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Football, nationalism and globalisation: A comparison of English and Italian
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European Journal for Sport and Society 2013, 10 (4), 345-364
Football, nationalism and globalisation: A comparison of
English and Italian football between 1930 and 2010
Roger Penn1
1
Queen’s University Belfast, Northern Ireland
Abstract: This paper compares the relationship of football and globalisation in England
and Italy between 1930 and 2010 along three dimensions. It explores the national origins
of players, managers (coaches) and owners in both countries over the longue durée
of high modernity. The paper demonstrates that football became an international game
within a wider global context almost immediately after its codification in England in
1863. However, it was also strongly affected by nationalistic templates. There was a powerful
assumption that clubs, players, supporters, managers and owners would exemplify
specific national characteristics. This affected the development of football in both countries
from the 1930s to the 1970s. In England, players and managers were predominantly
English and almost exclusively British in this period. This pattern was reinforced by strict
immigration rules developed around the time of World War I.
A similar pattern was evident in Italy. Serie A players were overwhelmingly Italian
between 1930 and the late 1980s. Indeed, between 1965 and 1980, non-Italians were
completely banned from playing football in Italy despite the provisions for the free movement
of labour in the Treaty of Rome (1957). The pattern for coaches in Serie A followed
a significantly different trajectory. In the 1930s and the 1950s there was a large proportion
of coaches in Serie A from outside Italy, particularly from neighbouring countries
such as Hungary, Austria and Yugoslavia. This reflected the much less nationalistic policy
for the recruitment of Serie A coaches during this period.
Keywords: football, globalisation, nationalism, England, Italy
Introduction
This paper analyses the juxtaposition and inter-connections between football, nationalism
and globalisation. It will show that national templates have exercised a
powerful impact upon the dynamics of globalisation since the emergence of the game
in its modern form in the mid-nineteenth century. In particular, the paper compares
the relationship of football and globalisation in England and Italy. These countries
have been, and remain, two of the major European professional football leagues. The
paper assesses the relationship of football and globalisation along three dimensions,
exploring the national origins of players, coaches (managers) and owners in the two
countries. Much of the recent sociological literature on globalisation and football
has focused on relatively recent changes (see Elliott & Weedon, 2010; Littlewood,
Mullen & Richardson, 2011; McGovern, 2002; Poli, 2010). The present analysis ex-
346	 Roger Penn
amines long term changes within the longue durée of high modernity. The trajectories
of globalisation within professional football in the two countries are explained as the
result of a combination of both the long-term structural properties of the two national
contexts and a range of specific historical conjunctural factors.
The analysis involves a combination of three theoretical approaches that are
common within economic sociology but less well known in the sociology of sport.
The first involves the exploration of social change through the intersection of long
term structural properties of societies and conjunctural episodes that are empirically
variable. This style of analysis was initially propounded by the French Annales
school which pioneered the combination of historical, demographic and sociological
methods of research (see Burke, 1972; Le Roy Ladurie, 1978; Braudel, 1979). The
second involves the use of contingency theory which is anchored in organisational
sociology (see Morgan, 2007). This is based upon the insight that there is no best way
to organise a corporation that can be deduced from theoretical first principles. Rather,
there are a set of empirical possibilities dependent upon a wide range of contextual
factors. These ideas have gained greater currency within the wider field of economic
sociology in recent years and emphasise the need for generalisations to be derived
from inductive reasoning based on empirical case studies as well as upon conventional
theoretical abstractions (see Whitley, 2000; 2007).
The third element involves the use of comparative national case studies (see
Harkness, van de Vijver & Mohler, 2003; Hoffmeyer-Zlotnik & Wolf, 2003) to explicate
sociological variations empirically. This approach is rooted in survey methodology
and emphasises the need for systematic quantitative data for effective comparative
analysis. Such a heuristic orientation has been developed extensively in the field
of economic sociology (see Penn, 1990; 2006c; 2010; Penn & Lambert, 2009) but
less so in the sociology of sport.
These three approaches share certain key theoretical methodological assumptions.
The first is that there are important empirical variations in the nature of contemporary
social phenomena which are both historical and geographic in nature. These
variations cannot be reduced to the imposition of a pre-conceived set of abstract a
priori principles. Secondly, these three approaches support the analysis of systematic
empirical data and not the selection of a few concrete examples that (inevitably) fit.
The present paper will utilise this combined approach to explore the globalisation of
football in Italy and England. It will examine changes in football through the prism
of nationalism – a factor often neglected in contemporary sociological accounts of
football.
Football from its inception: Nationality and nationalism
Football in its modern form was codified in England in the mid-nineteenth century.
