FREE Conference Metu, Ankara, 24-27 April 2014
From Habermas to Fanblogs: Exploring the Public Sphere of European Football
Martine Prange, [email protected]
Changing the Landscape of European
Football: women football’s
transformative effect on Europe’s
public sphere analysed by way of the
transnational BeNe League case
Dr. Martine Prange
Institute for Philosophy,
Leiden University
From Habermas to Fanblogs: Exploring the
Public Sphere of European Football
FREE Conference
METU, Ankara, April 2014
1
FREE Conference Metu, Ankara, 24-27 April 2014
From Habermas to Fanblogs: Exploring the Public Sphere of European Football
Martine Prange, [email protected]
This paper is a work in progress.
Please do not quote without the
explicit written permission of the authors.
2
FREE Conference Metu, Ankara, 24-27 April 2014
From Habermas to Fanblogs: Exploring the Public Sphere of European Football
Martine Prange, [email protected]
Author
Title
: Dr. Martine Prange (Institute for Philosophy, Leiden University, The
Netherlands)
: Changing the Landscape of European Football: women football’s
transformative effect on Europe’s public sphere analysed by way of the
transnational BeNe League case
Abstract (373 words)
The European public sphere of football has been dominated by men from its very
start around 1850 in England. However, the growth and greatest transformations in
European football are especially notable in women’s soccer: women’s football is the
fastest growing sports in the world. Between 2000 and 2006, the participation of
women in football grew with 138% (Fifa Big Count 2006). In addition, women’s
football is professionalizing speedily, leading to a new traffic of women football
players, due to the emerging transfer market in women’s football, opening up new
spaces in the public domain. What do this growing participation of women and this
professionalization mean for Europe’s football landscape and how does it affect the
public sphere?
In this paper, I seek to answer this question by exploring the UEFA pilot project of
the transnational BeNe League. This project started in August 2012 and will last for
three years. The UEFA started this project as a proof to see whether transnational
competitions in Europe work. If the evaluations are positive, then a men’s BeNe
League and a Balkan transnational football competition may be established as well.
In September 2013, the research project From Football Wives to Women’s Football
started in The Netherlands. One of the pillars of this research is the evaluation of the
BeNe League by way of interviewing the players active in this league.
I start my paper with sketching the history of the BeNe League and address the
question as to why such a transnational league was called into being in the first place.
What were the reasons for setting up a transnational league for the national football
associations and the UEFA? Next, I describe the development of the BeNe League in
the first 18 months of its existence, focusing particularly on the transnational
experience by players and the public.
In my conclusion, then, I seek to answer the questions, first, ‘what has been
achieved halfway and what can we expect for the rest of this pilot project?’ and,
second, ‘how does a transnational league add to the creation of a pan-European
public sphere Europe’s public sphere and what can we expect in this regard if the
UEFA decides to start more transnational leagues, in both men’s and women’s
football?’
Personalia:
Dr. Martine Prange is an ex-professional football player (The Netherlands,
Belgium, Turkey) and a philosopher at the department of social and political
philosophy at the Institute of Philosophy of Leiden University. She is the project
leader of the research project ‘From Footballer’s Wives to Women’s Football: an
Interdisciplinary Research into the Societal Impact of Women’s Football in The
Netherlands’ (‘Van voetbalvrouwen tot vrouwenvoetbal: een interdisciplinair
onderzoek naar de maatschappelijke impact van meidenvoetbal in Nederland’). This
project is funded by the Dutch Research Council, the Johan Cruyff Foundation and
Triple Double sports marketing for € 592.000,-. It started in September 2013,
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FREE Conference Metu, Ankara, 24-27 April 2014
From Habermas to Fanblogs: Exploring the Public Sphere of European Football
Martine Prange, [email protected]
running until September 2016, and is carried out by 9 researchers (four senior
researchers, two PhD students, one junior researcher, and two MA students).
