Jimmy O'Gorman

Jamie Cleland

Tom Webb

Mike Rayner

This book explores issues related to the abuse of referees and match officials in sport. Drawing on original empirical research in football, rugby union, rugby league and cricket, it provides an insight into the complexities involved in the recruitment, retention and development processes of match officials from across the global sports industry. Using an evidence-based approach, the book examines why abuse occurs, the operational environments in which match officials operate, and underlying issues and trends that cut across sports and therefore can be linked to wider societal trends. It challenges global sport policy and discusses the development of an inclusive, cohesive and facilitative environment for match officials, players, coaches and spectators to ensure the future provision of global sport. Referees, Match Officials and Abuse is an invaluable resource for all students, scholars and national governing bodies of sport with an interest in match officials, sports governance, sport policy, sport management and the sociology of sport.

Research and Implications for Policy

Referees, Match Officials and Abuse

Ellis Cashmore

Association football is the richest, most popular sport in history with a multicultural global following encompassing all religions. It is also riven with corruption, racism, homophobia and a violence that has for decades resisted all attempts to tame it. It is this Janus-faced quality that makes football so thrilling. Countless books have focused on the visibly glamorous, wholesome and admirable aspects of the sport. Cashmore and Cleland, by contrast, examine the unpleasant, sleazy and downright nasty aspects – football's dark side. Their approach is not to pontificate or judge, but to express the views of thousands of football fans on the game they love, but which they know has an unpleasant underside. Using their innovative topfan.co.uk research platform, Cashmore and Cleland have interviewed thousands of fans to present a matchless account of football from a new perspective. This is how fans view football's dark side. topfan.co.uk facebook.com/topfanproject @elliscashmore / @drjamiecleland

Racism, Homophobia, Drugs and Violence in the Beautiful Game

Football's Dark Side: Corruption, Homophobia, Violence and Racism in the Beautiful Game

Jamie (Lancaster University Cleland, United Kingdom)

Eric Anderson

Rory Magrath

Over the past two decades there has been a rapid transformation of masculinities in the West, largely facilitated by a decline in cultural homophobia. The significant changes in the expression of masculinity, particularly among younger generations of men, have been particularly evident in men’s team sports, which have become an increasingly diverse and inclusive culture. Drawing upon work from a wide range of established and emerging international scholars, this handbook provides a comprehensive and interdisciplinary analysis of the contemporary relationship between masculinity and sport. It covers a range of areas including history, media, gender, sexuality, race, violence, and fandom, considering how they impact a range of different sports across the world. Students and scholars across many disciplines will find the unparalleled overview provided by these specially commissioned chapters an invaluable resource.

The Palgrave Handbook of Masculinity and Sport

Kevin Dixon

Screens have been with us since the eighteenth century, though we became accustomed to staring at them only after the appearance of film and television in the twentieth century. But there was nothing in film or TV that prepared us for the revolution wrought by the combination of screens and the internet. Society has been transformed and this book asks how and with what consequences? Screen Society’s conclusions are based on an original research project conducted by scholars in the UK and Australia. The researchers designed their own research platform and elicited the thoughts and opinions of nearly 2000 participants, to draw together insights of today’s society as seen by users of smartphones, tablets and computers – what the authors call Screenagers. The book issues challenges to accepted wisdom on many of the so-called problems associated with our persistent use of screen devices, including screen addiction, trolling, gaming and gambling.

Screen Society

Paul Widdop

Mark Doidge

Peter Millward

This book draws upon a relational sociological paradigm to explore the processes of collective action in football fandom across Europe and the UK. Through a range of case studies, the authors address pertinent themes in football fandom, including anti-discrimination, ‘home,’ ticketing, name changes, ‘ownership,’ and broader leftist politics. Each of these case studies engages with the theoretical framework of cultural relational sociology, highlighting the different social and cultural changes English and European football has undergone, often over a very short period of time.

A Relational Sociological Approach

Collective Action and Football Fandom

Jamie Cleland

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