This was an era of burgeoning nationalism in both Europe and Latin America. The
Football, nationalism and globalisation	 347
impetus for nationalism originated during the French Revolution (see Thomson,
1990) and developed with the unification of Italy and Germany (see Beales & Biagini,
2003; Hargreaves, 1991). It accelerated after the demise of the Ottoman, Russian
and Austro-Hungarian empires in 1918 and increased once again after 1945 with
the de-colonisation of Asia, Africa and the Caribbean (see Springhall, 2001).
From its inception football has been powerfully affected by nationalism and
national templates. Football clubs are primarily regulated by national federations
and compete in national leagues.1
Traditionally football players, managers (coaches),
owners and spectators all came from the same nation. National forms of social organisation
were the axial principle for football historically and remain powerful today.
Football became international2
when these national federations formed international
governing bodies such as the International Olympic Committee in 1894 and
the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) in 1904. These organisations
quickly developed international football competitions. Initially this involved
Olympic competitions for men from 1908 and subsequently Football World Cups
for men after 1930. Nevertheless, these competitions took place within overarching
national templates: teams participated on the basis of nationality and still do.
As new nations have emerged over time, they have also sought affiliation to these
international bodies and to participate in international competition. The newest nation,
South Sudan, played a football international against Uganda within months of
its independence in 2011. The emergence of international football at the end of the
nineteenth century and in the early twentieth century paralleled the wider growth of
international political organisations such as the International Committee of the Red
Cross, the League of Nations and the International Labour Office.
Football remains both national in its organising principles and international in
that national organisation inevitably entails international forms of competition and
regulation. The competitive logic of the national templates that underpin international
contests within football are seen in their purest form when two national teams
line up before international matches and the respective national anthems are sung and
their flags flown.
Football and globalisation
In recent years there has been considerable debate amongst social scientists about the
globalisation of football, a great deal of which is speculative and overly abstract (see
Giulianotti, 1999; Giulianotti & Robertson, 2009; Turnbull, Satterlee & Raab, 2008).
1	 Welsh clubs like Cardiff City and Swansea City in the English football leagues, Monaco in
the French Ligue and Berwick Rangers in the Scottish Football League Division 3 are notable
exceptions.
2	 The first official football international took place between England and Scotland in 1872
and the Home International competition between England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland was
inaugurated in 1883.
348	 Roger Penn
These approaches are teleological in orientation; globalisation is generally seen as
a unilinear, eschatological and unidirectional process (see Robertson, 1992). Systematic
empirical data to support these conjectural approaches are, however, generally
absent from these accounts. Rather, a succession of examples is selected to fit such
explanations.
For heuristic purposes, it is necessary to distinguish two main phases to globalisation
in football. Football became a global game very swiftly from the mid-nineteenth
century onwards. The Football Association (FA) was created in 1863 in London
and codified the laws of the game in that year. Football spread rapidly to the rest
of the UK.3
It also spread further afield as a result of British commercial imperialism
in the final third of the nineteenth century. Football clubs were created by merchants,4
textile manufacturers5
and those involved in the construction of the South American
railway system6
(see Murray, 1996). However, this dispersion of football took place
within a system of nation states which formed the context for subsequent international
competitions such as the South American Championship (now the Copa América)
and the Mitropa Cup (a precursor to the Champions League played between club
teams in Central Europe between 1927 and 1992). Indeed, international competition
in football was an essential component of the nationalistic template dominant in the
late nineteenth century. It continues to resonate powerfully in the contemporary era.
More recently a new form of globalisation has begun to emerge and football
has been seen as an exemplar of these changes (see Giulianotti & Robertson, 2004;
2009; Maguire, 1999; Ritzer & Andrews, 2007). The newest phase of global football
incorporates a series of inter-related elements. Central to this has been the emergence
of global television coverage of club and international competitions (see Boyle &
Haynes, 2004; Rowe, 2011; Sage, 2010). This has promoted and enhanced the development
of global footballing brands such as Manchester United, Real Madrid,
Barcelona and Juventus. These clubs are supported by global fan bases. There is
also global sponsorship of club competitions and World Cups involving companies
like Coca Cola, McDonalds, Visa and Sony.7
Nevertheless, national templates remain
very powerful. As yet there is little evidence of the emergence of supra-national
leagues and concomitant global competition.8
This is in contrast with Rugby Union in
the southern hemisphere where clubs from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa
currently compete in the Super 15 league. Indeed, club competitions within football
remain predominantly national in scope. International club competitions like the
3	 The Scottish FA was founded in 1873, the Welsh FA in 1876 and the Irish FA in 1880.
4	 AC Milan.
5	 Barcelona.
6	 Peñarol and Rosario Central.
7	 All are major sponsors of the 2014 Football World Cup.
8	 The FIFA World Club Championship is the only possible exception and it is not a league
competition at all.
Football, nationalism and globalisation	 349
UEFA Champions League and the Copa América are predicated upon prior success
in national leagues.
