most often, these owners are <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-5779953/Premier-League-owners-world-map-staggering-global-scale-foreign-riches.html">billionaires from abroad</a>, for whom sinking money into a football club can be an indulgence. When Liverpool FC won the Football Association (FA) Cup in 2021, the trophy was held aloft by the club’s principal owner, the American <a href="https://www.sportingnews.com/us/soccer/news/who-owns-liverpool-fenway-sports-group-john-henry/ckmzmlgghnwcr3huu00kbmjh">John W. Henry</a>, who flew in to mark the occasion.</p>
<p>In Australia, private ownership of football clubs is varied. Every A-League club and about one-third of NRL clubs are <a href="http://www.footyindustry.com/?page_id=704">privately held</a>, with a mix of local and foreign owners. <a href="https://www.rugbypass.com/news/the-case-for-privatising-super-rugby/">Super rugby clubs</a> have not experienced private ownership, though Rugby Australia is considering <a href="https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Daily/Global/2022/07/22/Rugby-Australia-private-equity-talks.aspx">private equity investment</a> to help alleviate its weak financial position. </p>
<p>In contrast, no AFL club is owned by entrepreneurs, nor is the league seeking to sell its well-funded competition to entrepreneurs. There were fledgling experiments with <a href="http://www.footyindustry.com/?page_id=704">private owners</a> at clubs, such as with the Sydney Swans and Brisbane Bears, but none lasted. </p>
<p>Today, AFL clubs are either member-based organisations or, in the case of very new clubs, run by the league until they reach a level of maturity.</p>
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<p>Fan avidity is core to the success of the AFL. The league has long attracted large crowds, averaging around <a href="https://afltables.com/afl/crowds/summary.html">mid-30,000s</a> since 1997. Additionally, some <a href="https://www.afl.com.au/news/837182/1-19m-reasons-to-smile-afl-clubs-break-all-time-membership-record">1.19 million</a> people are members of AFL clubs. Even though 25% of these fans don’t have attendance packages, they have a connection with a club and the sport. </p>
<p>In most clubs, full members have <a href="https://via.hypothes.is/https:/www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/blues-extend-voting-rights-recognise-game-s-indigenous-origins-20210725-p58cp0.html">voting rights</a>, though the <a href="https://via.hypothes.is/https:/www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/pay-but-please-don-t-vote-the-afl-s-democracy-deficit-for-fans-20210522-p57u7z.html">corporate structure</a> of these organisations has meant much more board control than democratic sway. </p>
<p>Whatever the case, these member-fans have more influence than <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2021/05/02/football/manchester-united-old-trafford-protests-spt-intl/index.html">followers</a> of privately owned clubs, where <a href="https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/football/14750678/liverpool-fan-protest-fsg-esl/">entrepreneurs</a> have operational control over their investment.</p>
<h2>Structured for Australia</h2>
<p>In England, soccer clubs participate in leagues that have long lacked regulations to establish competitive balance. Without equalisation measures like salary caps and draft systems, the winners of the Premier League title commonly reflect the financial power of club owners. </p>
<p>This is anathema to the AFL. For decades the league has endeavoured to limit the power of money over the competition by setting <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ross-Booth/publication/258135533_Player_Salaries_and_Revenues_in_the_Australian_Football_League_2001-2009_Theory_and_Evidence/links/00b7d535780dfad398000000/Player-Salaries-and-Revenues-in-the-Australian-Football-League-2001-2009-Theory-and-Evidence.pdf">salary caps on players</a> and soft caps on <a href="https://www.afl.com.au/news/798885/afl-boosts-soft-cap-coaches-hail-step-in-the-right-direction">high-performance staff</a>, and by distributing <a href="https://via.hypothes.is/https:/www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/afl-funding-ladder-revealed-100m-gap-between-top-and-bottom-clubs-20220304-p5a1yp.html">operational funds</a> to clubs on a needs basis. The result of this is higher grants to “weaker” clubs. </p>
<p>Additionally, the AFL has borrowed from American sport a <a href="https://www.afl.com.au/draft/history">player draft system</a>. The best young talent is first made available to poorly performed teams. Compared to the English Premier League, these design levers have provided hope for fans that their AFL team has a <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ross-Booth/publication/229570253_The_Economics_of_Achieving_Competitive_Balance_in_the_Australian_Football_League_1897-2004/links/5cafcf5692851c8d22e515ce/The-Economics-of-Achieving-Competitive-Balance-in-the-Australian-Football-League-1897-2004.pdf">chance for success</a>. </p>
<p>And it has largely worked. For example, between 1990 and 2010, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_VFL/AFL_premiers">14 of the 16 clubs</a> in that era tasted premiership victory.</p>
