This is the first book to focus on innovation as a response to globalization in soccer, in the context of the global development of the world’s most popular sport.

Concentrating on social innovation and on innovations in governance and organization, in soccer’s traditional heartlands and also at its global periphery, the book explores some of the most important contemporary themes in the social scientific study of sport, including fandom, activism, gender, governance, new media, AI, greenwashing, and sport-for-development. The book features case studies from around the world, including the US, Brazil, Türkiye, Finland, England, Spain, Japan, Morocco, Uruguay, and South Africa, and opens up new theoretical perspectives on soccer as a vector of social development and on the intersection of sport and globalization.

This is fascinating reading for anybody with an interest in the sociology of sport, sport management, sport development, soccer, political science, or global development.