However, a notable feature of the development of this latest phase of the globalisation
of football has involved the increasingly diverse national origins of football
players in the five major European leagues in England, France, Germany, Italy
and Spain (see McGovern, 2002; Littlewood et al., 2011; Storey, 2011). This has been
paralleled by the increasing diversity of coaches (managers), owners and, to a lesser
degree, of spectators themselves.
The empirical cornerstone of the present paper involves an examination of the
contours of these changes within English and Italian football since 1930.9
English
and Italian football have been major forces in European football over the last century.
The English league was created in 1888 and Italy’s Serie A in 1929. The paper
involves a matched longitudinal comparison of the two countries since 1930 and is
designed to provide rigorous and systematic comparative data on the national origins
of players, managers/coaches and owners over this period.
Methods and data used
There are no complete continuous data sets on the nationality of players, managers
or owners in either England or Italy. The data used in this analysis were located from
various sources. For England the data for the 1930s and 1950s were taken from the
two respective FA Cup Final teams between 1930 and 1939 and between 1950 and
1959. This involved 22 players and 2 managers each year. In the period from 1871
– when the FA (Football Association) Cup was inaugurated – until the 1960s, the FA
Cup constituted England’s most important club competition. Winning the FA Cup
was the pinnacle of achievement for players, managers, supporters and owners. It
was valued more highly than winning the First Division Championship. Its mystique
after World War II was enhanced as it was the only club match to be shown live on
television in England. This lasted until 1983. However, after the advent of European
club competition and in particular the European Cup in the late 1950s, league position
increasingly became the benchmark of club success in England. Nowadays
winning the English Premier League is seen as the most prestigious domestic club
competition.
The data for the 1970-71 season were taken from the Rothman’s Football Yearbook
1971-72 (Camkin, 1971). The squads of each of the 22 English First Division
teams in that season were operationalised as all players who played five or more
league games during the 1970-71 season. The data for the 2010-11 season were initially
taken from the squads notified to the Premier League for that season in August
2010 and corroborated subsequently by the European Football Yearbook 2011-12
(Hammond, 2011).
9	 The present paper builds upon previous empirical research into English and Italian football
(see Penn, 2004; 2006a; 2006b).
350	 Roger Penn
The Italian data all derive from Serie A clubs. The information for the 1930s
and 1950s were taken from the Dizionario del Calcio Italiano (Sappino, 2000) for
the 10 championship-winning squads during these decades. The data for the 1988-89
season were taken from all the Serie A squads in that year as catalogued in the Annuario
del Calcio Mondiale, 1988/89 (Presti, 1988) and for the 2010-11 season from
the journal Calcio Italia (2010). In all cases the nationality (or nationalities) of the
players, managers (coaches) and owners were calibrated using a range of historical
and contemporary sources.10
The samples of players, managers (coaches) and owners from England and Italy
were broadly similar. In most cases they are taken from the two respective top tier
league competitions. This was used for all four Italian sub-samples as well as for
England in 1970/71 and 2010/11. The English data for the 1930s and 1950s were
derived from the two FA Cup Final teams in these decades. This reflected the higher
status of such teams during these decades. All but one of these teams11
were members
of the top tier of English football during this period.
The time scale for the matched comparison was the same as far as possible.
Serie A only began in 1929 and the 1930s therefore marked a shared point for commencing
the analysis. The 1950s and the contemporary period were also periods in
common in the analysis. The data for 1970-71 in England and 1988/89 in Italy were
designed to accommodate the banning of foreign players in Italy between 1965 and
1980. Overall these quantitative data provide a clear picture of the national origins of
players, managers (coaches) and owners in top tier football in both countries over the
period from 1930 to 2010.
Trajectories of nationality within English football since 1930
This section explores the trajectories of nationality and national origins within English
football. In particular it examines patterns of national origins amongst players,
managers and owners of English top-tier professional football clubs since 1930.
The data for players and managers in the 1930s and 1950s were derived from
the two FA Cup Final teams in each year during the decades 1930 to 1939 and 1950
to 1959. Most of the 220 Cup Final players between 1930 and 1939 were English
(see Table 1). Indeed, almost three quarters of the players were English and almost all
the others were Scottish. There had been a longstanding connection between the top
English clubs and Scotland dating back to the late nineteenth century (see Sanders,
2009). Blackburn Rovers, Darwen and Preston North End employed large numbers
of Scottish players as professionals in the 1880s (see Francis, 1925). By 1910, 19.3%
of English Football League players were Scots (Vamplew, 1988). Teams like New-
10	 I would like to thank Professor Alex Baroncelli of the Università Cattolica, Milano for his
assistance with this part of the research.
11	 West Bromwich Albion in 1931.
Football, nationalism and globalisation	 351
castle United, Sunderland and Preston continued to recruit large numbers of Scots
before and after the First World War (Lanfranchi & Taylor, 2001).
