What I've Learned

When I was asked to formulate a research project for this summer, and when I decided to come to Europe and the Euro Cup, I knew I wanted to look at how the world of sports –especially football – interacts with the world of politics, social movements, and economic factors. I have read numerous books and articles on the subject, and wanted to see for myself how much of it held true and if there were other areas where the two subjects crossed over.

My initial plan was to start small and look at one particular issue: how European Union integration has affected the movement of players between countries and leagues, and examine who has benefited and who has been hurt from the changes in labor and economic regulations created by the process of international economic integration.

I also wanted to look at how this player movement has impacted international play and how fans perceive their club teams as they become increasingly internationalized, or, conversely, how they perceive their national clubs when players are dispersed across the continent.

But over the course of the past seven weeks, I have come across a wealth of other stories about how football mimics the world’s social and political movements, and also how the world’s social and political movements have mimicked the football world.

When I speak to fans about what I’m doing, they tend to open up and spill their hearts about how they have seen the two spheres interact. Never once has a conversation stayed on my topic for more than a few minutes, and I have come to learn that if I am to understand more about the sport and what there is to see in it, I have to be willing to hear all sides of the dialogue.

In an effort to keep track of all that I have witnessed, I began to write down what I was seeing. The point of this blog is to share what I have seen and heard and what I’ve learned. It will start how I started – with player movement – but, like my project, will branch out into the broader world of football and politics.