Organisation of European Professional Football: A Stakeholder Theory Analysis

How are, and how should, stakeholder interests be represented within international football governance? Deploying stakeholder theory, this contribution analyses the constellation of stakeholder interests in European football and asserts that stakeholder salience is highest when attributes of legitimacy, power and urgency are displayed. The contribution questions whether the integration of stakeholders into formal governance structures reflects instrumental calculations on the part of FIFA and UEFA or whether we are witnessing a normative transformation of the governance space. To evaluate this question, the chapter ends by exploring the development of the EU social dialogue in European professional football.