Table 1: National origins of players in English Top Tier football (Percentages)
1930s 1950s 1970/71 2010/11
English 73.6 70.0 73.2 34.7
Scottish 24.1 16.4 17.2 3.5
Welsh 2.3 6.4 3.2 2.5
Irish - 5.0 5.2 7.5
African - - - 9.4
South & Central American - 1.4 - 5.6
Other - 0.9 1.2 36.8
N 220 220 343 481
This pattern reflected the strength of Scottish football in the period before 1914. Scotland
was the home of tactical innovation in the last quarter of the nineteenth century
(see Sanders, 2009). The Scottish passing game proved superior to the more traditional
dribbling style prevalent amongst the earliest English teams. Between 1872
and 1887 Scotland won 10 of the annual international fixtures with England. This
included a 7-2 victory at Hampden Park in 1878. England only secured two victories
during the same period. This dominance continued during the 1920s as Scotland won
six of the encounters between 1920 and 1929, including a 5-1 defeat of England at
Wembley in 1928.
Scottish players appeared regularly in English FA Cup Finals during the 1930s.
Preston North End fielded 7 Scots in both their 1937 defeat by Sunderland and their
victory over Huddersfield Town in 1938. During the 1930s England managed only
two victories over Scotland internationally. Interestingly virtually no English players
moved in the opposite direction to Scottish clubs at this time. The main exception
was Sid Puddefoot who moved from West Ham to Falkirk in 1922 for £5000.
As a result of the multi-national nature of the United Kingdom – mirrored in the
organisational structure of the British game into four national federations (England,
Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland12
) – top-tier football players in England in the
1930s were both multi-national in origins and exclusively British. No players from
outside the UK appeared in any of the 22 FA Cup Final teams during the 1930s (see
Table 1).
The pattern in the 1950s was very similar: around three quarters of the players
in the 10 Cup Finals between 1950 and 1959 were English, 16% were Scottish and
6% Welsh (see Table 1). There were also four players born outside the British Isles
who featured in these games. The Robledo brothers, who played for Newcastle Unit-
12	 Since 1921.
352	 Roger Penn
ed in the 1951 and 1952 Cup Finals13
, were both born in Chile to a Chilean father and
an English mother but migrated to Yorkshire as very young children. Indeed, George
Robledo played for Chile in the 1950 World Cup Finals despite speaking no Spanish!
Bert Trautmann, who played in goal for Manchester City in the 1955 and 1956 Cup
Finals, was a German prisoner-of-war in England who had refused repatriation in
1948. In 1949 he signed for Manchester City amidst considerable protest at the hiring
of a decorated former German paratrooper. Nonetheless, he became a great favourite
with the fans after making 545 appearances for the club.
This picture of predominantly English and overwhelmingly British players in
the top-tier of English football remained essentially the same in the early 1970s.
Almost three quarters of the players in English First Division squads14
during the
1970-71 season were English and a further 17% were Scottish (see Table 1). There
were very few players from overseas. Two (Viljoen at Ipswich Town and Smethurst at
Chelsea) had been born in South Africa and Clyde Best (West Ham United) was from
Bermuda. Arentoft (Newcastle United) came from Denmark and Kemp (Blackpool)
was born in Italy to an Italian mother and a British soldier in the 8th
Army. In total,
foreign-born players constituted around 1% of the total numbers of players in the
English First Division in the 1970/71 season.
The dominance of British players in English top tier football from the 1930s to
the 1970s was a function of several inter-related factors. English football was highly
insular from its inception in 1863 until the late 1950s. The English FA were contemptuous
of FIFA and did not participate in the three World Cups during the 1930s.
Rather, they preferred to take on the top European teams at home and beat them. This
occurred in 1932 with the visit of the Austrian Wunderteam and in 1934 at the Battle
of Highbury when England defeated the recent World Cup Winners, Italy, in a notoriously
violent encounter.
This insularity was bolstered by the closed nature of the British labour market
for professional footballers. The 1914 British Nationality Act and the 1919 Aliens
Act provided strict guidelines for the employment of foreign players (Holmes, 1988).
Overseas players were denied access to English football.15
This was illustrated dramatically
when Arsenal signed Rudy Hiden – the Vienna AC goalkeeper – in 1930.
He was denied entry to Britain by immigration officers. These legal barriers were
strongly supported by the Players’ Union and the FA. In 1931 the FA created a comprehensive
set of eligibility rules for non-British players, including a two-year resi-
13	 George Robledo played in both and his brother Ted played in the 1952 Final.
14	 Data taken from Rothman’s Football Yearbook, 1971-72.
15	 Dominion and colonial players had unrestricted access although few were signed. The reasons
for this require further research. The situation for southern Irish players after partition
in 1922 and independence in 1948 was essentially the same as that for dominion players (see
Bryne’s Green is the Colour, 2012).