Prange’s philosophical work revolves around the question as to what sports, art,
and play contribute to human development. In 2013, she published Nietzsche,
Wagner, Europe (De Gruyter, Berlin/ New York). In 2005, she published In Praise of
the Mediterranean: Nietzsche’s Gay Science between the North and the South. Next
to her football research, she is currently preparing a monograph, which compares
Kant’s and Nietzsche’s ideas on the essential role of conflict and competition in the
creation of a transnational or cosmopolitan order, called ‘Creative Conflict’ and
‘Cosmopolitan Paradoxes’: Kant, Nietzsche, and Contemporary Global Challenges.
C HA NG IN G T H E L A ND SC A PE O F E U R O PE A N F O O T B A LL : F E M A LE
F O O T B A LL ’ S E F F E C T S O N T H E PU B L IC S PH E R E A NA LY S E D B Y W A Y O F T H E
D U T C H C A SE
D R . M A R T I N E P R A NG E , L E ID E N U N I V E R SI T Y (I N ST I T U T E
P H IL O S O P HY )
FOR
1. I NT R O D U C T IO N
The European public sphere of football has been dominated by men from its very
start around 1850 in England. However, the growth and biggest transformations in
European football are especially notable in women’s football, at the moment:
women’s football is the fastest growing sports in the world, with a growth of 138%
between 2000 and 2006 (Fifa Big Count 2006). The numbers of female players
worldwide vary between 29 and 45 million, but in Europe we currently have almost
1,9 million registered players.1 In addition, women’s football in Europe is
professionalizing speedily, leading to a new traffic of women football players, due to
the emerging transfer market in women’s football, thus opening up new spaces in the
public domain. This triggers the question as to what this growth and
professionalization of women’s football mean for Europe’s football landscape and
Europe’s public sphere?
In this paper, I seek to answer these questions by exploring the UEFA pilot project
of the transnational BeNe League for women, which started in September 2012. The
UEFA started this project as a proof to see whether transnational competitions in
Europe work. If the evaluations are positive, then a men’s BeNe League and a Balkan
transnational football competition may be established as well. I start my paper by
sketching the history of the BeNe League and addressing the question as to why such
a transnational league was called into being in the first place. What were the reasons
for setting up a transnational league for the national football associations and the
UEFA? Next, I describe the development of the BeNe League in the first 18 months of
its existence, focusing particularly on the transnational experience by players and the
public. How do they experience the mutual participation of Belgian and Dutch teams
in one league?
1
UEFA’s report Women’s Football across the National Associations 2013/2014
(http://www.uefa.com/MultimediaFiles/Download/Women/General/02/03/27/84/2032784_DOWNLOAD.pdf,
accessed April 23th 2014)
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FREE Conference Metu, Ankara, 24-27 April 2014
From Habermas to Fanblogs: Exploring the Public Sphere of European Football
Martine Prange, [email protected]
In my conclusion, I seek to answer the questions, first, ‘what has been achieved
halfway and what can we expect for the rest of this pilot project, in terms of the
sporting experience?’ and, second, ‘what does a transnational league add to the
creation of a pan-European public sphere and what can we expect in this regard if the
UEFA decides to start more transnational leagues, in both men’s and women’s
football?’
But let me start with giving you a quick overview of our research project – of
which the analysis and evaluation of the BeNe League is one of the three pillars.
Then, I will give you an overview of the history and structure of football and women’s
football in particular, in the Netherlands, putting this in an international perspective.
From there, I shall sketch the short history of womens football’s professionalisation,
developing in The Netherlands from the Premier League (Eredivisie) in 2007 to the
BeNe League in 2012, after which I shall discuss the BeNe League in more detail,
focusing particularly on the concern about the gap in level between the Dutch and
Belgian clubs and the pains caused by the speed of certain developments, and anser
the questions, ‘what has been achieved halfway and what can we expect for the rest of
this pilot project?’ and, ‘how does a transnational league affect European football
landscape and what is to be expected for Europe’s public sphere if the UEFA decides
to form more transnational leagues, in both men’s and women’s football?’
