City Football Club Research Articles

Combining crystallisation and creative non-fiction to develop new insights on the politically astute use of humour in sports coaching

ABSTRACT Through adopting a crystallisation approach, this paper provides original insights into the ways in which players and coaches used humour to astutely navigate the everyday challenges and opportunities of organisational life at Senghenydd City Football Club (pseudonym). Specifically, we revisited and re-analysed a previously existing ethnographic data set that focused on the use of humour in a semi-professional football club. Our analytical efforts were inspired by Ellingson’s (2009) four stage typology of ‘crystallisation’. This allowed us to generate new insights and different interpretations of a particular phenomenon (i.e. humour). Complementary dramaturgical and micropolitical concepts regarding the presentation of the self, protective and defensive acts, and the management of emotion, were employed to facilitate the iterative analysis that was undertaken. The findings are presented through creative non-fiction in the format of composite vignettes. The composite vignettes illustrate how humour was variously used as a defensive (for the self) and protective (for the other) strategy for dealing with numerous interactive challenges in the workplace, as well as how emotion such as embarrassment, anger, and frustration were inextricable features of these interactions. The paper concludes with a reflexive discussion on a) the social-cultural role of humour and the need for sport coaches, athletes, sports administrators to be more aware of how they develop, advance and deploy their social competencies (e.g. humour) to juggle the demands of their job; and b) the utility of using composite vignettes as a valuable means for critical reflection on the interactive and micropolitically challenging features of coaching practice.

Analysis of the Playing Technique Skills of the English Manchester City Football Club in Winning the UEFA Champions League Title For the 2022-2023 Season

Analysis of the Playing Technique Skills of the English Manchester City Football Club in Winning the UEFA Champions League Title For the 2022-2023 Season

Making the football stadium homely: Manchester City's relocation from Maine road to the Etihad

Much geographical literature concerning home focuses on its emotional potency. This paper explores how football supporters consider their club's stadium as a ‘home’. However, this sense of homeliness can evaporate when clubs relocate to new stadia, rupturing matchday routines and feelings of belonging. This is exemplified by the relocation of Manchester City Football Club from their former home ground Maine Road to the Etihad Stadium in 2003, leaving many longstanding supporters disoriented and bereft. We explore how in response, the club have sought to make the Etihad feel more homely through three key approaches: foregrounding continuities through generating nostalgia and heritage, acknowledging fan cultures and promoting interactivity. More broadly, the paper contributes to expansive and relational understandings of home, demonstrating how feelings of homeliness can extend beyond a single site as football fans move through the spaces surrounding a football stadium.

Networks, strategy and sport: the case of City Football Group

PurposeThis study examines the networks and strategy of Manchester City Football Club and City Football Group, central to the group's emergence as a global entertainment organisation with a network of franchises worldwide.Design/methodology/approachThe study employs a case study design to examine both Manchester City Football Club and City Football Group (CFG)'s strategy. Drawing upon an extensive review of documentation pertaining to CFG's strategic vision and approach, a network analysis of the brand's constituent clubs, partners and state- and corporate-investors was conducted, providing a macro-level view of CFG's use of global franchising, media partnerships and commercial agreements to extend CFG and the City brand internationally.FindingsThe study's findings afford a unique insight into CFG's efforts to monetise and globalise through franchising, which provides insights into the convergence in sport of politics, entertainment and business. Namely, how the global strategy enacted by CFG and the Abu Dhabi government (its owner) has leveraged sporting properties successfully. In turn, it extends their geopolitical and economic networks and grows the parent City brand as a global entity.Research limitations/implicationsThe study's findings afford a unique insight into CFG's efforts to monetise and globalise through franchising. Namely, the global strategy enacted by CFG and the Abu Dhabi royal family (its owner) has leveraged sporting properties successfully. In turn, it extends their geopolitical and economic networks and grows the parent City brand as a global entity.Originality/valueThe research represents an important step in examining the strategy of football club ownership and global club networks within sport. In this respect, the present research provides a new way to understand sport in a globalised, digitised and geopoliticised operating environment.

