Emergence Of Football Research Articles

Sacralization of Football: Example of Iglesia Maradonia

This study aims to explain the emergence of Iglesia Maradonia, Maradona’s role in this endeavor, and how they become sacred in this quest. In this study, which is based on qualitative paradigms, the method of choice is documentation. In this framework, firstly, the emergence of football and Maradona’s place in football’s history is examined. After that, the quest for Maradona’s sacralization and how he became a cult is observed, and symbols belonging to Iglesia Maradonia are ethnomethodologically analyzed and interpreted. Iglesia Maradonia, Establishe by Maradona fans, is a religious constitution that puts Maradona at its center. Maradona, who is thought to be one the saints of football due to his extraordinary football skills, showcases his charismatic personality not only within the field but also outside of it. When the aforementioned religious/sacred constitution’s character is observed, it could be considered a cult movement. However, when it is looked under the light of the objectivity principle of the social sciences, this religious constitution, being established more recently, seen in not only Argentina but different places in the world, and having Christianity-opposing beliefs and teachings, is more fit to be considered under the New Religious Movements. When the character of this religious constitution is observed, Maradona’s goal against England, called ‘the Hand of God,’ plays a prominent role in shaping the beliefs and practices. Another point brought to light in this study is that, in the post-modern era, individuals or groups can resume their relations with the sacred without the traditional religious constitutions.

The intercultural transfer of football: the contexts of Germany and Argentina

Historians of sport have paid little attention to the ways in which modern sports such as football were transferred from its place of origin to receiving cultures around the globe. While it is recognized that this ball game emerged in nineteenth-century English public schools, little is known about the transformations this game underwent in becoming modern-day German football and modern-day Argentine football. Applying the model of intercultural transfer, my contribution will investigate the process of the transfer of this ball game from English public schools to German and Argentine high schools. The emergence of football and its transfer across the world was carried out by teachers and students and it was part of educational reform since this game offered an alternative to the traditional ways of imposing discipline. Discipline did not come from an outside force such as the teacher but from the rules of the game. This game, further, encouraged team work in order to achieve victory and offered sons of middle-class families an introduction into the mechanisms of the capitalist market. The introduction of soccer into urbanizing cultures was also part of social hygiene debates and many of the protagonists of this game were also involved in social reform debates about improving the quality of living in modern cities.

The Field of Play: Phases and Themes in the Historiography of Pre-1914 Scottish Football

This article follows up on Adrian Harvey's piece ‘The emergence of football in nineteenth-century England: the historiographic debate’ [International Journal of the History of Sport 30, no. 18 (2013): 2154–2163]. It reviews the historiography of Scottish football on the period before the First World War. There is considerable literature on the topic, but it is not by any means evenly distributed to cover Scotland's geography, nor does it give balanced coverage to a wide-enough variety of thematic subjects. The author places this historiography into six broad categories which reflect the audience, research interests and methodology of the pieces, and offers a critical assessment of work still to be done in what is a disparate field.

Why Tennis is a Dying Sport in the U.S.

This paper focuses on an economic approach to why tennis is a dying sport in the U.S. Three main reasons are analyzed. The first reason is the emergence of football and basketball as profitable sports in this country. The second is the nature of tennis itself that lends to its demise in an environment of sports as big business in the U.S. Lastly, tennis is mostly an individual sport and hence doesn’t create profit opportunities for colleges and/or professional leagues. Football and basketball are a major source of revenues for many universities, the NCAA, and professional leagues. Even though it is concentrated on college and professional levels, the effects reverberate all the way down to the earliest recognition of talent in a child. Sport talent is recognized at a younger age now. Children who possess talent or a skill unique to sports start to focus on a sport (or two at the most) at an early age. The nature of football and basketball as team sports necessitates an institution (usually schools) to organize, train, and coach the young athletes. This continues up to college level (at least one year for basketball). The NBA changed the minimum age for draft eligibility to 19 years old in 2005, practically forcing high school basketball players to spend at least one year in college. The second reason tennis is a dying sport in the U.S. is the nature of the sport itself. The skills that are applicable to tennis are eye-hand coordination, being able to run fast, and endurance. These skills are transferable to other sports. Eye-hand coordination is important in baseball, basketball, and golf. Athleticism is central to success in football, basketball, and pretty much any other sports. Since these kinds of skills can be recognized in a child at an early age and football and basketball are profitable sports, the result is that those youths who possess one or more of these skills are encouraged to focus on one of those sports (or, if the eye-hand coordination skill is striking, baseball or golf).The third reason is that tennis is an individual sport. Tennis players peak at a young age and they usually leave school to become professional athletes. This is the complete opposite of football and basketball, which are team sports, and hence require organization and coaching (at the very least for players to play as a team). Hence, tennis provides few, if any, opportunities for colleges or universities to profit off of it. In fact, it is one of the sport programs that incur costs but not revenues to a higher educational institution.In this paper, I provide a qualitative analysis on each of the aforementioned causes of the dying of tennis, supported by data and interviews with coaches and tennis players. I hope that this paper can contribute to the discussion on tennis as a dying sport and help explain the intricate, and sometimes unclear, relationship among sports. My hope is to also try to explain the effects of the emergence of football and basketball as big business on other sports.