Football, nationalism and globalisation	 353
dential qualification that was maintained until the mid-1970s16
(see Lanfranchi &
Taylor, 2001).
The picture by 2010 was significantly different. Only around a third of the players
in Premier League squads were English (see Table 1). Just over half came from
outside the British Isles. These players came from a wide variety of countries in Africa,
Latin America and Europe.
These patterns were mirrored by the national origins of managers in England.
During the 1930s most managers of teams in FA Cup Finals were English (see Table
2). The rest were Scottish. Indeed Scottish managers tended to import Scots as players.
This situation remained essentially the same in the 1950s and in the 1970/71
season. Managers were predominantly English and the rest were mainly Scottish.
Table 2: National origins of managers in English Top Tier football
1930s* 1950s 1970/71 2010/11
English 16 16 18 6
Scottish 3 3 3 4
Welsh - 1 - 1
Italian - - - 3
Other - - 1 6
* The 1933 FA Cup winners [Everton] had no manager at the time of the final.
The pattern for managers of teams in the English Premier League in 2010 paralleled
the increasingly diverse global origins of players. English (30%) and Scots (20%)
accounted for half of the total (see Table 2). Overall, almost two thirds of managers
were British. In addition there were 3 Italians, 2 Frenchmen as well as an Israeli and
a Spaniard.
Table 3: National origins of owners of English Premier League clubs 2010/11
	
English 10
UK Overseas Trusts 3
American 6
Russian 2
Egyptian 1
Abu Dhabi 1
Latvia 1
This increasing globalisation of players and managers in England was mirrored in
the increasingly diverse national origins of the owners of Premier League clubs (see
Table 3). In the 1930s, 1950s and 1970s, the owners of top tier English clubs were
16	 Britain’s entry into the European Common Market in 1973 meant that players from Continental
Europe had free access to the UK labour market.
354	 Roger Penn
overwhelmingly English. By 2010/11 just over half were connected to the UK, either
directly or as offshore owners (see Nauright & Ramfjord, 2010). The latter included
ENIC at Tottenham Hotspur (Bahamas), Davies at Bolton Wanderers (Isle of Man)
and Blackburn’s Jack Walker Trust (Jersey). A further quarter were from the USA,
notably Glazer who owned Manchester United, Hicks and Gillett, owners of Liverpool
and Lerner at Aston Villa. Other US owners included Kroenke who part-owned
Arsenal and Short at Sunderland. These American owners were relatively new to
English football but all – apart from Short – had extensive experience of owning
major US sports franchises.17
Other foreign owners included Al-Fayed (Egypt) at
Fulham, Usmanov (Russia) at Arsenal, Belekon (Latvia) at Blackpool, Abramovich
(Russia) at Chelsea, Yeung (Hong Kong) at Birmingham City and Mansour (Abu
Dhabi) at Manchester City.
Trajectories of nationality within Italian football since 1930
Italian football was strongly influenced by Britain in its early development. This was encapsulated
in the names of two of its earliest clubs – AC Milan and Genoa – both of which
were founded by Englishmen as Cricket and Football Clubs. Both clubs still retain their
anglicised spellings in tribute to these roots. By the early 1920s there were a number of
British, Austrian and Hungarian nationals playing football in Italy. This changed abruptly
when Mussolini’s Fascist Government took control of Italian football in the mid 1920s
and adopted a series of ultra-nationalist, autarkic policies (see Martin, 2004). In 1926 all
foreigners were banned from playing in Italy as a result of the Carta di Viareggio (Charter
of Viareggio).
Table 4: National origins of players in Italian Top Tier football [Percentages]
1930s 1950s 1988 2010/11
Italian 91.1 85.2 85.1 56.6
South American 6.7 5.5 6.6 19.2
African - - - 3.6
Other 2.2 9.3 8.2 20.7
N 179 183 329 590
Serie A – Italy’s top tier league – first began in 1929 and throughout the 1930s an
overwhelming proportion of players for the championship winning clubs were born
in Italy (see Table 4). However, 12 (6.7%) were from South America and 4 (2.2%)
had been born in either Fiume or Istria. The latter two areas had been incorporated
into Italy after the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire at the end of the First
17	 Glazer owned the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (National Football League, NFL), Lerner the Cleveland
Browns (NFL), Kroenke a range of sports clubs including the St Louis Rams (NFL) and
Colorado Rapids (Major League Soccer) and Hicks and Gillett a range of NHL teams as well
as Hicks’ involvement with the Brazilian football club Corinthians.