<p>This is not to suggest there are no structural problems. The AFL is contracted to showcase the grand final at the <a href="https://www.afl.com.au/news/137699/gf-at-mcg-until-2057-as-part-of-500m-mega-deal">MCG</a>, an arrangement that may disadvantage teams from outside Melbourne. There is also the question of <a href="https://www.theroar.com.au/2022/09/13/how-to-create-a-fairer-afl-home-and-away-season-for-all/">fairness</a> in the annual competition schedule, with critics asserting problematic variability across seasons. </p>
<p>Finally, on grand final day itself there is consternation that too few members end up with tickets while too many go to “corporate” guests, with the ratio roughly <a href="https://twitter.com/bryce_parker26/status/1571732530805739521/photo/1">70:30</a>. </p>
<p>Of course, outside the ground, some <a href="https://www.news.com.au/sport/afl/2021-afl-grand-final-breaks-tv-viewership-records/news-story/e43379185435511f5e3a7520fc7b56a4">4 million</a> Australians will tune into the free-to-air broadcast. May the best team win.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/190935/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Daryl Adair does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The AFL grand final is a celebration of a unique game, Australian made and owned, with a goal of competitive balance.Daryl Adair, Associate Professor of Sport Management, University of Technology SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/790872017-06-11T08:39:15Z2017-06-11T08:39:15ZFanon on soccer: radically anti-capitalist, anti-commercial and anti-bourgeois<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/172917/original/file-20170608-32325-jzuw33.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Alexis Sanchez celebrates Arsenal beating Chelsea in the 2017 FA Cup final.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">John Sibley/Reuters</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Like a lot of kids the great Martinican/Algerian revolutionary <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2001/jan/13/biography.peterlennon">Frantz Fanon</a> loved playing soccer as a youngster. Returning to Martinique in 1945 after fighting in Europe and North Africa in World War II, Fanon continued to play soccer on a local team.</p>
<p>Soccer was always part of Fanon’s life. Nearly a decade after the war, he attempted to create a therapeutic community at Blida-Joinville Psychiatric Hospital in Algeria. He organised a soccer team in the institution and arranged for matches with other teams in the community. </p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Wretched-Earth-Frantz-Fanon/dp/0802141323">“The Wretched of the Earth”</a>, perhaps Fanon’s most famous book which was written in 1961, he reflects on the anti-colonial struggles in Africa and warns of upcoming challenges. The book was prescient and still remains relevant. But Fanon’s remarks on sport, which come in the central chapter “Pitfalls of National Consciousness”, have been little discussed.</p>
<p>Fanon writes,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The youth of Africa should not be oriented toward the stadiums but toward the fields, the fields and the schools. The stadium is not an urban showpiece but a rural space that is cleared, worked, and offered to the nation. The capitalist notion of sports is fundamentally different from that which should exist in an underdeveloped country.</p>
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<p>The context and framing of Fanon’s remarks is important. Remember, this was a period of epochal transformation. The end of formal colonial rule marked by independence. </p>
<p>Imagine the possibility of building solidarity and sociality in the midst of such turmoil? The idea that all are equal and the future is possible only together was one of Fanon’s guiding principles.</p>
<h2>Four billion followers</h2>
<p>One can only imagine what Fanon would have made of soccer today, especially that it has become so incredibly popular and so driven by money.</p>
<p>Soccer has <a href="http://www.totalsportek.com/most-popular-sports/">four billion followers</a> worldwide. According to the sport’s controlling body, FIFA, 270 million people (4% of the world’s population) are <a href="http://www.fifa.com/media/news/y=2007/m=5/news=fifa-big-count-2006-270-million-people-active-football-529882.html">actively involved</a> in the game. </p>
<p>Where it comes to professional soccer, obscene amounts of money are made. English Premier League team, Manchester United, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/mikeozanian/2017/06/06/the-worlds-most-valuable-soccer-teams-2017/#5cbceee177ea">rated</a> as the most valuable team in the world, is worth $3.69 billion. </p>
<p>In the pyramid of global soccer, with its players owned and managed by agents, third parties, management companies and so on, local football leagues are often very small cogs in hierarchical system. In Europe the <a href="https://www.premierleague.com/">English Premier League</a>, Spain’s <a href="http://kwese.espn.com/football/league/_/name/esp.1">La Liga</a>, the <a href="http://kwese.espn.com/search/results?q=Bundesliga#gsc.tab=0&gsc.q=Bundesliga&gsc.page=1">Bundesliga</a> in Germany, followed by <a href="http://www.bbc.com/sport/football/italian-serie-a">Serie A</a> and <a href="http://www.ligue1.com/">Ligue 1</a>, in Italy and France respectively, vie for the best players. </p>
