Global and local interactions in football

159 Pages·2017·3.45 MB·English

by  Szerovay, Mihaly

M STUDIES IN SPORT, PHYSICAL EDUCATION AND HEALTH
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A 265
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Mihaly Szerovay S
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Global and local VA Mihaly Szerovay
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interactions in football: G
Comparing the development paths of LO Global and local
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Finland and Hungary A
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N interactions in football:
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CA Comparing the development
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E paths of Finland and Hungary
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Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Jyväskyläensis 1938-1961 IO
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Jyväskylä Studies in Education, Psychology and Social Research 1962- S
Studia Historica Jyväskyläensia 1962-2003 IN
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Studia Philologica Jyväskyläensia 1966-2002 O
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Jyväskylä Studies in the Arts 1967-2003 T
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Studies in Sport, Physical Education and Health 1971- A
Biological Research Reports from the University of Jyväskylä 1975-1999 LL
Jyväskylä Studies in Computer Science, Economics and Statistics 1980-2000
Jyväskylä Studies in Communication 1995-2003
Jyväskylä Studies in Biological and Environmental Science 1999-
Jyväskylä Studies in Computing 1999-
Jyväskylä Studies in Business and Economics 2000-
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Jyväskylä Studies in Humanities 2003-
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ISSN 0356-1070
ISBN 978-951-39-7313-1
STUDIES IN SPORT,
PHYSICAL EDUCATION AND HEALTH 265 265
STUDIES IN SPORT, PHYSICAL EDUCATION AND HEALTH 265
Mihaly Szerovay
Global and local
interactions in football:
Comparing the development paths of
Finland and Hungary
Esitetään Jyväskylän yliopiston liikuntatieteellisen tiedekunnan suostumuksella
julkisesti tarkastettavaksi yliopiston Liikunnan salissa L304
tammikuun 27. päivänä 2018 kello 12.
Academic dissertation to be publicly discussed, by permission of
the Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences of the University of Jyväskylä,
in building Liikunta, auditorium L304, on January 27, 2018 at 12 o’clock noon.
UNIVERSITY OF JYVÄSKYLÄ
JYVÄSKYLÄ 2018
Global and local
interactions in football:
Comparing the development paths of
Finland and Hungary
STUDIES IN SPORT, PHYSICAL EDUCATION AND HEALTH 265
Mihaly Szerovay
Global and local
interactions in football:
Comparing the development paths of
Finland and Hungary
UNIVERSITY OF JYVÄSKYLÄ
JYVÄSKYLÄ 2018
Editors
Jarmo Liukkonen
Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences, University of Jyväskylä
Pekka Olsbo, Ville Korkiakangas
Open Science Centre, University of Jyväskylä
Cover design by Esa Nykänen. Cover photo by Phonlamai Photo / Shutterstock.
Permanent link to this publication: http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-951-39-7314-8
URN:ISBN:978-951-39-7314-8
ISBN 978-951-39-7314-8 (PDF)
ISBN 978-951-39-7313-1 (nid.)
ISSN 0356-1070
Copyright © 2018, by University of Jyväskylä
Jyväskylä University Printing House, Jyväskylä 2018
“The only thing that has never changed in the history of the game is the shape of
the ball.”
Denis Law (Former Scottish striker)
ABSTRACT
Szerovay, Mihaly
Global and local interactions in football: Comparing the development paths of
Finland and Hungary
Jyväskylä: University of Jyväskylä, 2018, 104 p.
(Studies in Sport, Physical Education and Health
ISSN 0356-1070; 265)
ISBN 978-951-39-7313-1 (nid.)
ISBN 978-951-39-7314-8 (PDF)
Finnish summary
Diss.
The aim of this study is to increase understanding of football’s global and local
contexts. More specifically, the development paths of Finnish and Hungarian
football are explored and compared in four research articles from different
perspectives within a global framework. These viewpoints, in addition to a
historical-sociological overview in the article I, cover closely interrelated
phenomena observable in the landscape of top-level football: the organization
of elite youth football, the professionalization of players and the development
of football stadiums. The main research question of the study is as follows: In
what way have glocal interactions in men’s football shaped the development
paths of less developed football countries such as Finland and Hungary?
The theoretical framework is formulated around the globalization of foot-
ball within the social sciences of sport. The main approaches applied are figura-
tional sociology and the concept of the duality of glocality. The research data con-
sisted of thirty-six semi-structured expert interviews with Finnish and Hungar-
ian football practitioners, media and club documents and data from observation.
The data were transcribed, coded and themed according to the research ques-
tions of each article.
The results suggest that the player pathways and the financing of elite
youth clubs differ considerably in the two settings. In the 2010s, for example,
the main source of income for Finnish clubs is provided by households. On the
other hand, Hungarian clubs earn the majority of their revenues through a cor-
porate tax scheme and support from the Hungarian Football Federation. Simul-
taneously, professionalization, growing amount of full-time coaches and ex-
panding social networks are typical in both countries and suggest homogeniza-
tion processes at work. Since the 1980s, football players in Finland have transi-