Marketing With Purpose: Building Upon Momentum in the Angel City

The growth of women’s sports, specifically women’s soccer through the National Women’s Soccer League, creates a contemporary landscape through which students explore the relationship between revenue-driving and community-based marketing strategies. Drawing upon the realistic case of Angel City Football Club, a National Women’s Soccer League expansion franchise in Los Angeles, students will study and discuss the role of a socially responsible team position, analyze and create target market segmentation strategies, generate sponsorship partner recommendations, and create a social media campaign for this growing women’s professional sport in one of the United States’ most diverse and sport-crazed cities.

Humour, agency and the [re]negotiation of social order within workplace settings

ABSTRACT The purpose of this paper was to explore the role and function of humour within sports coaching from a symbolic interactionist perspective. This was particularly in light of the structure of humour and how its resulting [inter]actions prevented as well as facilitated the advancement of individual agency. Data were gathered from a ten-month ethnographic study that traced the players and coaches of Senghenydd City Football Club (pseudonym) over the course of a competitive season). Exact methods of data collection included participant observation, reflective field notes, and ethnographic film. The results describe the presence of humour’s idiosyncratic nature (e.g., soft, hard, and aberrant), particularly in relation to how coaches and players influenced the negotiated order to which others had, to greater or lesser extents, comply. a reflective conclusion illustrates how concepts such as humour are entwined in everyday life, and thus contribute to the construction and negotiation of contexts, like coaching, .

Brian D Hore

Brian D Hore was born on 21 September 1937 and died on 26 July 2020. The intervening 82 years were incredibly full. He directly gave hope, and successful treatment, to...

Exploring children’s reactions to sponsorship transition: a study of interpersonal and pro-social demands

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to evaluate children’s perceptions and attitudes towards sponsorship transition, specifically the change from Nike to PUMA as kit sponsors for Manchester City Football Club (MCFC) in July 2019.Design/methodology/approachA sample of 368 children, between 7 and 16 years of age were recruited for the study. Using electronic diaries, 1,577 diary entries were captured between February 2019 and March 2020.FindingsData reveals that children conceptualise sponsorship as a social exchange, with sponsoring brands seen as human entities and interaction with them reflecting the dynamism of social and familial relationships. Consequently, children in this study demanded prosocial and interpersonal behaviours from sponsors and sponsee during the transition period.Research limitations/implicationsThe research has an immediate and direct application for brand managers and the sponsee when considering terminating long-term sponsorship. Both the departing and incoming sponsors can maximise their relationships with these younger fans through an orchestrated departure, arrival and dedicated handover.Practical implicationsThe findings enable marketing brand managers to effectively evaluate sponsor transition to maximise opportunities to maintain, and indeed start, brand relationships with younger fans.Originality/valueThis is the first study that has examined sponsorship children’s responses to sponsorship transition.

Establishing women in sports history: Manchester City football club

ABSTRACT This paper provides an overview of an oral history project focusing on the experiences of female footballers, in particular those playing for Manchester City Women since its formation as a community initiative in 1988, through to its modern-day position as a leading Women's Super League club. It discusses the development of the project, analysis of the methodology employed and provides high-level findings on the club's history, the participants and the research process. For too long female participation, even at England's most famous clubs, has not been widely recognised, reported on or understood. This project, supported by a professional football club, begins to address these omissions. It does so by focusing on personal testimonies, together with archive material to generate an historical account of how a team, established as a community initiative, developed into a major trophy-winning club.

