This book explores football’s evolution from a community-based sport to a global entertainment industry, examining the profound social, economic, cultural, and technological forces reshaping the world’s most popular game.Through interdisciplinary research and critical inquiry, the contributors explore football’s changing landscape across multiple dimensions, from the shifting roles of players, coaches, and referees to the transformation of fans from passionate supporters to global consumers. This book provides fresh perspectives on pressing contemporary issues, including the impact of technologies such as VAR on officiating, the tension between local identity and global commercialisation, and controversial initiatives such as the Super League. Its comprehensive examination of how football’s commercialisation and mediatisation have fundamentally altered the sport’s relationship with communities’ challenges traditional notions of belonging while creating new forms of engagement. Each chapter combines theoretical frameworks with empirical evidence to illuminate the complex interplay between football’s emotional roots and its increasingly business-driven model, offering insights into whether these seemingly opposing forces can coexist in the sport’s future.This book will be useful for academics, researchers, and students interested in sport science, football, the sociology of sport, and sport studies more broadly.
