The UK Football Industry and Sustainability
Researchers: Heledd Jenkins and Dr Andrea Collins
Football is the most popular sport in the world. The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) estimates that there are some 500,000 individuals who actively engage in the sport and more than 26 billion supporters’ world wide. Football has a significant economic impact, in the past decades professional football has been transformed into a world wide business with huge investment from wealthy individuals and firms. Major football clubs are now complex businesses, intrinsically concerned with financial matters. Large clubs have been transformed into highly profitable sellers of leisure related product lines (such as fashion and home ware), as well as providing financial products such as credit cards and insurance. Income from television deals and sponsorship has changed the world of football, with players commanding huge transfer fees.
As well as having significant economic impacts, the sport has many social and environmental sustainability impacts. This project aims to investigate how the UK Football Industry is currently engaging with issues of social and environmental sustainability.
