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Journal of Sport & Social Issues
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Caught up in and by the Beautiful Game

A Case Study of Scottish Professional Footballers

David McGillivray

Division of Media, Culture and Leisure Management at Glasgow Caledonian Universtiy

Richard Fearn

Effective Learning Center at Glasgow Caledonian University

Aaron McIntosh

Division of Media, Culture and Leisure Management at Glasgow Caledonian University

Drawing upon the work of Pierre Bourdieu, this article illustrates how a group of young, predominantly working-class men come to possess a doxic knowledge of the value of the game of football and its stakes. Drawing on a survey of Scottish football players, the article concludes that young participants are guided from an early age toward sporting careers that, although offering the hope of transcending their objective conditions, invariably deceive them with optimism. In the perilous financial climate facing the Scottish professional game, players are being discarded bereft of the exchangeable, readily transferable skills necessary for a future in an alternative employment field. Overreliant upon a constantly depreciating bank of physical capital, these players face precarious futures once this asset reaches exhaustion and their working bodies are deemed surplus to requirements.

Key Words: Bourdieu • Scottish professional football • education • capital

Journal of Sport & Social Issues, Vol. 29, No. 1, 102-123 (2005)
DOI: 10.1177/0193723504268730
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