Dissertation defence within the field of elite football

Bente Ovèdie Skogvang will Friday May 5th 2006, defend her doctoral thesis ”Elite Football – a Field of Changes” for the degree of Doctor Scientiarum at the Norwegian School of Sport Sciences (NSSS), Department of Cultural and Social Studies.

| 20.04.2006

The main research questions asked were:
 
1. How do female and male players in Norwegian football experience each others and their own football practice and performance?
 
2. How do players and coaches in Norwegian elite football experience the increasing commercialisation and professionalisation which has been in elite football the last twenty years?
 

Bente Ovèdie Skogvang was born August 17th 1962 in Tromsø. She belongs to the aboriginal people of Norway (the Samis).  Her higher education consists of educational science (teacher education), bachelor degree from Finnmark University College and Master degree from Norwegian School of Sport Sciences (NSSS). Since 1996 she has been a Ph.D. - student at NSSS.

Beside her educational carreer, she has been a member of the Norwegian Football Association’s Executive Board for six years, and a pioneer as a referee both in Norway and abroad. She is still active as a FIFA-referee and was the first women in the world who refereed an Olympic Final in football in 1996 (USA-China)

Field work in elite clubs
To answer these questions, Skogvang conducted field work in three elite football clubs throughout a year. Observations were done during practices, meetings, and matches and in international championships including the European Championship, World Cup and the Olympics. Based on the observations, in-depth interviews were conducted with 22 players (11 of each sex) and eight coaches.
 
Further, the dissertation gives an overview of the football game’s origins, the history of Norwegian football in an international context, and the development of women’s football in Norway in particular. Pierre Bourdieu`s terms are used as analytic tools.
 
Theories about voluntary work, commercialisation, “professionalisation”, “mediefication”, and gender relations, sexuality, masculinity, and femininity are also central aspects.
 
Big gender differences
Many similarities among men and women were illustrated:
 
- the enjoyment of the game itself
 
- competition
 
- togetherness with the team-mates
 
They consider the game itself as fun because of the tough tackles, the team spirit, the joy of victory, the social network and the friendships it creates.
 
However, there are big gender differences in the development of football: finances available, commercialisation, media attention, and sexuality. Men and women in Norwegian elite football feel both empowered and discriminated.
 
Media and economy creates discrimination
To play football gives status to both men and women when you are a good football player, but it gives highest status to male players and coaches. It brings joy, competitiveness, friendship and good relationships.
 
At the same time the differences in economic support, media attention and attendance in men’s and women’s football is felt to be discriminatory by players and coaches.
 
Sexuality is questioned
The traditional stereotypes of what characterises men’s and women’s sports is supported by the media. When women or men challenge these stereotypes, their sexuality is questioned.
 
One finding is that female players experience that their sexuality is questioned, when they play football. At the same time both players and coaches mean that it is easier to be a lesbian inside some football clubs, but more difficult for men to express their homosexuality. It is not expected that men who play football are gay. The heteronormativity is weakened for lesbians, but not for gays within elite football.
 
Various consequences of increased commercialisation
Both players and coaches reflect both positive and negative consequences of increased commercialisation in Norwegian football. For both females and males, more money into football meant:
 
- better playing and training facilities
 
- full and part-time playing opportunities
 
- coaches and leaders are also paid in women’s football.
 
On the negative side,
 
- there is increased investor and club owner influence on the sporting area
 
- there is less club loyalty among the male players
 
- some male players are overpaid
 
- voluntary work is still necessary, but now it is less valued
 
- sponsors and media decide the football agenda instead of the club, the players and the coaches
 
- female players get less attention and are less financed than male players.
 
The symbiotic relations between media, sponsors and elite football (‘the Sport/Media Complex’) is shown in this study. Positive aspects with it is shown, but at the same time such changes create tensions and conflicts between the voluntary tradition of Norwegian football, the business culture, and the media culture.
 
Smaller clubs discriminated
Several conflicts arise from the incorporation of football and the dichotomy between football and business. This development has created a difference between attractive and non-attractive clubs for the media and for the sponsors.
 
Based on the economy of the club, numbers of spectators, and, media attention, male clubs are split into “big” and “small” clubs where the best clubs have money to buy the best players and get an advantage in the field.
 
The competition is experienced as more unfair. Male players in “small” clubs feel that they are discriminated because the lack of media attention and lack of economic capital.
 
The “big” clubs have the symbolic power in the field which threatens the autonomy on the football field. The ties between football, the media and the sponsors is closest in men’s elite football.
 
Elite football can be assumed to be located closer to the heteronomous pole on men’s side and closest to the autonomous pole on women’s side.
 
During her doctoral work, she has stayed two months at the Sir Norman Chester Centre for Football Research by Senior Lecturer John Williams, at University of Leicester in England.
 
Committee
Professor Finn Olstad  Norwegian School of Sport Sciences (leader)
Professor Per Nilsson  Swedish National board for Youth Affairs
Professor Elin Kvande Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Department of sociology and political science
 
Program (in Norwegian)
10.15-11.00: Football as science: the researcher’s connection to the field of  football and the application of research to the whole field of  football.
13.00-16.00: Dissertation paper followed by the defence.