Football, nationalism and globalisation	 355
World War (see Monzali, 2009). Both Fiume and the littoral of Istria were predominantly
Italian-speaking regions in the first four decades of the twentieth century but
players born in both areas before 1918 were technically born outside Italy, although
they were seen as bona fide Italians by the Italian political and sporting authorities at
the time. After the Italian defeat in the Second World War, Fiume and Istria became
part of Yugoslavia. Today Fiume (renamed Rijeka) lies in Croatia and Istria is divided
between Slovenia and Croatia.
Many of the South Americans playing in Italy during the 1930s were categorised
as rimpatriati (returnees). They were children of Italian emigrants to Argentina,
Uruguay and Brazil. Italian emigration to Latin America was even greater than the
exodus to the United States despite the latter migration receiving much greater attention
by novelists and film-makers (see Ratti, 1931; Rosoli, 1978; Pozzetta & Ramirez,
1992). As Gabaccia (2000) put it in her seminal study of the Italian diaspora “Italians
enjoyed far superior job opportunities in Latin America” (78). One important aspect
differentiating Italian immigrants’ experiences in Latin America compared to North
America was the fact that they fitted easily into the dominant ethnic and racial categories
of the time.18
Brazil currently has around 25 million Italo-Brazilians, mainly concentrated in
and around São Paulo in the south east of the country. Uruguay has an even greater
proportion of people with Italian ancestry (see Devoto, 1993; Goebel, 2010; Oddone,
1966). It is estimated that they constitute around 40% of the contemporary
Uruguayan population. There was also widespread Italian emigration to Argentina
between the 1880s and 1960s (see Baily, 1999; Devoto, 2007; Faini & Venturini,
1994; Germani, 1970; Korn, 1983; Lewis, 2003).
The close links between Italian football and the Italian diaspora in Latin America
were seen in the fact that five of the twenty two players from Argentina and
Uruguay that took part in the inaugural World Cup Final in 1930 in Montevideo
were subsequently transferred to Italian Serie A clubs. Mascheroni, who had represented
Uruguay, moved to Ambrosiana [Mussolini’s prefered name for Inter Milan]
and went on to play for the Italian national team. Argentina’s star player, Luis Monti,
went to Juventus and won 18 caps for the Azzurri. Indeed, he played for Italy in their
World Cup victory over Czechoslovakia in Rome in 1934.19
Such players were classified
as rimpatriati in order to circumvent the banning of foreign players by the FIGC
(Federazione Italiana Giuoco del Calcio) in its Carta di Viareggio.20
Pozzo, the Italian
18	 See Roediger (2005) and Gugliemo and Salerno’s (2007) analyses of how Italians struggled
to throw off their non-whiteness in the USA. This compares with Italians’reception as creoles
in South America.
19	 There were four Argentines (De Maria, Orsi, Monti and Guaita) and one Brazilian (Filo) in
the 1934 Italian World Cup squad (see Gordon & London, 2005).
20	 The Carta permitted the inclusion of two rimpatriati per club until its abolition at the end of
the Second World War (see Foot, 2006)
356	 Roger Penn
manager of the 1934 and 1938 World Cup winners, responded to international criticisms
of his use of rimpatriati with the orthodox contemporary view that “according
to Italian law, the sons of Italians born abroad are considered Italians” (Pozzo, 1960,
124).21
There was a very similar pattern amongst players in Serie A during the 1950s
(see Table 4). Most players for the championship winning clubs were Italian (85.1%)
and over a third of foreigners came from South America. Many had Italian ancestry
and were now classified as oriundi (immigrants with family roots in Italy). Some
became Italian internationals, most notably the Argentines, Maschio and Sivori; the
Brazilians, Sormani and Altafini and the Uruguayans, Ghiggia and Schiaffino (Papa
& Panico, 2002). These two Uruguayans had been World Cup winners in 1950. Most
of these Latin American players were strikers, as were almost all the Scandinavian
players in Serie A such as the Swedes, Nordahl and Gren and the Danes, Hansen,
Praest and Sørensen.22
However, whilst most players in Serie A Scudetto (title-winning) teams were
Italian in the 1930s and in the 1950s, the picture was very different for coaches (see
Table 5). In the 1930s, four of the winning coaches were either Hungarian or Austri-
an.23
This was partly a function of their geographic proximity and partly because both
countries were the powerhouses of technical innovation in football during the interwar
years. In the case of Hungary this continued until the Hungarian uprising in 1956.
Indeed, three of the title-winning coaches during the 1950s were also Hungarian24
as
well another who was from Yugoslavia25
(see Table 5).
Table 5: National origins of coaches in Italian Top Tier football
1930s 1950s 1988 2010/11
Italian 5 6 15 18
Hungarian 3 3 - Other
2 1 3 2
The poor performances by Italy in a succession of World Cups between 1950 and
1962 led to a complete ban on foreign players in Italy between 1965 and 1980. Despite
the successful Italian campaign in Mexico in 1970 when the Azzurri lost in the
World Cup final to Brazil, the national team reverted to mediocrity during the 1974
21	 This principle of Italian nationality based on ius sanguinis continued until the demise of Fascism
(see Gordon & London, 2005).
