Więcej niż klub? : piłka nożna pomiędzy rynkiem a wspólnotą

Abstract

Is football (still) a team sports discipline, or maybe it has become (already and in fact probably unnoticeably, because the process has been going on for decades) actually (at least to some extent) an individual sport? And even if it is not an individual sport (let us assume that such a classification is an intentional exaggeration), it is certainly an individual business of the players, with the outcome not always associated purely with sport achievements of the club. From such a broad perspective, the changes in the organization and in the nature of modern football today are noticeable not only to sports commentators and analysts. They are commonly observed also by football supporters. They are visible and perceptible, but then it is difficult not to get the impression that they are still not quite accurately described/characterized. Football clubs – business companies reap their financial benefits; team players earn money from the game, being bound with the clubs by individual contracts, such as in any other business enterprise. Transfers of players from one club to another has become a source of a considerable income (sometimes handsome sums) for managers, and a football every-day reality. The team (mannschaft) is less frequently (and to a smaller extent) gemeinschaft (community), and more frequently (to a greater extent) gesellschaft (company) – when taking into account the ideal types. The puzzling characteristic of the processes that constitute these changes (with intriguing phenomena that lead to the reactivation of the football community within the club) is the subject of the proposed article.