Football in the Nordic Countries (Critical Research in Football)

This book explores football culture, organisation and development in the five Nordic countries: Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Sweden and Norway. These countries represent an important case study in sport culture, policy and management, being shaped by unique traditions in their civil society and in social welfare and public policy.

The first part of the book explores the development path of football in each country, looking at how football arrived in Scandinavia and how it has been transformed from a voluntary civic activity into a professional sport while becoming closely attached to the global football system. The second part highlights key issues – including historical, contemporary and critical aspects – across three themes: professionalisation and changing practices; equality and gender; and supporters, audiences and culture. Written by a team of authors with a blend of experience as academics and practitioners in football, the book traces the contours of the distinctive Nordic model that occupies a prominent position in the global football system.

Shining fascinating new light on the relationship between football and wider society, this is invaluable reading for students and researchers interested in football, sport management, sport policy, or the history, culture or sociology of sport and for anyone involved in the game.

Mihaly Szerovay holds a joint Professor of Practice position at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland, and the Football Association of Finland. Before taking up his current role that focuses on research and development in football, he worked as Senior Lecturer in Football Studies at Solent University, UK. Szerovay’s main research interest lies in the various aspects of sport and globalisation, the professionalisation in the different segments of football, and the changing field of youth sport clubs. Szerovay played football professionally as a goalkeeper in Jyväskylä, Finland.

Arto Nevala is Senior University Lecturer at the University of Eastern Finland. His main topics of research are concerned with the social history of education and sports history. He has published and edited books and articles related to the changes in sports clubs, the development of football and refereeing. Nevala is a former referee in the Finnish Premier League and has also worked as a referee observer and match delegate.

Hannu Itkonen is Professor Emeritus in the Sociology of Sport at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland. His research interests lie in the historical sociology of sport, social control of sport, sports in the civic, public and private sector as well as sport in local and global contexts. He has published books and articles in sport sociology and general sociology as well in social history. Itkonen acted as the president and vice-president (2010–2016) of the European Association for the Sociology of Sport.