<p>The European war of the clubs is played out in the highly mediated Champions League. Fans support clubs which use all sorts of illegal and semi-legal means to extract players from the global South often through systems that mirrors the move from periphery to semi-periphery to centre (from Brazil to Portugal to Spain, or from West Africa to France and England and so on). </p>
<p>Everyone is aware of the transfer sagas. They include the valuations of humans, with <a href="http://www.foxsports.com/soccer/gallery/most-expensive-soccer-transfers-all-time-cristiano-ronaldo-gareth-bale-neymar-luis-suarez-072516">transfer fees </a>having already exceeded $110 million for some top players (and likely to go even higher now with transfer season open again), the scouting for young talent, the clubs’ rhetoric of “war chests”, the endless TV sport shows speculation about signings, and the school yard banter “we’ve got …” and “you’ve got f… all”.</p>
<h2>Laying of wreaths</h2>
<p>The culture industry was wonderfully reproduced at Wembley Stadium in May when Arsenal <a href="http://www.wembleystadium.com/Events/2017/FA-Cup-Final/Emirates-FA-Cup-Final">won</a> the FA Cup, beating Chelsea 2-1. The event was introduced not only by the national anthem, standard fare at these things, but also a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2017/may/26/manchester-attack-fa-cup-premiership-finals-minute-silence">minute’s silence</a> for the victims of the bombing in Manchester, the laying of wreaths, black armbands, and “I love MCR” signs which were shown multiple times on TV. </p>
<p>The mythology of nation is recreated in this “traditional” sporting event as an act of nostalgia and modernity. Here, globally networked, televised for a fee based international viewership, is “England”.</p>
<p>After they won Arsenal played The Clash’s 1979 punk-rock anthem, <a href="http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=2527">“London Calling”</a>, to celebrate the “Emirates Cup” win at Wembley. The iconic English cup, branded as the oldest association football competition in the world, is <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/apr/28/fa-cup-sponsorship-emirates">now named after an airline</a>.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">The Clash’s ‘London Calling’.</span></figcaption>
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<p>One element of Premiership football is its international cast of star players. Only a minority of English players play in the “Premier League” – the most branded, most watched league in the world. <a href="http://www.arsenal.com/emirates-stadium/get-to...-emirates-stadium">The Emirates</a> (Arsenal’s branded stadium), whose name also evokes the shining lights of Abu Dhabi neoliberal turbo-capitalism and the super-rich, was opened by the royal right-winger Prince Phillip. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/sepp-blatter">Sepp Blatter</a>, formerly the head-crook at the sports controlling body FIFA, ranked the Queen of England as having more football knowledge than former Italian Prime Minister, AC Milan owner and fraudster, <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-11981754">Silvio Berlusconi</a>. </p>
<p>All in all, these are the types of nasty people who own the clubs and run a game. Everyone is aware of this hyper-capitalist story but the outrage is usually directed elsewhere. Fans want rich owners and often turn a blind eye to how they’ve got these riches.</p>
<p>It is all about money, of course. </p>
<p>Sport is also bigger than politics; people talk and argue about sports minutiae all the time. It is a space where ordinary people are allowed to be passionate and knowledgeable. Politics is elitist, technocratic and its discourse is typically opaque. Soccer — very often couched in masculine terms — is populist. </p>
<h2>Challenging the alienation</h2>
<p>Soccer is a social game, a team game. And we can imagine how Fanon considered it therapeutic with everything centred on his “patients” taking charge from creating the pitch and fielding a team, to finding “opponents” and developing schedules. All this was part of the social therapy that Fanon envisaged would help break down institutional hierarchies in the psychiatric hospital and foster social relations and challenging the alienation that was part of the institution.</p>
<p>When Fanon writes of sport “expanding minds” and the task of “humanising” he is concerned with a mental and psychological liberation, namely freeing the mind from the nervous conditions induced by colonialism and war and the unthinkingly reproduction that Europe be looked to for models. </p>
<p>Fanon here sounds a bit schoolmasterly telling the youth what they should do. But the larger question in these days of corporate global football dominated by European leagues and its teams, with each a “brand” most likely owned by multinational capital, is how can this model possibly be followed in the global south?</p>
