Relegating Football Dreams? The elite boys’ football youth academy system as a harm facilitative industry

• In Event: Critical Criminology 1: Social Harm and Zemiology

Abstract

The elite men’s football industry has been marred by numerous controversies in recent years. Alongside allegations of financial misconduct, ‘sports washing’, and criminal offences committed by players, several influential voices have noted a raft of harms associated with the elite male youth academy (YA) system, where the next generation of soccer stars are recruited and coached. This presentation therefore trains a zemiological gaze on the English boys’ YA football system in a bid to develop a critical criminological account of how we nurture our future male professional footballers.
After introducing the English boys’ YA system, I will situate the project in the sub-discipline of critical sports criminology. Following this, based on interviews with thirty-five current professional football practitioners, the paper will critically explore; the professionalisation of players’ childhoods and the attendant sacrifices made by the boys and their families; the seduction of elite football and the impact of release; and the commodification of young male footballers as sporting assets. Ultimately, I will argue that the boys’ YA system constitutes a harm-facilitative industry which, despite the efforts of many committed and compassionate practitioners, is inherently brutal and cut-throat. A call will then be made for critical sports criminology to engage with the social harms of the elite football industry.

Author

• Nick Gibbs, Northumbria University