Football Clubs in Europe

Financing of Football Clubs: a New Area to Explore for Organizational Criminology (euroc)

Hans Nelen, from the Maastricht University, made a contribution to the 2012 Annual Conference of the European Society of Criminology, in the category “Traditional and New Forms of Crime and Deviance,” under the title “Financing of Football Clubs: a New Area to Explore for Organizational Criminology (euroc)”. Here is the abstract: Since 2008, the public opinion has become considerably more critical towards the conduct of the financial sector. In the light of this social indignation, it is most striking that the financial state that football is in today is only of minor public concern. As nearly all European countries are forced to make drastic cutbacks to put their government finances back in order, football clubs continue to build their air castles without abatement. In the fight against fraud and money laundering, so far the focus has been on various social sectors —such as banking, legal services, and real estate—but surprisingly criminological research into the way sports teams – football clubs in particular – are financed is lacking. The author is preparing a proposal for a (international) research project that aims to shed some light on both the nature and extent of fraud and money laundering in contemporary club football, and the social reaction to it, e.g. the way and extent irregularities are being dealt with and/or suppressed. As the research is due to include the financing of football clubs throughout Europe, the paper intends to attract scholars from other European countries to participate in a joint research project.

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See Also

Further Reading

• “Financing of Football Clubs: a New Area to Explore for Organizational Criminology (euroc)”, by Hans Nelen (Proceedings)