Sport, Difference and Belonging by James Rosbrook-Thompson

Author:James Rosbrook-Thompson [Rosbrook-Thompson, James]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, General, Ethnic Studies, Sociology
ISBN: 9780415626552
Google: xKk4RMHf3dwC
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2013-01-15T03:41:53+00:00

Oldfield United FC: the players

Of the 69 players registered for the 2008/09 season, 58 per cent were in current employment, 11 per cent were in full-time education, while the remaining 31 per cent were unemployed. A number of those currently employed worked in coaching/sports development or held low-level positions in the service industry (in retail or sales). Many of the former were employed by Bridgegate Council or were used as casual labour by local youth football clubs, with most admitting that their recruitment was down to their status as a ‘semi-professional footballer'. In this way, though the club hadn't the means to remunerate players for their labour, being ‘semi-pro' conferred a social dividend which some converted into economic gain. However, as the neighbourhood sports centre, which acted as the hub for local sports development, was currently being privatised, a number of players had been forced into competition with one another for a reduced number of coaching and sports development jobs. Of those in gainful employment most worked either cash-in-hand jobs or were party to rolling, short-term and/or parttime contracts; since leaving the education system at 16, 18 or 21 many had known little other than working on an insecure, ‘permanently temporary' basis, and as such were members of what Wacquant (2008; 2009) has called the ‘precariat'-though the players opted to call themselves ‘casuals'. The majority enrolled at college and university were studying sports- or leisure-related subjects, such as leisure and tourism and sports management.

Ninety-four per cent of players lived within Bridgegate or neighbouring boroughs. Sixty-nine per cent lived in council-owned accommodation, of which 78 per cent resided with parents. The other 31 per cent, those living in privately owned accommodation, did so exclusively with parents; no player who had left home had subsequently bought a flat or house of his own. This was unsurprising given that the average age of squad members was just 21.

Players travelled to and from matches in a motley cortege of cars. The advent of satellite navigation meant some were prone to break ranks while others blazed a manual trail, using maps or their own initiative. Indeed, the lack of a team minibus rendered the few players possessing a driving licence and their own car difficult to omit from the squad. Unlike other teams in the division, club rules did not oblige players to wear formal dress – i.e. trousers, shirt and tie – to matches; most preferred the comfort of sportswear, and so arrived at matches showcasing an array of hats, headsets and other oversized accoutrements. Players' girlfriends and fiancés seldom made the trip to away matches. However, when the club had a home fixture on a Saturday afternoon one or two girls in their late teens or early twenties might appear alongside regulars in the crowd; they had invariably met a player on a night out and subsequently been invited to attend a match the following Saturday (and in some instances the following day). The player often regretted this offer. A round of virile

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