Relative age effect in elite sports: Methodological bias or real discrimination?

Abstract

Sport science researchers refer to a relative age effect when they observe a biased distribution of elite athletes' birth dates, with an over-representation of those born at the beginning of the competitive year and an under-representation of those born at the end. Based on the complete sample of French male licensed soccer players (n=1,831,524), we suggest that there could be an important bias in the statistical test of this effect. This bias could in turn lead to the false conclusion of systemic discrimination in the recruitment of professional players. Our findings question the accuracy of previous research on the existence of this effect in elite soccer.     

‘True fan = watch match’? In search of the ‘Authentic’ soccer fan

Academics have created typologies to divide association football (soccer) fans into categories based upon the ‘authenticity’ of their fandom practices. One of the main requirements of ‘authentic’ fandom has been assumed to be match attendance. The goal of this paper was to critically assess this assumption by considering how fans themselves talk about the significance of match attendance as evidence of ‘authentic’ fandom. In the light of the fact that the voices of English non-league fans on the ‘authenticity’ debate have so far been overshadowed by the overbearing focus of much previous research on the upper echelons of English soccer, an e-survey was conducted with 151 members of an online community of fans of English Northern League (NL) clubs (a semi-professional / amateur league based in North East England). Findings revealed that opinion was divided on the constituents of ‘authentic’ fandom and match attendance was not deemed to be the core evidence of support for a club by 42% of the sample. Elias (1978) suggested that dichotomous thinking hinders sociological understanding and it is concluded that fan typologies are not sufficient for assessing the ‘authenticity’ of fan activities.     

‘Here,we are all equal!’: soccer viewing centres and the transformation of age social relations among fans in South-Western Nigeria

The spread of soccer viewing centres (SVCs) in Nigeria is one of the unfolding legacies of global sporting media in Africa. While, providing access to live broadcast of European soccer competitions, SVCs have developed into supplementary social spaces where culturally defined rules of social relations are contested. Using Goffman's notion of performance and Agbalagba in Yoruba normative system, in conjunction with sociological perspective on space, the study explores the context and processes in the transformation of age social relations in Ibadan, South-Western Nigeria. Data were obtained through participant observation, and 23 in-depth interviews with viewing centre owners and soccer fans. Findings depict the SVC as a constructed space, with conflicting meanings, attitudes and practices, which inadvertently fracture and render fluid, the expectations of norms of age social relations. In conclusion, European soccer drives the spread of supplementary social spaces which impact local social structures in critical ways.     

Traditional and mediatized soccer fanship: the case of Indonesian Juventus’ supporters

Sports fanship in the contemporary era is increasingly emerging in the virtual space represented by social networks, forums and blogs. This aspect, correlated with the globalization of TV sports broadcasting, conveys a rupture of the traditional fanship connotations, often related to the geographic-familiar context and the local identity, as a primary form of sympathy between a club and its supporters. A relevant aspect of the globalized forms of fanship is represented by groups of supporters who are using the technological communication networks to create original forms of support, which are, in the case of Indonesian Juventus’s supporters, an imitation of the local practices, as chants and banners that characterize the stadium terraces. This article analyses the Indonesian fanship for the Italian football club Juventus which is explicative of the dynamics between local and global, traditional and mediatized forms of fanship and their expressions.     

The decline of the ‘Soccer-Nation’: journalism,soccer and national identity in the 2002 World Cup

This essay analyses the media narrative in the coverage of the Brazilian team during the 2002 World Cup. The corpus of our work is concentrated on the sports supplements of Jornal do Brasil during the 2002 World Cup from two days before the event until two days after its end, reaching the total of 32 supplements. We focus on the hypothesis that the qualification ‘Brazil: the soccer country’, usually even more intense and singular during this worldwide event, has been decreasing and the journalistic narratives about the Brazilian soccer team do not approach soccer homogeneously as a metonym for the nation. The reflection about the role of the sports press as cultural builder is fundamental to observe how newspapers confirm and construct mythologies and identitary discourses, in spite of the journalistic objectivity, one of the pillars of the profession.     

