What are the social consequences of the commercialisation of football?

Is your local club ground half empty because everyone is watching the Premier League on TV? Or perhaps you are a local Liverpool FC fan, but cannot ever a ticket? Dr David Webber has been examining these struggles, dedicating much of his academic career to working out why it is happening and what we can do about it.

David postulates that football has become so commercialised that most of us are unable to imagine an alternative that would curb profit-seeking behaviour and restore some social value back into the game. Such an idea would mean the sports industry is not immune from the cautions of Mark Fisher and the concept of ‘Capitalist Realism’, work that David draws upon.

In this episode, we discuss the forces that currently see sports teams leveraged to the nth degree for their commercial brand value. We also talk about how this process erodes the social connections and authenticity of the communities.

Fortunately, David does not believe that all is lost. We discuss some more fundamental and drastic solutions that would bring back some community value and make football more democratic and even more competitive.