Loading...
Sporting Celebrity and Conspicuous Consumption: A Case Study of Professional Footballers in England
Law, Graeme Bloyce, Daniel Waddington, Ivan
Law, Graeme
Bloyce, Daniel
Waddington, Ivan
Advisors
Editors
Other Contributors
Affiliation
EPub Date
Publication Date
2020-11-01
Submitted Date
Collections
Files
Loading...
Main article
Adobe PDF, 519.5 KB
Other Titles
Abstract
Association football is a lucrative sport with high financial rewards for top players. However, there has been little empirical work on the lifestyles of professional footballers. Based on interviews with 29 current and former male professional footballers, this paper examines the relationship between money, status and image management within and outside the changing room. The concept of conspicuous consumption is used to help explain players’ attitudes to money, their relationships with others within the football environment and how they advertise their earnings in an environment where open discussion of wages is seen as taboo. Our findings suggest that professional footballers are expected to display a particular image of the professional footballer and this constrains players, even those on lower incomes, to buy expensive clothes and accessories in order to be accepted by others. Players who do not conform to the expected image may be subject to sanctions by their teammates.
Citation
Law, G., Bloyce, D. & Waddington, I. (2021). Sporting celebrity and conspicuous consumption: A case study of professional footballers in England. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 56(7), 923-942. https://doi.org/10.1177/1012690220968106
Publisher
SAGE Publications
Journal
International Review for the Sociology of Sport
Research Unit
DOI
10.1177/1012690220968106
PubMed ID
PubMed Central ID
Type
Article
Language
Description
Law, G., Bloyce, D. & Waddington, I., Sporting celebrity and conspicuous consumption: A case study of professional footballers in England, International Review for the Sociology of Sport (Journal Volume Number 56 and Issue Number 7) pp. 923-942. Copyright © 2020 SAGE. Reprinted by permission of SAGE Publications.