The organization of club football in Denmark - a contemporary profile

Søren Bennike; Rasmus K Storm; Johan Michael Wikman; Laila Ottesen

doi:10.1080/14660970.2019.1690472

The organization of club football in Denmark - a contemporary profile

Søren Bennike^*, Rasmus K Storm, Johan Michael Wikman, Laila Ottesen

^*Corresponding author for this work

Abstract

This article provides an understanding of the organization of Danish club football, including both grassroots and professional activities. We do this by analysing how it has developed and how it relates to four basic social orders viewed as ideal types; civil society, market, state and associations. Our study is grounded in document analysis, a questionnaire survey and existing knowledge of sports clubs and, in particular, football clubs. Our findings show how Danish football is a game that operates between these social orders. We highlight four unique traits: firstly, the existence of an overall formal, bureaucratic, non-profit, rather autonomous associative decentral democratic structure; secondly, a high number of non-profit, democratically organized grassroots clubs of different sizes spread around the country; thirdly, late professionalism; and fourthly, the creation of a certain business model of professional Danish football.

Original language	English
Journal	Soccer and Society
ISSN	1466-0970
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1080/14660970.2019.1690472
Publication status	Published - 3 Jul 2020

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title = "The organization of club football in Denmark - a contemporary profile",

abstract = "This article provides an understanding of the organization of Danish club football, including both grassroots and professional activities. We do this by analysing how it has developed and how it relates to four basic social orders viewed as ideal types; civil society, market, state and associations. Our study is grounded in document analysis, a questionnaire survey and existing knowledge of sports clubs and, in particular, football clubs. Our findings show how Danish football is a game that operates between these social orders. We highlight four unique traits: firstly, the existence of an overall formal, bureaucratic, non-profit, rather autonomous associative decentral democratic structure; secondly, a high number of non-profit, democratically organized grassroots clubs of different sizes spread around the country; thirdly, late professionalism; and fourthly, the creation of a certain business model of professional Danish football.",

author = "S{\o}ren Bennike and Storm, {Rasmus K} and Wikman, {Johan Michael} and Laila Ottesen",

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doi = "10.1080/14660970.2019.1690472",

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T1 - The organization of club football in Denmark - a contemporary profile

AU - Bennike, Søren

AU - Storm, Rasmus K

AU - Wikman, Johan Michael

AU - Ottesen, Laila

N1 - CURIS 2019 NEXS 374

PY - 2020/7/3

Y1 - 2020/7/3

N2 - This article provides an understanding of the organization of Danish club football, including both grassroots and professional activities. We do this by analysing how it has developed and how it relates to four basic social orders viewed as ideal types; civil society, market, state and associations. Our study is grounded in document analysis, a questionnaire survey and existing knowledge of sports clubs and, in particular, football clubs. Our findings show how Danish football is a game that operates between these social orders. We highlight four unique traits: firstly, the existence of an overall formal, bureaucratic, non-profit, rather autonomous associative decentral democratic structure; secondly, a high number of non-profit, democratically organized grassroots clubs of different sizes spread around the country; thirdly, late professionalism; and fourthly, the creation of a certain business model of professional Danish football.

AB - This article provides an understanding of the organization of Danish club football, including both grassroots and professional activities. We do this by analysing how it has developed and how it relates to four basic social orders viewed as ideal types; civil society, market, state and associations. Our study is grounded in document analysis, a questionnaire survey and existing knowledge of sports clubs and, in particular, football clubs. Our findings show how Danish football is a game that operates between these social orders. We highlight four unique traits: firstly, the existence of an overall formal, bureaucratic, non-profit, rather autonomous associative decentral democratic structure; secondly, a high number of non-profit, democratically organized grassroots clubs of different sizes spread around the country; thirdly, late professionalism; and fourthly, the creation of a certain business model of professional Danish football.

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M3 - Journal article

SN - 1466-0970

JO - Soccer and Society

JF - Soccer and Society

ER -

The organization of club football in Denmark - a contemporary profile

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