Internationalization of Football: In Fatal Proximity to Autocratic Practices

This chapter deals with the interrelation of the economization of football and its increasing willingness to accept non-democratic practices. On the national level, important actors have agreed on practices that weaken the mechanisms of accountability and replace societal participation with the economic business interests of a relatively small football elite. This tendency has an equivalent on the international level, in particular by the presence of openly non-democratic and non-controllable actors in international football associations.