Who makes money out of football: broadcasters, clubs, players, or investment banks? Why are clubs selling their own assets to themselves? How do fans and players take collective action to resist the further financialisation of the sport? How important are local and foreign fans to the Premier League's boom? Is it inevitable that the Premier League will go bust?

Dr James Jackson is a Hallsworth Research Fellow in Politics at University of Manchester. He joins Dr Remi Edwards and Josh White to discuss his article 'A league made in the economy's image: destabilised stability and the English Premier League's Minsky moment' (2005) co-authored with Dr James Silverwood and published in British Politics journal. They discuss the basis of football's financialisation in Thatcherism, the enduring importance of fans in making and disrupting the 'product' of Premier League football, and what might cause the Premier League's bubble to burst.

Works cited in this episode include:

David Webber, ‘Playing on the break’: Karl Polanyi and the double-movement ‘Against Modern Football’ (2015)

Edwards & Jackson, The political economy of everyday life (2022)

Cox & Philippou, Measuring the resilience of English Premier league clubs to economic recessions (2022)

Kennedy & Kennedy, Towards a Marxist political economy of football supporters (2010)

'New Thinking in Political Economy' is a monthly podcast showcasing cutting-edge political economy research that helps us to understand the world around us.

This episode is produced by the SPERI Presents… committee, including Remi Edwards, Chris Saltmarsh, Josh White, Frank Maracchione, and Andrew Hindmoor. This episode was edited by Remi Edwards, Josh White and Chris Saltmarsh. Music and audio by Andy_Gambino. Hosted on Acast. See https://acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.