The commercial transformation of world football and the North–South divide: A global value chain analysis

This paper takes a world-systemic perspective on global football seen through the lens of the Global North–South political–economic 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–South divide. The paper concludes by considering implications of the value chain governance structures for both the value chains and sports studies literatures