{"title":"Football, Place and Migration: Foreign Footballers in the FA Premier League","authors":"D. Storey","doi":"10.1080/00167487.2011.12094315","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"The connections between sport and geography are many and varied. This article explores one facet of this focusing on the increasing number of foreign-born players in football’s Premier League in England. In recent years the league has seen a sizeable influx of players from outside Britain and \nIreland, a reflection of an increasingly commercialised game with a global reach. From data on players’ places of birth the internationalisation of the game in England is \nreadily apparent, though distinct spatial patterns are clearly evident. However, as the article shows, when \ninformation on where players are purchased from is taken into account it becomes clear that the Premier League is more limited in its global reach, with the majority of foreign imports being signed from just six western European countries. The flows of migrant footballers appear to be shaped by various networks and channelled through specific \nroutes.","PeriodicalId":46568,"journal":{"name":"Geography","volume":"96 1","pages":"86-94"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1000,"publicationDate":"2011-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/00167487.2011.12094315","citationCount":"18","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Geography","FirstCategoryId":"89","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00167487.2011.12094315","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"GEOGRAPHY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 18
Abstract
The connections between sport and geography are many and varied. This article explores one facet of this focusing on the increasing number of foreign-born players in football’s Premier League in England. In recent years the league has seen a sizeable influx of players from outside Britain and
Ireland, a reflection of an increasingly commercialised game with a global reach. From data on players’ places of birth the internationalisation of the game in England is
readily apparent, though distinct spatial patterns are clearly evident. However, as the article shows, when
information on where players are purchased from is taken into account it becomes clear that the Premier League is more limited in its global reach, with the majority of foreign imports being signed from just six western European countries. The flows of migrant footballers appear to be shaped by various networks and channelled through specific
routes.