COVID-19 and the Soccer World

COVID-19 and the Soccer World

Author: Kausik Bandyopadhyay

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2022-09-05

Total Pages: 250

ISBN-13: 1000653528

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The spread of COVID-19 and the consequent pandemic since early 2020 have brought about unprecedented changes in all spheres of global life, creating a new sense of (in)security with social distancing, physical isolation, quarantine and lockdown becoming buzzwords to combat the disease. As in all spheres of life, the first wave of the pandemic posed serious challenges to the world of soccer, with diverse and intriguing responses across the globe. This book documents the early impressions and initial responses of various stakeholders of the soccer world to the challenges of COVID-19 in 2020. It reveals how the process of confrontation, negotiation, adjustment and overcoming against such challenges necessitated and inspired novel responses and strong improvisations from soccer bodies to players, referees to spectators, and journalists to sponsors. This process has revealed abrupt as well as radical changes in the organization, rules, spectatorship and telecast of the game, thereby affecting the game’s cultural dimensions, commercial prospects and political implications. The volume points out that the way soccer has adjusted to the ‘new normal’ standard of the ‘COVID Regime’ has elicited newer meanings and nuanced representations of the game. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the journal, Soccer & Society.


Sport and the Pandemic

Sport and the Pandemic

Author: Paul M. Pedersen

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2020-09-28

Total Pages: 225

ISBN-13: 1000224775

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This book takes a close look at how the sport industry has been impacted by the global Coronavirus pandemic, as entire seasons have been cut short, events have been cancelled, athletes have been infected, and sport studies programs have moved online. Crucially, the book also asks how the industry might move forward. With contributions from sport studies researchers across the world, the book offers commentaries, cases, and informed analysis across a wide range of topics and practical areas within sport business and management, from crisis communication and marketing to event management and finance. While Covid-19 will inevitably cast a long shadow over sport for years to come, and although the situation is fast-evolving and the future is uncertain, this book offers some important early perspectives and reflections that will inform debate and influence policy and practice. A timely addition to the body of knowledge regarding the pandemic, this is an important resource for researchers, students, practitioners, the media, policy-makers, and anybody who cares about the future of sport.


Impacts and Implications for the Sports Industry in the Post-COVID-19 Era

Impacts and Implications for the Sports Industry in the Post-COVID-19 Era

Author: Faganel, Armand

Publisher: IGI Global

Published: 2021-06-25

Total Pages: 304

ISBN-13: 179986782X

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The sports industry had impressive global growth over the years, with factors from the introduction of e-sports and new streaming and viewing methods to sponsorships and digital media contributing to its rise. However, the COVID-19 pandemic brought upon a rapid change in this sector. Sports' seasons ended abruptly, people’s escape from reality suddenly vanished, their spending attitudes changed, live games and commercial flights were suspended, hotels were impossible to book, and consumers practically turned into prisoners within their own homes. No live sports matches were to follow on any media either, so specialized sports channels were forced to play old recordings rather than broadcasting new events. Even athletes themselves struggle to stay relevant and thus, try to utilize creative methods to enhance their brand value in these difficult times. With most of the sports leagues shut down during the pandemic, with a few exceptions which performed in empty venues, the restrictions diminished the sports experience compared to the pre-COVID-19 era and the impacts were widespread. Impacts and Implications for the Sports Industry in the Post-COVID-19 Era explores the changes that have been and will continue to be created by the unexpected disruptions that occurred as a result of the pandemic within the sports industry, fans consumption, and recreational habits. The chapters explore the status of sports after the pandemic, paths to recovery, and the future of sports, along with the many impacts and issues that have arisen due to changes in the industry necessitated by COVID-19. Covering important topics such as mental health, impacts on athletes and coaches, the market value for professional sports, consumer behavior during COVID-19, and the changes in marketing, tourism, and business, this book is ideally intended for sports managers, marketers, broadcasting agencies, media specialists, brand managers, fitness professionals, practitioners, stakeholders, researchers, academicians, and students interested in the impacts on the sports industry and the outlook for sports in the post-COVID-19 era.