Movement profiles of elite women soccer players during international matches and the effect of opposition’s team ranking

Abstract

Movement patterns in elite men’s soccer have been reported in depth, but less research exists for women’s soccer. Aims of the study were to identify the movement profiles of elite women soccer players in international competition and examine the effect the level of opposition, based on Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) rankings, had on the physical demands of the game. MinimaxX athlete tracking devices were used by 15 players during 13 international matches against opponent teams of varying ability. Total distance covered averaged 9292 ± 175 m. There was a decrease in high-intensity running (HIR) in the 60- to 75-min and 75- to 90-min periods compared to the 0- to 15-min period of 22.4% and 26.1%, respectively (P = 0.022, P = 0.004) although sprint distances remained unchanged across game periods. HIR distances covered were significantly greater for midfielders versus defenders, while defenders had lower sprinting compared to both midfielders and attackers. Stronger opponents elicited less HIR and greater low-speed activity (LSA) compared to playing teams of similar or lower ranking. These results are important to coaches to prepare players for international competition and show the differing demands required depending on the ability of the opponents.     

‘The influence of overseas coaching and management on the occupational subculture of English professional soccer: views from the dugout’

It is generally acknowledged that expatriate British players and coaches were instrumental in soccer’s radiant global diffusion and that different technical and tactical emphases developed according to particular geographical locations and cultural milieu. As the twentieth century unfolded, the trend reversed with increased inward flows of elite foreign playing and coaching labour challenging the distinctive and erstwhile dominant occupational culture of the English game. This paper explores the dynamics and tensions of subcultural modification and adaptation at the British: migrant coaching talent interface. Owing to issues associated with access, the occupational subculture of elite-level football is impenetrable to most researchers. Previous employment in professional soccer allowed this author to overcome such impediments, permitting access to a range of high-status national and international players and coaches (n = 25) affecting and affected by occupational subcultural change. This enabled a distinctive research platform combining insider knowledge and grounded experience with academic orthodoxy. The paper is built upon primary data collected in semi-structured interviews and critical analysis of emerging themes. In doing so, it offers a fresh dimension to understanding the impact of globalization on elite professional English soccer. Key findings indicated the opinion of British coaches on the impact of this foreign influx polarized. Although many demonstrated an enlightened standpoint, adopting innovative practices introduced by overseas coaching talent, these views were counter-balanced by evidence of a myopic arrogance bordering on xenophobic resistance to change in what now has to be considered the global rather than the ‘English’ game.     

An ‘Absence of Option’: investigating the historical limits to indigenous Australian soccer participation

In the annals of Australian soccer, Indigenous players are rare. They are hard to find in soccer’s past and they do not represent a sizeable grouping in the contemporary game. Given the contribution of Indigenous athletes to other sports, this is to be lamented. Yet, the Indigenous presence in Australian Soccer should not be underestimated. Five Aboriginal Socceroos and eight Matildas is a small but significant number. And there were periods and places in which Aboriginal participation was relatively high. The game’s future is inexorably bound with the need to understand this marginal past in order to embrace and nurture Indigenous football talent.     

Coaches’ implicit associations between size and giftedness: implications for the relative age effect

The relative age effect (RAE) is a well-established phenomenon in education and sports. Coaches have been assumed to be important social agents of RAE via biased selection decisions in favour of children with maturation advantages. In the present research, we used the Implicit Association Test to investigate automatic associations between body size and a player’s domain-specific giftedness amongst youth baseball (N = 18) and youth soccer coaches (N = 34). We found medium to strong automatic associations between body size and player giftedness (baseball: M_D = 0.62; soccer: M_D = 0.51). Specifically, taller players were associated with positive performance-related attributes, whereas smaller players were associated with negative attributes. The results are in line with theories of grounded cognition by showing that the abstract concept of “sport giftedness” is partly grounded in the perception of physical height amongst youth sports coaches. We argue that this grounded cognition has the potential to influence coaches’ selection decisions and in turn account for RAE as coaches are biased towards physically more matured players, even when no apparent performance advantage is evident.     