<p>Fanon answer is unequivocal:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Comrade, the European game is finally over.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Instead,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The African politician should not be concerned with producing professional sportspeople, but conscious individuals who also practice sports. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>But today, one would be hard pressed to find an African politician who would advocate this perspective. Politics is a dirty and corrupt game for personal game. The pragmatic African politician dismisses Fanon’s notions as Utopian. They are not concerned with social transformation but adaption to becoming cogs in the machine of global capital by any means. </p>
<p>What can we make of Fanon’s notion of what sport could be? </p>
<p>He offers a wholly different conception and imagination of sport, decolonisation, and the nation. </p>
<p>Can we imagine a different notion of sport? Not necessarily non-competitive but competitive in a different way: A decolonised notion that is radically anti-capitalist, radically anti-commercial and anti-bourgeois. This is what Fanon is asking us to think about.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/79087/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nigel Gibson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>World soccer is the story of hyper-capitalism. What would fan and revolutionary thinker Frantz Fanon have thought about the state of the sport?Nigel Gibson, Associate Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies, Emerson CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/649392016-09-07T11:42:16Z2016-09-07T11:42:16ZMark Halsey incident suggests football referee system in England needs reforming<p>Over the weekend, referee Mark Halsey <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2016/09/04/mark-halsey-reveals-incident-he-claims-he-was-told-to-lie-about/">claimed</a> that he had been told to state that he had not seen an incident which occurred in a game he was officiating between Stoke City and Blackburn Rovers in 2011, in order to ensure that the offending player was punished following the fixture. This allegation was later <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/37268815">denied</a> by the Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL), the body that manages elite referees in England.</p>
<p>Unsurprisingly, this has caused widespread debate and questions, principally aimed at the Football Association, the Premier League and the PGMOL. Some within football <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-3773533/FA-urged-act-Mark-Halsey-s-controversial-blind-eye-claims.html">have even claimed</a> that an investigation into practices involving protocol upon receiving referee match reports and deciding whether retrospective action is required should be undertaken.</p>
<p>But the fact that this debate is being aired at all demonstrates that there are deep issues with the structure in which elite referees in England operate. In short, this debate demonstrates the undue pressure that referees are under to get decisions right. </p>
<p>This comes amid statements from the Premier League prior to the start of the season identifying that player behaviour was intolerable towards referees. It was suggested that <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/jul/20/premier-league-threatens-red-cards-crackdown-indiscipline">there should be a “crackdown”</a> on this type of behaviour towards match officials and a potential increase in the number of red cards as a consequence.</p>
<h2>Global football</h2>
<p>The issue here is that football is a global sport and the Premier League is the most watched league in the world, a product that generates substantial turnover and profit. This season the Premier League begins the latest television rights deal, lasting until 2019, which is estimated to be worth £8.5 billion for <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2015/feb/10/premier-league-tv-rights-grow-sky-sports">domestic</a> and <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-3264606/Premier-League-set-3bn-windfall-global-TV-rights-rival-broadcasters-slug-screen-England-based-superstars.html">international</a> broadcast rights. </p>
<p>Such figures create a significant pressure on clubs, managers and players to get results and for referees to be correct in the decisions that they make on the pitch. These decisions can affect the course of a match, or potentially the whole season.</p>
<p>So the leadership that elite referees receive and the structures that they operate within are vitally important. Referees must feel supported. The fact that elite referees train remotely, meeting every two weeks as a group, means that they must also be able to self-regulate their training and motivate themselves, something which effective leaders and support structures must also be aware of. This also requires that the leadership and support of referees must be adequate for their needs, which currently it is not.</p>
<p>In England, elite referees are managed by the PGMOL, an organisation which does not exist in other comparable leagues such as those in Spain, Italy or France. The PGMOL exists in England due to the financial input from the Premier League, the FA and the Football League, with the majority of financial backing received from the Premier League. But the existence of such a body only in England is at odds with the FIFA statutes, which demand that referee organisation should be “directly subordinate” to the member association – in England, the FA. The football association in any given country should be the organisation that solely manages, leads and organises referees at all levels of the game. </p>