2. O U R
RESEARCH PROJECT
In September 2013, the research project From Football(ers’) Wives to Women’s
Football started in The Netherlands. I am the principal investigator and supervisor of
this project, which further harbours a co-supervisor, two PhD students, and two other
senior and one junior researcher. The research is carried out in a combined effort of
Leiden University, Utrecht University, and the Mulier Institute.
3. A
S H O R T H I ST O R Y O F D U T C H W O M E N ’ S F O O T B A L L
In Holland, the amount of female players has more than doubled between 2007 and
2012, whereas the participation of men is a bit on the wane; In 2007, the Royal Dutch
Football Association (KNVB) started a professional Premier League (‘Eredivisie’),
which, in 2012, became the BeNe League, combining the top teams from Holland and
Belgium. This led, in December 2013, to a unique transfer in Dutch football: midfield
player Sheridan Spitse was the first Dutch female player to be ‘bought’ by a foreign
club – SK Lillestrom paid € 25.000,- to FC Twente to contract her. This transfer was
soon followed by the transfer of Ajax player Anouk Hoogendijk to Arsenal. As I see it,
the transfer of two Dutch internationals to a major league in Norway and the
upcoming league in England, where substantial financial investments are done to
develop women’s football, shows that The Netherlands are, at this moment in history,
an educational centre for other countries. In this sense, Dutch female football and
man’s football have the same status. However, where men’s football has lost the
connection with the top (English Premier League, Spanish Liga, German Bundesliga),
whilst the national team of Holland is vice-world champion, what are the odds for
Dutch women’s football? Here, I would like to compare the financial investments in
women’s football in The Netherlands, Belgium, and the UK.
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FREE Conference Metu, Ankara, 24-27 April 2014
From Habermas to Fanblogs: Exploring the Public Sphere of European Football
Martine Prange, [email protected]
4. I NS ID E
THE
M A NA G E R S
BENE LEAGUE:
5. D U T C H W O M E N ’ S S O C C E R
T H E P LA Y E R S , C O A C H E S , A N D
A ND T H E
BENE LEAGUE
IN THE
M E D IA
6. C O NC L U SIO N : C H A NG IN G T H E L A N D SC A P E O F E U R O PE A N
F O O T B A LL : W O M E N ’ S F O O T B A L L T R A N S F O R M A T I VE P O W E R S
To summarize: there are still many concerns about the current state and future of
women’s top football in The Netherlands and Belgium. Sport sponsoring in The
Netherlands is a problem even in popular men’s sports, at the moment, let alone for
an upcoming sport such as women’s football, which still has to achieve its first major
international success. Dutch players seem to prefer to play in a national league rather
than a BeNe League, or in any case, they want more Dutch teams to participate in it,
and less Belgian teams. This is a very understandable request, given the history and
growth of Dutch football, but not an attractive one for the Belgian national football
association. We have to fear that developments will come to a standstill and that
professional football in The Netherlands will fall back, if the BeNe League is not
continued; as a mark, it is much stronger than the Premier League ever was, and if
women’s top football wants to gain recognition, one condition for sponsorship, it
needs a strong, marketable name. On the other hand, if the BeNe League continues in
its current set-up, with eight teams from The Netherlands and eight teams from
Belgium, the talent development of the Dutch players is at stake and the snake will
bite its own tail. So, it seems the best option to continue with this name, but with a
different set-up. But the odds are low that Belgian clubs will except a set-up with an
unequal number of Dutch and Belgian teams.
In other words, there is a stalemate here, which has a big chance of collapsing.
Then we shall go back to a national league with not enough strong competitors.
Either way, the competition is, as yet, not strong enough for the real talents to stay.
