Representation and Control in the Governance of European Football

Abstract

A diverse set of actors expressed their concerns and anger over the state of affairs within FIFA in the aftermath of the 2015 corruption scandal. Government officials, players, national and continental football federations, fans, and sponsors registered their disappointment and demanded change. This chapter demonstrates that this can be explained by the fact that FIFA, like UEFA, represents and, thus, acts as an agent for a broad and diverse set of principals. For the sake of clarity, these are categorised as football principals (players, players’ agents, clubs, national federations, and commercial partners), commercial principals (commercial partners) and political principals (political actors). This chapter largely makes abstraction of EU control. It nonetheless demonstrates that the EU has been a game changer in football governance since it provided football principals with more options to sanction FIFA and UEFA.