<h2>A structural issue</h2>
<p>So the involvement of the Premier League – the fact that they fund elite referees – is problematic in England. Particularly because the Premier League board is formed of the chairpersons of the current clubs in the Premier League. The members of the board all represent their own clubs’ interests and the Premier League is a product which is sold through television and image rights around the world. Obviously, this presents potential conflict of interests in a number of areas. </p>
<p>So an issue such as Mark Halsey’s becomes much more complicated. A former referee claiming that he had been told to deny he had seen an incident on the pitch adversely affects the stakeholders: the clubs in the league. The potential sanctions imposed on important players of those clubs through retrospective action has the potential to lead to financial losses, through reduced prize money for a lower league place or a shorter run in a cup competition. </p>
<p>Due to the organisation, structures and leadership in other comparable European leagues, such as Spain, Italy and France, there is a reduced chance of this type of incident occurring. Conflict of interests between leagues, clubs and referees are less likely. In short, the systems and protocols in other leagues are often simpler because they do not have a tripartite body such as the PGMOL; the referees are under sole control of the football associations.</p>
<p>At the very least, the support networks and protocols that referees function within on a day to day basis in England should be reconsidered. But comparison with other European leagues suggests that it is the structure of refereeing itself which requires further consideration in the Premier League.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/64939/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tom Webb does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>There are deep issues with the structure in which elite referees in England operate.Tom Webb, Senior Lecturer in Sports Management and Development, University of PortsmouthLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/268452014-05-16T14:31:22Z2014-05-16T14:31:22ZKick homophobia into touch if we really want football to be the beautiful game<p>As millions of people across the globe switch on their televisions to watch the FA Cup final many won’t know that the match coincides with the International Day against Homophobia and Transphobia (IDAHOT) that is marked on May 17 every year. Celebrating its tenth anniversary this year, IADAHOT is a worldwide campaign that aims to bring attention to the problem of homophobia and transphobia that persists across the world.</p>
<p>It might be worthwhile if more football fans knew about IDAHOT. No British sport has been associated with homophobic attitudes as much as football. A recent Channel 4 Dispatches programme, <a href="http://www.radiotimes.com/episode/cs9xvr/dispatches--undercover-hate-on-the-terraces---channel-4-dispatches">Hate on the Terraces</a>, reinforced the idea that English football remains rife with discriminatory chanting by significant numbers of fans. </p>
<p>The documentary showed how such chanting was often carried out in full view and earshot of stewards and police with little action taken by them or the football authorities. The programme confirmed a <a href="http://www.gfsn.org.uk/campaigning/duplicate-of-report-into-homophobic-abuse-experienced-by-bhafc-supporters.html">2013 study</a> by the Gay Football Supporters Network (GFSN) that showed how Brighton fans were the target of regular and persistent homophobic abuse from opposition supporters. </p>
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<p>The perpetrators of abuse have not been confined to fans: in April 2014 former Blackburn Rovers player, Colin Kazim-Richards, was found guilty of making an “utterly disgusting” homophobic gesture at Brighton and Hove Albion fans.</p>
<h2>Driven out (or worse)</h2>
<p>From the playing side of the professional game, it is now commonplace to mention that no professional footballer has “come out” as gay while still playing in the English game. The <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/justin-fashanu-found-hanged-in-lockup-garage-1161425.html">fate of Justin Fashanu</a>, who committed suicide in 1998 after declaring his homosexuality in 1990 to a barrage of homophobia from the media, has acted as a warning to other gay professionals not to follow in his footsteps. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/48728/original/bfq8ymm2-1400245250.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/48728/original/bfq8ymm2-1400245250.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/48728/original/bfq8ymm2-1400245250.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48728/original/bfq8ymm2-1400245250.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48728/original/bfq8ymm2-1400245250.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48728/original/bfq8ymm2-1400245250.