22	 The precise regulations covering the employment of foreign football players in Italy changed
almost every year during the 1950s. Each successive change narrowed the number of foreigners
who could be signed (see Foot, 2006).
23	 Veisz (Hungary) won the Scudetto with Inter in 1929/30 and with Bologna in 1935/6 and
1936/7. Felsner (Austria) won with Bologna in 1938/9.
24	 Czeizler with AC Milan in 1950/1, Sarosi with Juventus in 1951/52 and Bela Guttman with
AC Milan in 1954/5.
25	 Brocic with Juventus in 1957/8.
Football, nationalism and globalisation	 357
and 1978 World Cup competitions and the ban on foreign players in Serie A was
rescinded in 1980.
There were similar proportions of South American players in the 1988/89 season
(6.6%) as had been evident in the 1950s (5.5%). However, the geographical origins
of the other foreign players in Serie A in 1988/89 were more diverse than earlier.
In particular, there was an influx of players from Germany, Holland, Sweden,
Belgium, England and Yugoslavia. Overall, most players in Serie A in 1988/89 were
Italian (85.1%) as was also the case for coaches (83.3% Italian).
The situation in 2010/11 had changed significantly for players in Serie A (see
Table 4). Only 56.6% of players were Italian. There had been a large increase in the
proportion of South American players to 19.2% and a further 24.3% were of various
other nationalities.26
African players constituted 3.6% of Serie A squads in 2010/11,
itself a new phenomenon in Italy and one which reflected the improvement in the
quality of African football. It also contributed to the increasingly serious spread of
racism amongst spectators in Serie A.27
In 2010/11 most coaches were Italian (18 out
of 20). The two foreign coaches comprised Benitez (Spanish) at Inter and Mihajlovic
(Serbian) at Fiorentina.
During the period between 1930 and 2010, there were no foreign owners of
Serie A clubs, with the one exception of Vicenza where ENIC28
purchased a stake in
the late 1990s.29
This reflected the wider lack of internationalisation within the Italian
economy (see Hall & Soskice, 2001). Traditional patterns of corporatism and autarky
inherited from the Fascist period continued to affect the nature of ownership amongst
Italian companies throughout the post – Second World War era. During the summer
of 2011 Thomas DiBenedetto – an American of Italian ancestry – headed a US consortium
that purchased a majority stake in AS Roma. This is the only Italian top tier
team currently with foreign ownership. Italian football clubs remain overwhelmingly
Italian in ownership – a pattern that reflects the wider structures of ownership in Italy
(see Ciofi, 1962; Salvati, 2000).
Conclusions
The trajectories of globalisation in English and Italian football since 1930 have followed
distinct and differing paths. In the case of the nationality of owners of top tier clubs in
26	 Almost all of these were from other European countries
27	 In November 2005, Zoro playing for Messina against Inter attempted to stop the match as
a result of racist abuse from opposition supporters. In April 2009 Mario Balotelli (Inter)
received considerable racial abuse from Juventus supporters. In March 2012 there was racist
chanting at the Rome derby between Lazio and Roma fans. In this case both sets of supporters
targeted their respective opponent’s black players.
28	 ENIC also owned the majority of shares in Tottenham Hotspur during this period as well as a
stake in Rangers.
29	 This was sold in 2005 and Vicenza has not featured in Serie A since 2001.
358	 Roger Penn
both countries, the pattern in Italy has remained overwhelmingly determined by nationality
throughout the period but it has changed significantly in England recently. Previously
almost all the owners of English clubs were also English. By 2010/11, 14 Premier League
clubs had some kind of overseas’ ownership and 9 had exclusively foreign owners. Many
of these owners were from the USA and had close links with American professional
sports’ teams. Currently AS Roma also has US owners, with similar backgrounds in the
ownership and management of American sports’teams. It remains to be seen whether Italy
will follow a similar path to England in terms of foreign ownership of top tier football
clubs. As yet this has not occurred.
Figure 1: Trajectories of players and coaches/managers in Serie A & the English top tier, 1930-2010
The trajectories for managers and coaches have also followed distinct paths in the
two countries (see Figure 1). In England, most coaches between the 1930s and the
1970s were English: the remainder were predominantly Scottish. This pattern had
changed by the 2010/11 season. Only half the managers were English or Scottish.
However, the other Premier League managers were from a wide range of foreign
countries, including Italy, Spain, France and Israel.