‘Too Semitic’ or ‘Thoroughly ‘Anglicised’? The Life and Career of Harold Abrahams

Harold Maurice Abrahams (1899–1978) – the British-Jewish athlete made famous by the film Chariots of Fire – won gold for Britain in the 100 m sprint in the 1924 Paris Olympics. Far from being the ‘outsider’ depicted in Chariots of Fire, however, Abrahams’ ‘Anglicisation’ was extensive and played an important role in his life before, during and after his athletics career. Abrahams’ integration went hand-in-hand with his sporting success – something which was celebrated by British Jewry. Such was his assimilation, that by 1936 – a year when Abrahams courted controversy over his stance on the Berlin Olympics – he was criticised for having ‘lost’ all attachment to the community of his birth. In contrast to the film, where Abrahams is seen to be ‘too Semitic’, the Bedford athlete was actually ‘thoroughly Anglicised’. A desire to move into or support middle-to-upper class British society characterised Abrahams’ personal and sporting life much more so than his Jewishness. As time progressed, Abrahams’ Jewish origins meant less and less, both to Harold himself and to those around him.     

Footballers,migrants and scholars: the globalization of US men’s college soccer

US intercollegiate soccer is unique in world football by melding competitive amateur play with higher education and operating independently of FIFA. While immigrants have driven much of the 150-year history of college soccer, there has been an unprecedented foreign influx in the twenty-first century. We quantify the modern internationalization of men’s college soccer and assess factors driving this change via analysis of rosters from 1317 teams and a survey of coaches’ perceptions on foreign players and international recruitment. We estimate that 7600 players from 170 different countries played men’s college soccer in 2016, a 120% increase since 2000. Perceived growth drivers include expanding international recruiting by coaches, growing international awareness of college soccer as an option, a burgeoning industry of recruiting agencies, and technological globalization. Overall, US college soccer has become a globally attractive niche as an alternate pathway for players seeking quality competition while continuing their education.     

The fan as actor: the popularization of soccer and Brazil’s sports audience

This essay presents a general perspective on the early history of soccer audiences in Brazil. Based on fans’ own experiences in Rio de Janeiro, the former national capital, it explains how fans played a fundamental role in turning soccer into a popular and widely accepted sport in the country. Initially bound to elite circles during the late nineteenth century, soccer raised increasing interest in Brazilian society in general throughout the twentieth century, thus forcing the building of huge arenas. The new stadiums led authorities to become increasingly worried about fans’ discipline and behaviour. One of their concerns was organized fan groups, which appeared on the scene after soccer became professionalized in the 1940s. These groups, as the essay argues, sought to support their clubs and to emotionally drive the masses of fans.     

From ‘philosophy of sport’ to ‘philosophies of sports’? History,identity and diversification of sport philosophy

My goal in this article is to give a portrait of how modern sport philosophy, which started in 1972, developed from relatively narrow paradigmatic borders to become a diverse and multi-paradigmatic international discipline. This development has included several changes but also some continuity. I identify three main tenets that may be viable in the future. One is to focus on the traditional sport philosophical paradigm, which had an ambition to identify the essence of sport. A second option is to develop more specific approaches, focusing on single sports or types of sport, like football or climbing. A third alternative is to develop a philosophy, not only of sport but of ‘homo movens’, studying the moving human being in different environmental and socio-cultural contexts. All three options are viable and should be welcomed.     

‘Let’s work on your weaknesses’: Australian CrossFit coaching,masculinity and neoliberal framings of ‘health’ and ‘fitness’

CrossFit (CF) is one of the fastest growing exercise regimens in the world. However, sociologists have been relatively slow in examining the place of CF coaches in contemporary CF fitness culture. CF coaches are key figures in the production, promotion and consumption of CF fitness services. Therefore, coaches are a sociologically compelling group to examine. Drawing on interviews with male CF coaches in Tasmania, Australia, this paper argues that the way that CF coaches become qualified, interact with clients and understand ‘health’ and ‘fitness’ is shaped by the confluence of masculinity and neoliberalism. As CF grows in Australia alongside other fitness regimens, these findings pose a unique set of concerns for the Australian fitness industry, especially in relation to the ways that CF coaches translate the meaning and practice of ‘health’ and ‘fitness’ to their athletes.     

