Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

Click here to browse AJSM online!

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
Journal of Sport & Social Issues
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in Web of Science
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Web of Science (3)
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Right arrow Citing Articles via Scopus
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Darby, P.
Right arrow Articles by Kirwin, M.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

Football Academies and the Migration of African Football Labor to Europe

Paul Darby

University of Ulster at Jordanstown, United Kingdom

Gerard Akindes

Ohio University, Athens

Matthew Kirwin

Michigan State University, East Lansing

This article analyzes one of the key features of the increased trading in African football labor since the 1990s, the establishment of football "academies" in Africa. The article begins by setting out a broad explanatory framework that articulates the transit of African footballers to Europe and the role of football academies in this process as a form of neocolonial exploitation and impoverishment of the developing world by the developed world. A brief account of the history, geography, economics, and consequences of African football talent migration to Europe follows. The main focus of the article is the construction of a typology of football academies in Africa and an analysis of their role in the export of African football labor. The article concludes by analyzing the key challenges that the growth of football academies has posed for the African game and outlines ways that these challenges might be addressed.

Key Words: football academies • Africa • migration • exploitation • neocolonial

Journal of Sport & Social Issues, Vol. 31, No. 2, 143-161 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/0193723507300481
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?