In Italy, on the other hand, the proportion of foreign coaches declined significantly
over the period between 1930 and 2010 (see Figure 1). In the 1930s and
1950s, 40% of Serie A championship-winning coaches were non-Italian. Most of
them were Hungarian but there was also an Austrian and a Yugoslav. In 1988/89 and
in 2010/11 almost all the coaches in Serie A were Italian. This trajectory for coaches
in Italy therefore follows a path of decreasing globalisation and mirrors local norms
surrounding the ownership of clubs in Italy. This contrasts clearly with the pattern in
Football, nationalism and globalisation	 359
the English top tier, where there has been a dramatic increase in the number of nonBritish
managers.
The trajectories for players in Italy and England have been powerfully affected
by the differing historical contexts in the two countries. There has been a longstanding
flow of Scottish – and to a lesser extent Welsh and Irish – players into the top tier
of English football. In the 1930s, 1950s and in 1970/71 the majority of players were
English and the rest predominantly Scottish. This was originally the result of the
dominance of British football before the First World War. Subsequently it was sustained
by arrogance and insularity but later these attitudes were reinforced by the explicit
banning of non-British players from playing professional football in England.
This was part of a wider xenophobic restriction of access to Britain for international
migrants embodied in the Aliens Act (1905) and the introduction of compulsory passports
as a cornerstone for restrictions after 1914. It also mirrored the peculiarities
of Britain’s imperial legacy. From 1905 to 1962 citizens of the Commonwealth and
from the Empire, as well as those from the Irish Free State (later Eire and currently
the Irish Republic) were exempt from these statutory immigration controls imposed
on foreigners. This situation had changed dramatically by the 2010/11 season (see
Figure 1). Only a third of players in the Premier League were English and less than
half were British.
The pattern in Italy followed a different trajectory. In the 1930s most players
in Serie A were Italian and the rest had strong ethnic/patrilineal links with Italy. This
applied to the South American rimpatriati who featured both in Serie A championship
teams and in Italy’s successful World Cup squads in 1934 and 1938. The profile
in the 1950s was very similar: most players in Serie A were Italian but there was a
wider spread in the geographical origins of foreign players. In particular, there was a
strong influx of Scandanavian players, as well as a continued flow of South American
oriundi, into the Italian top tier.
Between 1965 and 1980 foreign players were banned from Italian football (see
Figure 1). However, by the 1988/89 season the earlier pattern had reasserted itself:
most players were Italian and foreign players came from an increasingly diverse set
of national origins, including Holland and West Germany as well as Latin America.
The situation in 2010/11 was very different. Less than 60% of players in Serie A
squads were Italian. Around 20% were from South America, which was a far higher
proportion than were present – much more controversially – in the 1930s and 1950s.
Overall the trajectory for players in Serie A followed a broad U-curve (see Figure
1). Globalisation of players increased in the 1950s, stopped completely between
1965 and 1980, resumed in the 1980s and increased by the 2010/11 season. Nevertheless,
the extent of globalisation of players in Italy was significantly lower than in
England where only a third of Premier League players were English by 2010. There
remains a strong cultural expectation amongst Italians that the majority of players in
Serie A should remain Italian.
360	 Roger Penn
This paper has explored the dialectic between globalisation and national forms
of social organisation of football in England and Italy. It has shown that the global
connections between the two national contexts have been affected by close political,
economic and social connections between both countries and other nations. In the
case of England, this centred upon both the close links between England and Scotland,
Wales and Ireland both in terms of their common economic and supra-national
space and the exclusion of foreigners before the UK’s accession to the European
Common Market in 1973. In the case of Italy it was premised upon the patrilineal
links between Italy and Italian emigrants in South America and their descendants.
It is clear that the respective trajectories of the national origins of players,
coaches/managers and owners differed both within England and Italy and between
the two countries over the period between 1930 and 2010.
The analysis has revealed the complexity and subtleties of the inter-connections
between nationalism, internationalism and globalisation. All three have been integral
to the development of football. However, there is evidence of a changing form to this
triadic relationship. The latest phase involves an intensification of the globalisation
of players in the two countries but far less evidence of it amongst owners of clubs in
Italy when compared to England. The trajectories for coaches are also significantly
different between the two countries.
There was no evidence of a single, determinate, unilinear pattern of globalisation
across the three dimensions examined. Generalisations based on the national
origins of players do not necessarily equate with isomorphic patterns for coaches/
managers or for owners. These conclusions suggest strongly the need for contingent,
empirical, historically-contextualised explanations of the processes of change
in European football rather than the generalised, unidirectional accounts that have
dominated recent discourse.
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Roger Penn is currently Professor of Sociology at Queen’s University Belfast. Author
of 14 books, including Children of International Migrants in Europe; Class, Power and
Technology, and Skilled Workers in the Class Structure. Previously Director of the EUfunded
Effectiveness of National Integration Strategies in Europe.
Department of Sociology, Social Policy and Social Work, Queen’s University Belfast,
BT7 1NN, Northern Ireland
E-mail: r.penn@qub.ac.uk
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