ABSTRACT
The business of football should not be considered independently of the major challenges facing the world in which sports may have a facilitating role. For example, the shift towards hosting international hallmark events in emerging destinations such as South Africa (2010 FIFA World Cup™), Brazil (2014 FIFA World Cup™), Russia (2018 FIFA World Cup™) and Qatar (2022 FIFA World Cup™) raises challenges in terms of alignment with modernisation and neoliberal globalisation approaches. This chapter clarifies the phenomenon of globalisation in the context of football. In addition to the first process of internationalisation within football in the early 1900s, four main “Globalisation Stages in Football” could be offered: geographical globalisation (Globalisation 1.0), commercial globalisation (Globalisation 2.0), digital globalisation (Globalisation 3.0), and social globalisation (Globalisation 4.0). This historical approach to the global development of football is used as a backbone to understand the challenges ahead. The chapter concludes by forecasting future dynamics of global football, featuring the challenges and dilemmas that are now rooted in the industry.