Piority number one for the Dutch Football Association is, therefore, to keep the girls
that are now 14-15-16 years old, on board. There are special talent programmes for
some of them, but there are problems there too, first and foremost, because the Top
Talent Academy is tied to one club, Ajax. This was a condition set by Ajax to
participate in the BeNe League, but a questionable abuse of power. Hopefully, these
programmes will help to strengthen and broaden the top in The Netherlands, and
hopefully, the clubs will hang in until the moment is there that these talents are good
enough for the first teams. In order to hang in there, money is needed.
As I see it, what The Netherlands need, is one big, and two or three smaller,
sponsors, who are willing to commit for the coming five years. Until then, The
Netherlands will become more and more a country that educates football players for
other national top leagues, just as is the case in Dutch male football. The most
talented players will leave the Dutch national competition in order to play in Norway,
England, Germany, the United States, and probably soon also Japan and China. They
will not even go for the money, because the payments are still very low in female
football, but they will go, because the conditions for a professional approach to the
sport, and thus for talent development, are better in these countries. This traffic of
players, which is already a normal and important aspect of Europe’s male football
economy, will augment extremely, in the coming years, in Europe, Asia, and the
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FREE Conference Metu, Ankara, 24-27 April 2014
From Habermas to Fanblogs: Exploring the Public Sphere of European Football
Martine Prange, [email protected]
Americas, I suspect. It won’t take long until the first African talents will show up in
American and European Leagues, as football programmes, often initiated by NGO’s
for peace development, will bring these talents in contact with other football cultures,
which have a longer and stronger history. [to name just one example: Women Win in
Kenia, girl team goed to USA] Scouts hardly go to other regions to scout, but the girls
will find their way to the other countries, for sportive, economic, and political
reasons.
Dutch men’s football is another obstruction for Dutch women’s football – and
now I come to the question of the public sphere more clearly. The male football
experience is very often a religious experience. Football pitches areoften described as
‘holy ground’, football stadiums as ‘temples’, and football players are worshipped as
‘heroes’ or even ‘gods’ (i.e., Maradona famously described his own hand as ‘the hand
of God’).What does it mean when this ‘holy’ space is entered by women players?
Female fans are often warmly welcomed by the male fans [evidence; ref.], but what
about the male professional soccer players’ reaction to their female co-players, the
reception by the media, and the way in which the female players experience their
sport themselves?
The public sphere of football has been dominated by men from its very start
around 1900. That is, at least, the common story. Now we seem to experience
something very different and new. But this is, interestingly, not really the case. Some
of you will be familiar with the fact that in war time, in England, women played in the
absence of men, football matches in stadium for large audiences. After the war,
European football associations, amongst which the Dutch Football Association,
forbade women’s football, as it was seen as a threat to manhood and the attention for
the men. What we are experiencing today, is not a first or second, but the third wave
of women’s football. Women’s football has deliberately been oppressed for decades,
until, in the early seventies, the associations slowly opened up again, albeit that
women suddenly had to play with a smaller size ball and for 80 minutes, as 90
minutes was supposed to be too hard for the ‘weaker sex’, according to the male
dominated associative board. I hope that the third wave will grow into a fourth wave
of full acceptance and flourishing, both in the ‘broad’ sense of sports and in the ‘top’.
The female participation in football has a ‘demythologizing’ effect on the religious
experience of football. The acceptance of women by men in this sphere fully depends
on their ‘orthodoxy’ or ‘modernity’. Such ‘mythologization’ seems completely absent
in women’s soccer. Instead, the presence of women in football stadiums, especially as
players, was, and often still is, experienced by men as an ‘occupation’ or ‘infiltration’
of the holy sphere, i.e. polluting the pure, holy spirit. This is only now slowly
changing in The Netherlands; whereas a famous Dutch football journalist and editor
of the most famous football magazine ‘Voetbal International’ (Football International)
still refuses to write anything on women’s soccer in his magazine, players from Ajax’
male team often come to the stadium to watch the women’s team play.
