The Geopolitical Economy of Football Where Power Meets Politics and Business

1. Introduction to the Geopolitical Economy of Football

Simon Chadwick, Paul Widdop and Michael Goldman 

Part I: Global Issues 

2. The Geopolitical Economy of Football: Dense Networks, Complex Decisions

Simon Chadwick and Paul Widdop

3. Will AI Turn the Football World Upside Down?

Sascha L. Schmidt and Daniel Lugner

4. Football Fans: Complacent Cheerleaders Representing Nation States?

Chris Toronyi and Jacqueline Mueller

5. Image Laundering, Sport Washing and Greenwashing In and Through Football

Argyro Elisavet Manoli, Ioannis Konstantopoulos and Georgios A. Antonopoulos

6. Unpacking the Concept of Sportswashing in Elite Men’s Professional Football in England

Leon Davis and Daniel Plumley

7. Athlete Activism in Global Football: Taking the Knee

Laura Bradshaw

8. Environment, Climate Change, and Football

Andy Carmichael

9. How the Ukraine Conflict Affects Russian Football Clubs: The Hostages of Big Politics

Timur Absalyamov and Mathias Schubert

10. Embraced by Gazprom: Why is the Business Model of FC Zenit Unclear to Scholars of Sports Management?

Sergey Altukhov and Veronica Astashkina 

Part II: Women’s Football 

11. Europe and Geopolitical Influences on Women’s Football Finance

Christina Philippou

12. The Paradox of French Women’s Football

Lindsay Sarah Krasnoff 

13. Gender Pay Inequality in African Football: A Pale of Two Halves

Shane Wafer and Nick Flowers

14. Exploring the Intersection of Gender and Class in Space: The Case of New Generation Stadiums in Turkey

İlknur Hacisoftaoğlu and Rahşan İnal 

Part III: Ownership and Investment 

15. Multi-Club Ownership: An Ominous Future

Steve Menary

16. Re-Conceptualising Multi-Club Ownership in Football; A New Definition and Typology of MCO

Michael Anagnostou and Argyro Elisavet Manoli

17. The Development, Structure, and Operations of the City Football Group

Abhishek Khajuria

18. The Benign, Brilliant, and Beautiful Soft Power of Qatar’s Paris Saint-Germain

Thomas Ross Griffin

19. Analyzing Unsuccessful Examples of Gulf Ownership and Investment in European Football

Kristian Coates Ulrichsen

20. Red Bull’s Investment in German Football: A Game Changer for the Bundesliga?

Daniel Ziesche

21. Global Investment and Cultural Traditions

Raymond Boyle and Richard Haynes

22. An Overview of the UK Government’s Fan Led Review of Football Governance

Mark Middling and Christina Philippou

23. The 3P-Model in Global Football: Creating Value by Combining Passion, Profit, and Politics on Multiple Levels

Martin Carlsson-Wall and Kai DeMott 

Part IV: The FIFA World Cup and Tournament Football 

24. Polycentric Football Tournaments

Robert Kaspar

25. A Geopolitical and Economic Analysis of China's Bid for the FIFA World Cup: Going It Alone or Co-hosting

Ren Huitao and Ma Yang

26. FIFA World Cup 2026, Soccer’s North American Sporting Legacy

Vitas Carosella and J. Simon Rofe

27. The USWNT, Nation Branding, Public Diplomacy and the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup: US Against the World

Yoav Dubinsky

28. The Digital Symbolic Legacy of the Russia 2018 FIFA World Cup in Times of ‘Plague’ and War

Vitaly Kazakov

29. The FIFA World Cup Television Broadcasting in Africa through Pay-TV: Shifting Flows

Gerard A. Akindes

30. Colombia's Failure to Host the 1986 FIFA World Cup

Jorge Tovar 

Part V: Business, Society and Culture 

31. Football Consumption, Nostalgia and Soft Power: Definitely Maybe!

Paul Widdop and Simon Chadwick

32. The Great Game of Football Diplomacy: Australia versus Wales

Gavin Price and Stuart Murray

33. Football, Geopolitics, and Digital Technologies: A Dynamic Nexus Shaping Global Dynamics

Samir Ceric and Sanchit Mehra

34. The Supranational Competitive Promise of the Three Seas Initiative in Central Europe

Olivier Jarosz, Konstantin Kornakov, and Adam Metelski

35. Football and Forced Migration: Sicily and The Central Mediterranean Route

Alessio Norrito

Biography

Simon Chadwick is a Professor of Sport and Geopolitical Economy. Over the last three decades, he has worked extensively with some of the most prominent people and organisations in world football, including clubs, governing bodies, tournament organisers, and sponsors.

Paul Widdop is Reader at the University of Manchester, UK. His research explores social and economic networks around the consumption and production of sport. He has published widely in the areas of sport and culture including articles in the Journal of Consumer Culture, Cultural Sociology, Cultural Trends, Electoral Studies, and the Journal of Political Marketing. Widdop serves on the editorial board of several academic journals and is co-founder of the Football Collective, a learned society of academics researching impacts of football on society.

Michael M. Goldman is Professor with the Sport Management Program at the University of San Francisco, USA, while also working with the Gordon Institute of Business Science in South Africa. He works with students, managers, and clients to enhance their abilities to acquire, grow, and retain profitable customers and fans.