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=550&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48728/original/bfq8ymm2-1400245250.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=550&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48728/original/bfq8ymm2-1400245250.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=550&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Former Leeds player Robbie Rogers waited until retirement to come out as gay.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In February 2013 the former Leeds United player, Robbie Rogers, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/football/2013/mar/29/robbie-rogers-coming-out-gay">came out as gay</a> in the same breath as announcing his retirement from professional football because he could not conceive of continuing to play due to the homophobic atmosphere of the dressing room and terraces. Earlier this year former German international and Premier League star, Thomas Hitzlsperger, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/25628806">announced he was gay</a> after he had retired from the game, although the positive public reception he received stands in stark contrast to Fashanu’s experience.</p>
<p>A famous victim of football’s inability to accept sexual diversity was Chelsea and England defender, Graeme Le Saux, who, although known to be heterosexual, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2007/sep/12/lesauxshonestycanhelpbrin">became the target of homophobic abuse</a> during his playing career in the 1990s. Le Saux’s case graphically illustrates one of the little-mentioned aspects of homophobic behaviour: the vast bulk of homophobic abuse is aimed at straight men.</p>
<h2>It’s no joke</h2>
<p>No-one actually believes that Brighton fans are gay, or that a player who falls down rather easily is “a poof”. Opposing fans sing: “Does your boyfriend know you’re here?” in order to call into question the gender credentials of the opposition supporters as a means of reinforcing their own ideas of a masculine heterosexuality. In other words, homophobic “banter”, whether perpetrated on the terraces or in the dressing room, acts as a mechanism for policing straight men’s sexuality.</p>
<p>In contrast to racist abuse where no-one would think of calling a white person by the “n” word, homophobia relies on the assumption that being thought of as gay is a culturally demeaned identity that needs to be constantly repudiated at all times. The argument that homophobia is like racism may be useful tactically to promote the importance of tackling homophobia. However, it is not the case that homophobia is like racism since it works in very different ways.</p>
<p>The fact that straight men experience the negative consequences of homophobia should not in any way be taken to mean that gay men do not suffer from homophobia. The tragic consequence of the cultural regime that devalues gay lives is that homophobia is not confined to the football arena but is present in every city, town and community in the country. </p>
<p>Homophobic attacks are a more violent means by which some men (it is usually, although not invariably, men who are the perpetrators) shore up their own narrow notions of their heterosexuality, or even attempt to deny their homosexuality. </p>
<h2>A man’s game?</h2>
<p>From personal testimony, I have had two acquaintances murdered in violent homophobic attacks and many LGBT people still lead lives that are saturated in fear and anxiety due to their experience of persistent homophobia. This is what sets homophobic abuse apart from the other “banter” of football: homophobia has disastrous impacts well beyond the football terraces.</p>
<p>Understanding that homophobia is steeped in the culturally demeaned status of sexual minorities is crucial if effective strategies to tackle it are to be developed. To do so successfully will mean challenging the notion that football is a “man’s game” with the all the gendered and cultural freight that is loaded on to that term. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.thefa.com/football-rules-governance/equality/football-v-homophobia">work that the FA has commenced</a> in opening up participation in the game will be crucial in this endeavour. Despite worrying levels of discrimination that still persist in Britain, there is evidence that, in some places, homophobic attitudes may be receding; after all we now live in a country where there are openly gay Conservative members of the government. </p>
<p>Football has the potential to make a significant contribution to the shift against homophobia. The task is to work on the cultural regime of football in order to end forever the idea some forms of masculinity are superior to others or that football can only be played by a certain type of “man”.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/26845/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andy Harvey does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>As millions of people across the globe switch on their televisions to watch the FA Cup final many won’t know that the match coincides with the International Day against Homophobia and Transphobia (IDAHOT…Andy Harvey, Researcher, Birkbeck, University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.