How to understand this transformation of the Dutch public sphere of sport and
football in Habermasian terms? Habermas’ concept of the ‘public sphere’, so often
and rightly so criticized by feminist philosophers, needs to be opened up to ‘conflicts’
that are not only dialogical, but rather affective, bodily and social. Football does not
only change the lives of women; women football also changes the public sphere in
which women and men participate. How this is the case, and what this means for
Habermas or other concepts of the public sphere, is answered by Nathanja van den
Heuvel, who will speak right after me.
7
Changing the Landscape of European Football:
Female Football’s Effects on the Public Sphere
Analysed by way of the Dutch Case
DR. MARTINE PRANGE (Leiden University)
1
‘THE FUTURE OF FOOTBALL IS FEMININE’
(Sepp Blatter, Fifa President)
‘WOMEN’S FOOTBALL IS PROBABLY THE MOST POPULAR WOMEN’S
TEAM SPORT ON THE PLANET’
(Tatjana Haenni, Fifa’s head of women's competitions)
2013 =
‘A BIG YEAR FOR WOMEN’S FOOTBALL IN EUROPE’
(Michel (Platini, President UEFA)
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Changing the Landscape of European Football
2
UEFA 2013/14: 1,881.412 registered female
players in 48 European countries spread over
69.533 clubs and 46.598 teams
The total amount of money invested in the
sport is now € 80,679,700
The average budget for women’s football is
€1,161,524
32 countries employ professional players
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Van voetbalvrouwen tot
vrouwenvoetbal
3
E e n i n t e r d i s c i p l i n ai r o n d e r z o e k n a a r
de maatschappelijke impact van meidenvoetbal
in Nederland
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From Football Wives to Women’s Football
4
An interdisciplinary research into
the societal impact of girls’ football in
The Netherlands
Leiden University (Dr. Martine Prange; Nathanja van den Heuvel, MA)
Utrecht University (Dr. Martijn Oosterbaan; Katherine van den Bogert,
MA)
Mulier Institute (Dr. Agnes Elling; Drs. David Romijn)
September 2013-September 2016
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From Football Wives to Women’s Football
5
Central research question
Women’s soccer is the fastest growing sports in the
world,
also
in
The
Netherlands.
How
does
this
development affect Dutch society? To what extent does
this development contribute to male and female equality
and the social integration of girls from ethnic minorities,
and what is the role of the (new) media in
this process?
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From Football Wives to Women’s Football
6
1. History
2. Professionalisation
3. Media coverage + use
a. Role models
b. New talents
Experience of football;
‘Creative Conflict’ & ‘lifestyle’
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Dutch Women’s Football
7
1955
‘WILD COMPETITIONS’
1971
KNVB
1972
FRANCE - HOLLAND
2007
PREMIER LEAGUE (‘Eredivisie’)
2009
UEFA CHAMPIONSHIP (SEMI-FINALS)
2012
BENELEAGUE
2013
U E F A C H A M P I O N S H I P ( 1 st
2014
132.000 registered members
2014
FIFA RANKING 14
2014
TRANSFERS SPITSE, HOOGENDIJK
2015
FIFA WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP CANADA?
2015
BENELEAGUE OR…?
2017
UEFA CHAMPIONSHIP IN NL?
round)
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Dutch Women’s Football in The Netherlands & Europe
8
BENELEAGUE
‘CENTRE OF EDUCATION AND DEVELOPMENT’
UEFA’S ‘GUINEE PIG’
PUBLIC SPACE:
- Invasion and occupation of ‘male’ spaces
- ‘De-mythologisation’/ ‘desecration’ of
A.
B.
Football as the chief god of sports
Male Genius cult & culture of heroization & imitation
Toleration + Recognition > Affirmation
Visibility of female achievements on top level
Europe as a ‘playground’, a space of equality + heterotopia
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