For a ‘United’ Kingdom and a ‘Greater’ Britain: the British Olympic Association and the limitations and contestations of ‘Britishness’

During the first two decades of the twentieth century, the Home-Nations of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales joined forces in competing in the Olympic Games under the banner of ‘Great Britain’ (or deviations thereof). The Olympics served as an important symbolic site for fostering and promoting a broader ‘British’ national identity. In practice, however, the prevalence and persistence of competing national identities and allegiances roiled early attempts to create a unified British Olympic team. These counter-prevailing forces of nationalism further served to undermine the British Olympic Association's ambitious attempt to unite the British Empire in a ‘Greater Britain’ team for the 1916 Berlin Olympic Games. As this work will reveal, ‘Britishness’ was a layered, contested and racially homogenous term that was interpreted and applied differently across various parts of the British Isles and its Empire.     

Why Zico is called the ‘God of Soccer’ in Japan: the legacy of Zico to Japanese soccer

This essay will shed light on the reasons why Brazilian football player Zico has become the ‘God of Soccer’ in Japan by discussing Zico’s unique character and actions and the social condition surrounding him, as well as the role played by the image of a hero held by the Japanese. The study uses the existing literature on Zico’s tenure in Japan along with Zico’s own writings and anecdotes to reflect upon his legacies from various angles. While it emphasizes the ability of an interpreter in constructing Zico’s image, it also encapsulates the key moments and images Zico elicited in Japan, including his brilliant style of play, his memorable hat-trick in his opening J-League match and his figure as a father of Japanese football. The essay will try to show that Zico’s emphasis on the importance of family, as in building a ‘Zico Family’, as well as his strong sense of obligation, professionalism and integrity contributed to creating his image as a legendary human being in Japan.     

Home advantage in soccer – A matter of expectations,goal setting and tactical decisions of coaches?

In soccer, home teams win about 67% of decided games. The causes for this home advantage are still unresolved. There is a shortage of research on the psychological states of actors involved. In this study, we examined soccer coaches’ expectations, goal setting and tactical decisions in relation to game location. Soccer coaches (N = 297) with different expertise levels participated in an experimental, online management game and were randomly assigned to one of two groups, “home game (HG)” or “away game.” Participants received information on the game for which they were asked to make decisions in multiple points. The only differing information between groups was game location. Regardless of expertise, HG coaches had higher expectations to win, set more challenging goals and decided for more offensive and courageous playing tactics. Possible consequences of these findings concerning home advantage in soccer are discussed.     

A Kantian view of Suits’ Utopia: ‘a kingdom of autotelically-motivated game players’

In this paper, I engage the debate on Suits’ theory of games by providing a Kantian view of Utopia. I argue that although the Kantian aspects of Suits’ approach are often overlooked in comparison to its Socratic-Platonic aspects, Kant’s ideas play a fundamental role in Suits’ proposal. In particular, Kant’s concept of ‘regulative idea’ is the basis of Suits’ Utopia. I regard Utopia as Suits’ regulative idea on game playing. In doing so, I take Utopia to play a double role in Suits’ theory of games. First, it highlights the primary condition of possibility of game-playing, namely, the lusory attitude. Second, it provides a normative criterion that serves as a critical principle to evaluate instances of game playing and as a counterfactual assumption that makes game playing possible. I provide further support for my Kantian interpretation of Suits’ Utopia by bringing to light the anthropological assumptions upon which Utopia is built. In doing so, I argue that both Suits’ theory of games, in general, and his Utopia, in particular, lay out the conditions of possibility of game playing, not an analysis on the life most worth living.