Description:
In Soccer's Neoliberal Pitch, John M. Sloop delivers a penetrating critique of the world's most popular sport as a defining institution of contemporary neoliberal culture. Examining soccer's media, economics, labor practices, and global spectacle, Sloop shows how the game reflects and reinforces market-driven logics of privatization, inequality, and corporate power. At the same time, he traces moments of resistance and contradiction within fandom, activism, and cultural discourse. Blending cultural studies, political economy, and critical theory, this book offers an incisive analysis of how soccer operates not only as sport, but as a powerful ideological arena shaping global social life.
Review Quotes:
"Soccer's Neoliberal Pitch will interest scholars in a number of fields, including communication, sport studies, American studies, and cultural studies. It offers an interesting and engaging account of how meanings of soccer's past and present are subtly shaped by economic and cultural forces."--Thomas Oates, author of Football and Manliness: An Unauthorized Feminist Account of the NFL
"John Sloop's look at soccer discourse in the United States is a refreshing read. While respecting the global nature of soccer, Sloop never tries to be something that he is not. He is, distinctly, an American soccer fan and produces an equally American examination of soccer's pressing issues."--International Journal of Sport Communication