Changing the Game

Changing the Game

Author: John O'Sullivan

Publisher: Morgan James Publishing

Published: 2013-12-01

Total Pages: 224

ISBN-13: 1614486468

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The modern day youth sports environment has taken the enjoyment out of athletics for our children. Currently, 70% of kids drop out of organized sports by the age of 13, which has given rise to a generation of overweight, unhealthy young adults. There is a solution. John O’Sullivan shares the secrets of the coaches and parents who have not only raised elite athletes, but have done so by creating an environment that promotes positive core values and teaches life lessons instead of focusing on wins and losses, scholarships, and professional aspirations. Changing the Game gives adults a new paradigm and a game plan for raising happy, high performing children, and provides a national call to action to return youth sports to our kids.


Fans

Fans

Author: Larry Olmsted

Publisher: Algonquin Books

Published: 2021-03-02

Total Pages: 321

ISBN-13: 1616208465

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“Olmsted opens a window into a psychologically compelling world of passion and purpose.” —Harvey Araton, author of Our Last Season: A Writer, a Fan, a Friendship Larry Olmsted’s writing and research have been called “eye-opening” (People), “impressive” (Publishers Weekly, starred review), and “enlightening” (Kirkus Reviews). Now, the New York Times and Washington Post bestselling author turns his expertise to a subject that has never been fully explored, delivering a highly entertaining game changer that uses brand-new research to show us why being a sports fan is good for us individually and is a force for positive change in society. Fans is a passionate reminder of how games, teams, and the communities dedicated to them are vital to our lives. Citing fascinating new studies on sports fandom, Larry Olmsted makes the case that the more you identify with a sports team, the better your social, psychological, and physical health is; the more meaningful your relationships are; and the more connected and happier you are. Fans maintain better cognitive processing as their gray matter ages; they have better language skills; and college students who follow sports have higher GPAs, better graduation rates, and higher incomes after graduating. And there’s more: On a societal level, sports help us heal after tragedies, providing community and hope when we need it most. Fans is the perfect gift for anyone who loves sports or anyone who loves someone who loves sports.


Elite Soccer Referees

Elite Soccer Referees

Author: Tom Webb

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2017-04-28

Total Pages: 263

ISBN-13: 1317326156

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Soccer is undeniably the most popular sport in the world. While we know much about its high-profile players and their increasing wealth and global influence, we know little about referees and the ways in which refereeing has changed throughout the history of the sport. This book provides an in-depth exploration of the evolution of the match official. It presents a comparative analysis of elite Association football referees in England, Spain and Italy, as well as offering insights into the involvement of UEFA and FIFA in referee training. Drawing on archive material, the book documents the historical development of refereeing and sheds new light on the practice of elite refereeing in the present day. Including exclusive interviews with elite and ex-elite referees, as well as with professional soccer managers and members of the broadcast media, it considers the current role of match officials and the challenges and controversies they encounter. Elite Soccer Referees: Officiating in the Premier League, La Liga and Serie A is fascinating reading for all students and scholars with an interest in soccer, sport history, sport policy, sport management and the sociology of sport.


COVID-19 in International Media

COVID-19 in International Media

Author: John C. Pollock

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2021-08-12

Total Pages: 255

ISBN-13: 1000430545

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Covid-19 in International Media: Global Pandemic Responses is one of the first books uniting an international team of scholars to investigate how media address critical social, political, and health issues connected to the 2020-21 COVID-19 outbreak. The book evaluates unique civic challenges, responsibilities, and opportunities for media worldwide, exploring pandemic social norms that media promote or discourage, and how media serve as instruments of social control and resistance, or of cooperation and representation. These chapters raise significant questions about the roles mainstream or citizen journalists or netizens play or ought to play, enlightening audiences successfully about scientific information on COVID-19 in a pandemic that magnifies social inequality and unequal access to health care, challenging popular beliefs about health and disease prevention and the role of government while the entire world pays close attention. This book will be of interest to students and faculty of communication studies and journalism, departments of public health, sociology, and social marketing.


The COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 Pandemic

Author: Tapas Kumar Koley

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2020-08-31

Total Pages: 177

ISBN-13: 100021401X

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This volume presents a comprehensive account of the COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the novel coronavirus pandemic, as it happened. Originating in China in late 2019, the COVID-19 outbreak spread across the entire world in a matter of three to four months. This volume examines the first responses to the pandemic, the contexts of earlier epidemics and the epidemiological basics of infectious diseases. Further, it discusses patterns in the spread of the disease; the management and containment of infections at the personal, national and global level; effects on trade and commerce; the social and psychological impact on people; the disruption and postponement of international events; the role of various international organizations like the WHO in the search for solutions; and the race for a vaccine or a cure. Authored by a medical professional and an economist working on the frontlines, this book gives a nuanced, verified and fact-checked analysis of the COVID-19 pandemic and its global response. A one-stop resource on the COVID-19 outbreak, it is indispensable for every reader and a holistic work for scholars and researchers of medical sociology, public health, political economy, public policy and governance, sociology of health and medicine, and paramedical and medical practitioners. It will also be a great resource for policymakers, government departments and civil society organizations working in the area.


COVID-19 TOLD THROUGH FOOTBALL

COVID-19 TOLD THROUGH FOOTBALL

Author: Julián Cerón Madrigal

Publisher: Julián Cerón Madrigal

Published:

Total Pages: 169

ISBN-13:

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Is it possible to explain the science behind the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus pandemic in a simple way, and with football? “COVID-19 told through football” has done it. This book combines rigorous scientific information, supported by articles that are referenced, with anecdotes from the world of football that serve to create analogies and disseminate scientific knowledge about COVID-19. The author is a biomedical researcher, with more than twenty-five years of experience in prestigious research institutions, such as Harvard University, but he has also been an amateur soccer player and has written soccer books (Raticos de fútbol I and II, in Spanish). In this way, it has been possible to write a book that masterfully mixes two such different and powerful subjects like science and football. Two prologues, one from the world of science (Carlos Pedrós-Alió, scientist and writer) and the other from the world of football (Ibrahim Afellay, former FC Barcelona player and international with the Netherlands), complete a rigorous and fun book, which achieves the fusion of science and football, two topics that either don't raise any interest or produce passion.


Field Notes from a Pandemic

Field Notes from a Pandemic

Author: Ethan Lou

Publisher: Signal

Published: 2020-09-29

Total Pages: 242

ISBN-13: 0771029977

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A CBC Best Canadian Nonfiction Book of 2020 In a book equal parts travelogue and pandemic guide, the journalist Ethan Lou examines the societal effects of COVID-19 and takes us on a mesmerizing journey around a world that will never be the same. Visiting Beijing in January 2020 to see his dying grandfather, the Canadian journalist Ethan Lou unknowingly walks into a state under siege. In his journey out of China and—unwittingly—into other hot zones in Asia and Europe, he finds himself witnessing the very earliest stages of a virus that will forever change the world as we know it. Lou argues that the coronavirus outbreak will have a far greater impact than SARS, for example, simply because China is now many more times integrated with the increasingly interconnected world. Over decades, globalization has crafted a world painfully sensitive and susceptible to shocks such as this pandemic. A crisis like it has thus been long overdue—and we have yet to see it unfold fully. In our integrated world, events that may previously be isolated now ripple farther and wider and in ways we do not expect and cannot foresee. We have not seen the worst, and if and when we outlast this pandemic, nothing will ever be the same. Decisions now—or indecisions—will shape and define the world for decades. These ideas are fleshed out through the virus's spawning and how it spread, the unprecedented measures to contain it and an examination of past pandemics and other crises and how they shaped the world--and an argument for why this one's different. Lou shows how drastically the virus has transformed the world and charts the greater and more radical shifts to come. His ideas and arguments are framed around his unintentionally tumultuous journey around the world, whose path the virus seemed to follow until he landed safely in quarantine in a small town in Germany, where he was able to take stock and start telling his story.