| This dissertation seeks to embed an account of the commercial and political transformation of the world soccer economy within the larger world-historical context from which it emerged, with particular emphasis on how this process impacted the shifting (mis)fortunes of Northern (or "First World") and Southern ("Third World") participants within the world soccer system. Through an analysis of primary documents, soccer business literatures, the soccer-related popular press, and existing scholarly works, I reconstruct a history of the commercial transformation of the sport from 1974 to the present. The analysis demonstrates that significant Third World governance in the early stages of the commercial transformation of the sport yielded structural transformations within this nascent world soccer economy that functionally mimicked what commodity chain analysts have labeled the "buyer-driven" commodity chain model. This "buyer-driven" soccer commodity chain channeled the financial benefits of deepening commercialization back to the various national football associations within the Third World for the continued development of playing talent and soccer infrastructure. However, ongoing large-scale transformations within the world system ultimately allowed for various agencies to shift the expanding commercial transformation to the English and then Western European contexts. At present, with the leading edge of the world soccer economy centered on Europe and England, the evidence points to the emergence of a model in line with the prototypical "buyer-driven" commodity chain model. Within this emergent buyer-soccer commodity chain, national football associations play only a secondary role to private, commercial football clubs. While Third World participation within the world soccer economy remains significant, the nature of the Third World's role has shifted from that of a significant governance power to a major source of low-cost labor within the world soccer economy. Overall, this is a shift that has greatly diminished the developmental benefits derived from the Third World's participation within the world soccer economy. |