tioned from amateur status into different levels of semi-professionals whereas
in Hungary the movement has been from hidden professionals to professionals.
The development of players’ unions has mirrored the professionalization of
players. However, in neither of the countries have football players achieved the
status of regular employees to date. Regarding football stadiums in the 2000s,
international and national governing bodies have strengthened their control
over the different aspects of stadiums, indicating increasing standardization.
Importing knowledge, increasing specialization and the appearance of commer-
cial elements have been typical trends in both countries. On the other hand, the
size of the facilities and the types of playing surfaces have been adjusted to the
given football environment. In addition, facility development and stadium
management solutions have differed in the two countries.
The findings indicate that the interactions of local as well as global forces
are reflected in the development paths of football. This means that the diverse
roots and routes of football mirror the social, economic, cultural and political
background of the given country. In Finland, it was a strong civil society and
the amateur origins of football, while in Hungary it was the state socialist past
and the strong national status of football. At the same time, however, both
countries have been increasingly integrated into the global football system.
Football practitioners can benefit from the understanding gained by discussing
what the concepts of, for example, youth football club, football academy and profes-
sional player represent in different localities. Further practical applications are
provided by exploring the increasing commercialization of football as well as
the ways of acquiring knowledge in the various segments of the sport.
Keywords: football, globalization, glocalization, youth football club,
professionalization, football stadium, Finland, Hungary
Author’s address Mihaly Szerovay
Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences
University of Jyväskylä, Finland
PL 35 40014 Jyväskylä, Finland
Supervisors Professor Hannu Itkonen
Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences
University of Jyväskylä
Senior lecturer Hanna Vehmas
Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences
University of Jyväskylä
Assistant Professor Szilvia Perényi
Department of Sport Management
University of Physical Education, Budapest, Hungary
Reviewers Associate Professor Bente Ovèdie Skogvang
Inland Norway School of Sport Sciences
Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences,
Elverum
Professor Richard Giulianotti
School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences
Loughborough University, United Kingdom
Opponent Associate Professor Ramón Llopis-Goig
Sociology and Social Anthropology Department
University of Valencia, Spain
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I carried out this research at the Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences of the
University of Jyväskylä. Foremost, I would like to express my special
appreciation and gratitude to my supervisors, Professor Hannu Itkonen, Dr
Hanna Vehmas and Dr Szilvia Perényi. Hannu provided continuous support
with fresh ideas and in-depth discussions that, in addition to broaden my
perspectives in sport sociology, enabled me to grow as a person and researcher.
Hanna encouraged me with her always positive attitude and made significant
contribution to the structuring and the linguistic quality of my texts. Szilvia
gave substantial input concerning the Hungarian aspect of the study such as
sharing knowledge of the context and facilitating the access to informants.
I am grateful to the reviewers, Assistant Professor Bente Ovèdie Skogvang
(Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences) and Professor Richard Giuli-
anotti (Loughborough University, UK) for their insightful comments.
I would like to express my sincere thanks to my colleagues who acted as
peers as well as friends both in research-related discussions and informal con-
versations. Special thanks go to Anna Lee, Anna-Katriina Salmikangas, Anna-
Liisa Ojala, Arto Laukkanen, David Kotthaus, Elina Hasanen, Esa Nykänen,
Jukka Lahti, Kalervo Ilmanen, Kasper Salin, Mikko Huhtiniemi, Mikko Simula,
Minna Rasinaho, Outi Aarresola, Pekka Lumela, Teppo Kalaja and Timo Laakso.
Thanks go out to all the interviewees who devoted time to the interview
sessions and gave invaluable contribute to this research. I would like to thank
especially Bálint Máté, Dr Mihály Muszbek and Tamás Szekeres, who were at
my disposal several times during the research process. I also thank the students
of the research methods module in social sciences of sport (2014-2017) who par-
ticipated in the data collection process of the research.
I would like to thank for the discussions about article IV in our sparring
group with Professor Sari Pietikäinen, Dr Emanuel da Silva and Dr Antti Laine.
Those encounters enabled me to look at conducting research from a new mind-
set. My sincere thanks go to Dr Paddy Dolan, who hosted me in the Dublin In-
stitute of Technology for a research visit in October 2016. Paddy provided great
guidance for article IV and offered me new insights on figurational sociology.
Warm thanks also go to the Jenny and Antti Wihuri Foundation, who support-
ed the research process with full-time grant for two years.
I am indebted to my friends of the SpoSMaPro class of 2007 (Andrei, Ben,
Brian, Eeva, Juha, Marcel, Pekka and Sandy) who greatly contributed to my ac-
ademic endeavours throughout the process of writing the doctoral dissertation.
Finally, special thanks to my family in Budapest for supporting and en-
couraging me to learn, explore and find my own path.
Jyväskylä 23.10.2017
Mihaly Szerovay