Abstract
Women's soccer has developed rapidly over the past 20 years, and the sport has transitioned from being a solely amateur one to a professional sport with work opportunities for women footballers from around the world. The purpose of this study is to explore professionalization processes of Swedish and Danish women's soccer. This study is designed as a qualitative case study conducting document analysis of the new licence programme implemented by the Swedish and Danish soccer associations in 2012. The article suggests that women's professional soccer, in a Scandinavian context, is best understood through the theoretical construct of 'new professionalism'. Professionalism has become a goal in itself and an ideology for women's soccer in Denmark and Sweden, and as a consequence, women's soccer is in the process of becoming a regulated and rational business structure in Scandinavia due to the implementation of national licence manuals.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Journal | Soccer and Society |
| Volume | 14 |
| Issue number | 6 |
| Pages (from-to) | 816-833 |
| Number of pages | 18 |
| ISSN | 1466-0970 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Nov 2013 |