Dominic Malcolm

Drug use in English professional football

Objectives: To examine several issues related to drug use in English professional football. More particularly the project sought to gather data on: players’ use of permitted supplements (mineral and vitamin pills and creatine); whether they sought advice, and if so from whom, about their use of supplements; their experience of and attitudes towards drug testing; their views on the extent of the use of banned performance enhancing and recreational drugs in football; and their personal knowledge of players who used such drugs. Methods: With the cooperation of the Professional Footballers Association (PFA), reply paid postal questionnaires were delivered to the home addresses of all 2863 members of the PFA. A total of 706 questionnaires were returned, a response rate of just under 25%. Results: Many players use supplements, although almost one in five players does so without seeking qualified professional advice from anyone within the club. Blood tests are rarely used to monitor the health of players. One third of players had not been tested for drugs within the preceding two years, and 60% felt that they were unlikely to be tested in the next year. The use of performance enhancing drugs appears to be rare, although recreational drugs are commonly used by professional footballers: 6% of respondents indicated that they personally knew players who used performance enhancing drugs, and 45% of players knew players who used recreational drugs. Conclusions: There is a need to ensure that footballers are given appropriate advice about the use of supplements in order to minimise the risk of using supplements that may be contaminated with banned substances. Footballers are tested for drugs less often than many other elite athletes. This needs to be addressed. The relatively high level of recreational drug use is not reflected in the number of positive tests. This suggests that many players who use recreational drugs avoid detection. It also raises doubts about the ability of the drug testing programme to detect the use of performance enhancing drugs.

Decivilizing, civilizing or informalizing? The international development of Mixed Martial Arts

This article contributes to ongoing debates about trends in violence in sport through an examination of the emergence of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA). The article counters suggestions that the rise of MMA is indicative of a decivilizing and/or de-sportizing process, arguing instead that the development of MMA can best be explained with reference to the concepts of informalization and the ‘quest for excitement’. More particularly, the article argues that MMA emerged as a global sport as a consequence of the ascendancy of professionalism over amateurism, through a hybridization of Eastern and Western combat styles, and due to participants’ desires to generate increased levels of excitement. The article argues that despite academic and public portrayals to the contrary, considerable self-restraint characterizes the violence in MMA. The sport has, however, oscillated between more and less violent forms as relatively ‘de-sensitized’ participants and wider public lobbies have contested the definition of socially tolerable violence. In order to maintain spectator appeal under increasingly stringent regulation promoters have sought to make ‘cosmetic’ changes to MMA to increase the appearance of de-controlled violence. The article concludes by arguing that combat sports are inherently contentious as they necessarily exist close to the boundary between ‘real’ and ‘mock’ fighting and thus on the margins of modern sport.

England's Barmy Army - commercialization, masculinity and nationalism.

This article examines a group of English cricket supporters known as the Barmy Army which explicitly and self-consciously challenges the traditions of spectatorship in English cricket. Following a discussion of who the Barmy Army are and a description of the distinctive characteristics of the style of their support, we seek to examine the factors which have led to the group’s development at this particular time and in this specific sporting context. The article argues that in order to understand why the Barmy Army arose and why it has had such a significant impact on the game we must consider: a) society-wide processes such as time-space compression and the development of ‘New Laddism’; b) sports-wide processes such as changes in football and in football supporter cultures; and c) sport-specific processes such as cricket’s economic development and the internationalization of the game. The article concludes by suggesting that the Barmy Army represent a qualitatively new form of English national identity, t...This article examines a group of English cricket supporters known as the Barmy Army which explicitly and self-consciously challenges the traditions of spectatorship in English cricket. Following a discussion of who the Barmy Army are and a description of the distinctive characteristics of the style of their support, we seek to examine the factors which have led to the group’s development at this particular time and in this specific sporting context. The article argues that in order to understand why the Barmy Army arose and why it has had such a significant impact on the game we must consider: a) society-wide processes such as time-space compression and the development of ‘New Laddism’; b) sports-wide processes such as changes in football and in football supporter cultures; and c) sport-specific processes such as cricket’s economic development and the internationalization of the game. The article concludes by suggesting that the Barmy Army represent a qualitatively new form of English national identity, that its behavioural style involves a blurring of traditional class-based forms of spectatorship, and that the influence wielded by this small, deviant, group indicates the relatively limited nature of the cricketing establishment’s power.