Applying UEFA Financial Fair Play Rules and Improving the Financial Stability of Football Clubs Illustrated by the Example of Manchester City FC

This article considers the financial monitoring of football clubs under UEFA Financial Fair Play (FFP) regulations. The aim of the paper is to study the current system for assessing the financial stability of football clubs and propose measures for its practical application. The work is relevant due to a wide range of financial challenges in modern football and supported by a detailed analysis of a recent case of Manchester City football club accused of breaching FFP. Studying the main allegations against the club, the author analyzed the basic concepts of FFP, breaches of other clubs and sanctions imposed on them, with emphasis on the experience of Russian clubs. The analysis illustrated the role of UEFA and football clubs with regards to FFP implementation, considering a specific case. The author estimated the potential Losses of Manchester City due to the Champions League ban, and, in addition, the total losses due to the English Premier League suspension amid coronavirus threat. Using FFP criteria, the author analyzed the financial stability of Manchester City and Russian football club CSKA Moscow and identified similar problems for the clubs. The author outlined recommendations for UEFA rules compliance and presented a system of indicators that help to regularly monitor and manage the longterm financial stability of football clubs. The findings of the paper may find application in the field of other team sports.

‘Many details remain sketchy’: revealing the ‘truth’ behind the origins and formation of Stoke City Football Club

ABSTRACTThe history of sport is afflicted by myths that have become entrenched in our collective knowledge and are widely perceived as being the ‘truth’ with many having acquired a power and resilience that has allowed them to endure and persist, quite often despite academic research to the contrary. This paper considers the traditional narratives that present Stoke City Football Club as being the second oldest surviving professional football club in England, having supposedly been established in 1863, a suggestion that was heavily promoted through the official club website and various media outlets. It assesses how this myth has become entrenched and provides evidence that drastically alters our analysis of how the club developed. The findings of the paper, especially in relation to the ‘origins of football’ debate, also challenge the long-held views of how football in the region developed during the nineteenth century.

Man City FC and Xylem deliver clean water in Bangalore

Manchester City Football Club has teamed up with official water technology partner Xylem for a second year to build two new sustainable clean water towers in Bangalore, India with the help of fan volunteers (see Pump Industry Analyst, February 2019).

Man City FC and Xylem deliver clean water in Bangalore

Manchester City Football Club has teamed up with official water technology partner Xylem for a second year to build two new sustainable clean water towers in Bangalore, India with the help of fan volunteers (see Pump Industry Analyst , February 2019).

Xylem supports Manchester City's Cityzens Giving safe water project

Xylem Inc is partnering with Manchester City Football Club's Cityzens Giving annual charitable campaign which helps young leaders around the world change lives through football.

Xylem supports Manchester City's Cityzens Giving safe water project

Xylem Inc is partnering with Manchester City Football Club's Cityzens Giving annual charitable campaign which helps young leaders around the world change lives through football.

Colour in urban places: A case study of Leicester City Football Club blue

AbstractBy communicating an integrated story, the Leicester City Football Club blue inherits and persists the history and legacy of the football club, which further provides a stable and consistent meaning for the local sports culture. Colour as a medium and agency creates an intimacy and loyalty between the different ethnic and social groups across local, regional, and global contexts. The case study demonstrated that colour could give place identity through branding practice, identity mediation, and visual culture formation. The process reflected that economic and cultural force had a large impact on place‐making, and could be the decisive influence upon colour symbolism.

Man City stars kick off Xylem's ‘Closer Than You Think’ campaign

Manchester City Football Club and Xylem have teamed up to launch the ‘Closer Than You Think’ campaign to drive awareness of urgent water challenges among millions of football fans around the world.

Man City stars kick off Xylem's ‘Closer Than You Think’ campaign

Manchester City Football Club and Xylem have teamed up to launch the ‘Closer Than You Think’ campaign to drive awareness of urgent water challenges among millions of football fans around the world.

Xylem and Man City FC deliver clean water to communities in Bangalore

Xylem has partnered with current Premier League Champions Manchester City Football Club to deliver clean water towers, WASH education, and sports and leadership training to communities in Bangalore, India.

Xylem and Man City FC deliver clean water in Bangalore

Xylem has partnered with current Premier League Champions Manchester City Football Club to deliver clean water towers, WASH education, and sports and leadership training to communities in Bangalore, India.