Football and politics: the politics of football

How often have we heard the old adage that sport and politics should not mix? Indeed, the New Year was only days old when the International Committee of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games warned that athletes engaging in political acts of protest would face disciplinary action (Guardian 2020). The editors of this special issue of Managing Sport and Leisure insist that sport has always been political. Taking Association Football as its focus, this special issue is devoted to “Football and (P)politics” and was inspired by the Football, Politics and Popular Culture conference held at the University of Limerick in November 2016. While capital ‘P’, Politics is concerned with government, world trade agreements and global capitalism, politics with a small ‘p’ focuses on the everyday micro-politics of life and our every-day decisions.