Nordic football: local and global impact, influences and images

Abstract

Twelve years ago, in 2009, the special issue ‘Football in Scandinavia: a fusion of welfare policy and the market’ was published in Soccer and Society, vol 10, no. 3–4. The contributors to this collection presented and analysed football in Scandinavian/Nordic as an amalgam of voluntarism and commercialism with historical roots in the development of the welfare state so often associated with the post-war development of Nordic societies. In an international comparison, the Nordic countries have supported amateurism longer than most nations. Notwithstanding a substantial position in voluntarism, the normative structure and the organization of Scandinavian football have faced an increasing professionalization and commercialization in the wake of the mounting globalization of football. In this respect, we have observed a process of transition, in which elements of idealism as well as commercialism can be traced. This process has focused on aspects that stand out as central to the present agenda in the discourse of the European Union and the UEFA. By capturing football both as ‘business’ and ‘culture’, with a special focus on ‘social cohesion’ and ‘the social significance of sport’, the 2009 issue created fertile soil for reflecting upon the future of football in relation to morality, economy, culture, regulation and organization. While the former issue covered Scandinavia only, this issue takes a geographical departure in Nordic football, which includes Iceland and Finland, in addition to Denmark, Norway and Sweden, the Scandinavian-language-speaking-countries. During the years since 2009, a few significant changes have evolved in Nordic football. For instance, Finland as well as Iceland have increasingly developed and exported players to the European football leagues, while their national teams – male and female – have moved from the periphery to be able to compete in different international tournaments. Conversely, at the club level, Swedish women’s football has fallen from being ‘the best in the world’ to a position in the semiperiphery. Thus, from having Marta and other celebrated international players in the national league, Scandinavian women star-players choose to make a career in the new and financially more attractive clubs in Europe, such as Chelsea, Manchester City and Paris St Germain. The previous Nordic dominance of Rosenborg BK men’s club football has faded, although Norwegian football continues to be dominated by teams from small towns – Rosenborg, Molde and Bodø/Glimt – teams still capable of producing international results. The fact that Norwegian clubs, with their northern location, have been able to compete with their southern Scandinavian competitors may be partially understood with reference to a stronger scientification of football. However, the power centre of Scandinavian football has in recent years undoubtedly moved south in the form of a competition between two big city teams, Malmö FF and FC Copenhagen. The character of the Swedish national men’s team has changed from being founded on collective strength and virtue, to harbour and adapt to a superstar, at the top of his career. The fan culture in Swedish men’s football has mushroomed in recent years both in size and in terms of expressions. However, this rapid increase and cultural strength within the Swedish fan