%0 Journal Article
%T The commercial transformation of world football and the North¨CSouth divide: A global value chain analysis
%A Benjamin D Brewer
%J International Review for the Sociology of Sport
%@ 1461-7218
%D 2019
%R 10.1177/1012690217721176
%X This paper takes a world-systemic perspective on global football seen through the lens of the Global North¨CSouth political¨Ceconomic divide that has long motivated development studies. After synthesizing an historical account of the commercial transformation of world football since the mid-1970s, the paper considers the organization and operation of the world football economy using the analytical construct of the ¡°global value chains¡± perspective. The analysis identifies two distinct football governance structures that broadly correspond to the ¡°producer-driven¡± and ¡°buyer-driven¡± governance structures long identified by commodity/value chain scholars, and that imply different flows of resources across world football¡¯s North¨CSouth divide. The paper concludes by considering implications of the value chain governance structures for both the value chains and sports studies literatures
%K commodity chains
%K development
%K football
%K globalization
%K soccer
%K sport economy
%K value chains
%U https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1012690217721176