What Is Fifa For?
1st Edition
Will be published approx. on 31. March 2026
Book
Paperback/Softback
160 pages
978-1-5292-4574-5 (ISBN)
Description
A wide-ranging look at football's powerful but controversial governing body.
Football is the world's most popular sport and truly a global phenomenon. As a result, it attracts huge sums of money from its advertisers, sponsors and broadcasters, including FIFA, the sport's international governing body. So, given its decidedly chequered history, the question of what FIFA is for is crucial to the game's future.
Examining the organisation's successes such as the explosion of interest in the women's game, alongside its failures and continuing crises over corruption and ethics, Alan Tomlinson asks: what will it take for FIFA to truly live up to its own mission of integrity, fair play and accessibility?
Football is the world's most popular sport and truly a global phenomenon. As a result, it attracts huge sums of money from its advertisers, sponsors and broadcasters, including FIFA, the sport's international governing body. So, given its decidedly chequered history, the question of what FIFA is for is crucial to the game's future.
Examining the organisation's successes such as the explosion of interest in the women's game, alongside its failures and continuing crises over corruption and ethics, Alan Tomlinson asks: what will it take for FIFA to truly live up to its own mission of integrity, fair play and accessibility?
Reviews / Votes
"FIFA sets the rules of the game but, in today's commercialised environment, it does much more besides. This book asks: should it?" Stephen Weatherill, University of Oxford "I have been reading Alan Tomlinson for over twenty years. This new work is well-researched, insightful and a testimony to the troubles that unfortunately still exist in sport today." Steven Berryman, sports corruption investigatorMore details
Series
Edition
First Edition
Language
English
Place of publication
Bristol
United Kingdom
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Illustrations
1 s/w Tabelle, 10 s/w Abbildungen
Not illustrated
Dimensions
Height: 201 mm
Width: 124 mm
Thickness: 14 mm
Weight
208 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-5292-4574-5 (9781529245745)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Alan Tomlinson
What Is Fifa For?
E-Book
03/2026
1st Edition
Bristol University Press
€13.49
Available for download
Person
Alan Tomlinson is Emeritus Professor of Leisure Studies at the University of Brighton UK and a pioneer of critical sport and leisure research, blending cultural studies with investigative and in-the-field research. He has been writing about FIFA since the big money started to flow in the 1980s and has written extensively on sport and leisure themes.
Content
1 . Introduction: FIFA - What's at Stake?
2 . FIFA and the Making of the Modern Game
3 . FIFA and its Members
4 . FIFA and its Commercial Partners
5 . 'Good-looking Governance': Investigating Corruption
6 . FIFA and the Americas
7 . FIFA in Africa and Asia: Challenges and Constraints
8. FIFA and the Women's Game
9. A Law unto Itself?
10. Conclusion
2 . FIFA and the Making of the Modern Game
3 . FIFA and its Members
4 . FIFA and its Commercial Partners
5 . 'Good-looking Governance': Investigating Corruption
6 . FIFA and the Americas
7 . FIFA in Africa and Asia: Challenges and Constraints
8. FIFA and the Women's Game
9. A Law unto Itself?
10. Conclusion