‘It’s not Cricket’: Colonial Legacies and Contemporary Inequalities

Cricket has been historically significant in defining notions of English national identity and continues to feature in debates over the inclusion/exclusion of immigrants in British society. British-African-Caribbean players are well represented in the English game but participation appears mediated by ethnic group membership. This contemporary pattern can only be understood when contextualized within the historical development of cricket in the Caribbean and, in particular, the struggles between whites and blacks and between the white elites. Over-representation in certain cricketing roles has been an ever-present feature of this negotiation; contemporary inequality is, therefore, largely a consequence of the legacy of British Imperialism. *****

“Woolmergate”: Cricket and the Representation of Islam and Muslims in the British Press

This article illustrates how the media represent Islam and Muslims in the post-9/11 context through an examination of British newspaper coverage of the death of Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer at the 2007 Cricket World Cup. The article argues that key elements of the cultural stereotyping of Islam and Muslims identified in Said’s Orientalism—namely, violence, irrationality, and backwardness—were reproduced. These ideas stem from, and reinforce, a narrative of absolute and systematic difference between the East and the West. Thus, representations of Islam and Muslims in sport-related coverage, just as in “mainstream” reporting, tend to be negative and hostile. The article further argues that such representation has become more homogeneous and more heavily focused on religion and terrorism post-9/11 and that uniform and uncritical portrayals are particularly likely to appear in the seemingly apolitical context of sport-related issues.

Gymnastics and child abuse: an analysis of former international Portuguese female artistic gymnasts

The growing competitiveness of modern sport means that children, from very early ages, are increasingly submitted to intensive training programmes. These programmes are problematic for young athletes not only because their developing bodies are particularly susceptible to different kinds of injuries, but because athletes are also particularly vulnerable to experiences of different kinds of abuses. Using data collected through semi-structured interviews this study examines the various kinds of abuse that former Portuguese female gymnasts underwent during their sporting careers. Interviewees were asked to reflect on their past experiences and discuss aspects of the gymnastics subculture. Weight control, training/competing with injuries and corporal punishment emerged as key themes. The study therefore shows that the physical and psychological abuse of young athletes occurs even beyond the confines of elite professional sport, and thus that a broader spectrum of athletes learn to consider these forms of exploitation and abuse as normal.

Professional relations in sport healthcare: Workplace responses to organisational change

This article examines the impact of organisational changes in UK elite sport on the professional relations among and between different healthcare providers. The article describes the processes by which demand for elite sport healthcare has increased in the UK. It further charts the subsequent response within medicine and physiotherapy and, in particular, the institutionalisation of sport-specific sub-disciplines through the introduction of specialist qualifications. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with 14 doctors and 14 physiotherapists, the article argues that organisational changes have led to intra-professional tensions within both professional groups but in qualitatively different forms reflecting the organisational traditions and professional identities of the respective disciplines. Organisational changes promoting multi-disciplinary healthcare teams have also fostered an environment conducive to high levels of inter-professional cooperation though significant elements of inter-professional conflict remain. This study illustrates how intra-professional relations are affected by specialisation, how legitimation discourses are used by different professions, and how intra- and inter-professional conflict and cooperation should be seen as highly interdependent processes.

‘Bombay Sport Exchange’: cricket, globalization and the future

Crickets imperial lineage continues to define its meaning in parts of the erstwhile British Empire. Simultaneously, the game is now a metaphor for the forces of globalization and a vehicle for asserting new post-colonial identities. The creation of the lucrative Indian Premier League and Indias rise as the financial epicentre of the game is reflective of its rise as an emerging engine of the new global financial structure and as a major market for the consumer economy. Indias rise as a new “cricket capital” is intrinsically linked to the forces of global capitalism and this has significantly changed the game power structure itself. This essay analyses the discourse around the Indian Premier League, debates around crickets new ‘Asian bloc’ and the racism row between the Indian and Australian cricket teams in January 2008, to delineate the shift in the international power dynamics of cricket and its implications for debates about post-colonialism and globalization.

Malign or benign? English national identities and cricket

This essay examines English cricket discourse in an attempt to expand upon existing analyses of English sporting nationalism. It is argued that there has been a marked strengthening of English national identity in recent years, both in sport and other spheres, and that certain historical peculiarities stand in the way of the emergence of a coherent, or unified, sense of Englishness. This essay argues that whilst discourses of Englishness and cricket were dominated by a malign sense of Englishness during the 1980s and 1990s, in the early years of the twenty-first century, a benign form of Englishness has come to the fore. It is suggested that this is a manifestation of a growing consciousness amongst those in the media and in administrative and political positions that the openness and tolerance characteristic of benign Englishness is how an increasing number of English people would like themselves to be seen.

Cricket and Civilizing Processes: A Response to Stokvis

This article examines Ruud Stokviss contention that the tendency of figurational sociologists to focus on violence and its control would be unproductive in the study of the development of non-contact sports such as cricket and that the formal organization and standardization of modern sports are their defining features. Following a brief outline of Eliass theory of civilizing processes, the relatively violent tenor of early (pre-1850s) cricket is demonstrated. An examination of the development of the games structural features (laws, customs, physical environment) illustrates that processes relating to the standardization and national diffusion of cricket are highly interdependent with measures to control the level of violence in the game. Thus, previously described characteristics of the developmental processes of relatively violent sports such as football, rugby and boxing have parallels in, and similarities with, the non-contact sport of cricket.