THE BEAUTIFUL GAME AND THE AMERICAN EXCEPTION

Some people say that soccer reflects life. Others make a stronger argument: soccer is life. This article asks to what extent soccer is or reflects globalization (or the history of globalization, to be more precise). On one hand, the development of soccer as a global sport over the last two centuries...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International review of modern sociology 2006-10, Vol.32 (2), p.181-197
Main Author: Veseth, Michael
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Basketball
Economic competition
Games
Global Local Relationship
Globalization
Racism
Regional identity
Soccer
Sports
Sports fandom
United States history
United States of America
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Summary:Some people say that soccer reflects life. Others make a stronger argument: soccer is life. This article asks to what extent soccer is or reflects globalization (or the history of globalization, to be more precise). On one hand, the development of soccer as a global sport over the last two centuries does reflect and was driven by the very push-me pull-you forces that produced economic globalization generally. The parallels between global soccer and globalization are as strong as it is possible for historical parallels to be (which is to say, they are strong at a superficial level at least). But there is one exception, of course: the United States, which is arguably central to economic globalization but peripheral to soccer globalization. If globalization is Americanization, as many argue, how can America be the exception to the rise of the most global sport?
ISSN:0973-2047
0970-4841
0973-2047