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York academics launch ‘Soccer Mad Boffins’ blog site

York academics launch ‘Soccer Mad Boffins’ blog site

Posted on 10 June 2014

Two University of York academics have launched a blog to coincide with the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, providing a platform for publicising football related research and discussion.

The post-war years were a golden era for British football which led to England becoming hosts of the 1966 FIFA World Cup. Photo from the 1950s.

Dr Alex Gillett and Dr Kevin Tennent, from the University’s York Management School, are carrying out a pioneering study of the management history of the 1966 FIFA World Cup, investigating the tournament’s impact on local and national economic development, as well as its role in the development of the tournament up to the present.

The one-year study, which has been awarded a João Havelange Scholarship by the sports’ governing body FIFA and the Centre International d’Etude du Sport in Switzerland, will draw parallels to other world cups, including the 2014 World Cup. The study aims to add to the debates around the hosting of major sporting events and their wider impacts on business, the economy and society.

Business historian Dr Tennent said: “Our main aim is to investigate the impact of the 1966 tournament on local and national economic development. In many ways, Harold Wilson’s modernisation of the British economy serves as a parallel to the FIFA 2014 World Cup in Brazil, where there are hopes that hosting the finals will contribute to Brazil’s emergence as a global economic power.”

In their first entry on the ‘Soccer Mad Boffins’ blog site, the York academics say the game and its governing bodies could do well to heed the lessons of history.

Dr Tennent said: “Football is never far from the headlines at the moment thanks to this year’s FIFA World Cup tournament in Brazil, and controversies surrounding the 2018 and 2022 competitions, to be hosted by Russia and Qatar respectively. But such controversies over the organisation of sports tournaments with international participation are not new for the sport.

“The 1966 tournament controversially saw government funding given to the World Cup for the first time, with houses demolished in Liverpool to make way for an extension to Goodison Park and new stands and facilities added to stadiums elsewhere. Local governments also enthusiastically supported the cup as it represented an opportunity to put regional centres such as Birmingham, Sheffield and Middlesbrough on the map.

“Yet the legacy of the tournament both in footballing and economic terms is unclear, with the England national team and the popularity and image of the game declining in England during the subsequent decade, while centres such as Teesside saw economic stagnation rather than regeneration. The footballing legacy of the tournament in Qatar seems dubious, with the country currently ranked 100 in the FIFA rankings and a population of just over two million unlikely to support the development of, or further investment in, a competitive national league.”

Dr Gillett, a lecturer in Marketing, said: “We are told that we live in an increasingly globalised society, but as new ‘markets’ open up – or are opened – by industries including sport, the financial stakes as well as expectations, are raised. This means that problems are closely scrutinised. In 1966 questions were asked in parliament about government funding being awarded to the tournament – but this laid down the precedent that events such as the World Cup were to be subject to government support and patronage.

“More recently, the headlines and media reports surrounding the Qatar bid to host the FIFA World Cup have been even more extreme, alleging high-level complicity in the ‘buying’ of the World Cup for the purposes of national prestige. Perhaps sport has never before been quite so under the microscope in terms of its accountability and transparency. The question is, how will its governing bodies adapt?”

The Soccer Mad Boffins blog site is at: http://soccermadboffins.blogspot.co.uk/