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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Detraditionalization, Hyper-consumption and Ambivalence

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During the past 20 years, European football has witnessed an intense change process that has radically transformed some of its main structural characteristics. This process is related to the same tendencies that have affected other aspects of social and economic life in western societies, such as the communication technologies revolution, the progressive rationalization of work, the increase in migration, the commodification of human activity, and the development of social and economic globalization processes, to name a few of the most relevant changes. These trends are usually thought to have had a strong influence on the recent evolution of football, giving rise to a redefinition of its competitive structures (Giulianotti, 1999), the clubs’ transformation into business organizations (Walsh and Giulianotti, 2001; Moor, 2007), the formation of a global market of hyper-professionalized footballers (Lanfranchi and Taylor, 2001), and the general commercialization of the ethos that articulated the modern formation of this sport around values of fun, sport sociability and fair play (Sewart, 1987; Andrews, 2004).