ABSTRACT Media coverage of crime adversely affects tourist perception of destinations. Given that the number of gun deaths in the United States has recently reached record levels, visitors’ perception of safety is an important matter ahead of the FIFA World Cup 2026. This paper analyses survey data from the World Cup 2018 and attempts to relate the findings to the context of the 2026 event. The tournament in Russia presented a complex case with multiple violence risks perceived to exist. Media agenda-setting, framing and sensationalism had a substantial negative effect on perceptions of safety and willingness to return, in particular, for Europeans. Whilst gun violence is expected to become the most highlighted risk in 2026, its negative impact is expected to be less important than positive World Cup image attributes. It is suggested that event destinations should have a strategy on how negative media agenda-setting and framing should be dealt with.

ABSTRACT Fan zones have become an integral feature of major football tournaments, including the FIFA World Cup, providing spaces for collective viewing, entertainment, and commercial activity. This paper examines how fan zones can balance fan engagement, safety, and profitability. Using the Bolton Wanderers Football Club fan zone (2022–2023) as a case study, the study identifies practical lessons in spatial design, behaviour management, and the creation of inclusive atmospheres. Although based on a club-level example, the analysis considers how these insights can inform planning for FIFA World Cup 2026 fan zones across the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Particular attention is given to issues of proportional security, crowd behaviour, and the risks of excessive commercialisation. The findings suggest that well-designed fan zones can strengthen collective identity and contribute to event legacy, indicating that community-centred approaches may enhance the experience and inclusivity of large-scale international tournaments.

ABSTRACT The article examines the public messaging around the 2018 (Russia), 2022 (Qatar), and 2026 (Canada, Mexico, USA) FIFA Football World Cups. In the first two cases, it finds the common projection of an image of modernity and dispelling stereotypes, although there are important differences. The initial comparison is set aside early discourses from Mexico and the US in order to look ahead to 2026, although the unpredictability of US politics and regional relations makes this task speculative. All three cases are presented against the background of recent developments in the application of the concept of Soft Power to the hosting of Sports Mega Events. The article finds that while the concept is somewhat wanting, it continues to inform government strategies and provides some insights into the aims of messaging.

ABSTRACT This article examines the recent professionalization of women’s football in Brazil through the perspectives of players competing in the national top division. Drawing on interviews with 20 athletes from all five regions of the country, we explore how professionalization has unfolded following the implementation of CONMEBOL’s licencing regulation, which obliges men’s clubs to maintain women’s teams. Analysing the players’ narratives through an intersectional framework, we identify how gender, class, and geography shape distinct working conditions and career paths. Despite the introduction of formal contracts and improved visibility, professionalization remains marked by regional inequality, dependence on men’s clubs, and persistent symbolic and material hierarchies. We argue that professionalization is not a linear or uniform process, and that athletes continue to navigate precarious conditions while being disciplined by institutional norms and cultural expectations. The findings contribute to a critical understanding of how professionalization is structured and experienced in a historically unequal and gendered football context.

ABSTRACT Since the establishment of the Islamic Republic in 1979, women’s sport has been appropriated by the authorities as an instrument of diplomacy and a means of political and ideological legitimization, most notably through the imposition of the Islamic veil (hijab). The Women, Life, Freedom movement constituted a critical rupture: despite extremely violent repression, the widespread rejection of compulsory veiling directly challenged the regime’s legitimacy.The subsequent year was characterized by an escalation of geopolitical tensions, which have since reinforced and exerted a significant influence on the state’s governance of the sporting sphere. Yet, these shifting and unstable conditions should not obscure what the identity of women’s football reveals: the profound transformation of Iranian society. Women’s football provides a lens through which to examine processes of identity redefinition and modalities of endogenous contestation, shedding light on the mechanisms by which alternative practices of resistance are constructed under structural constraints.

ABSTRACT Globalization and commercialization have significantly increased athletic migration, particularly among football players. While existing research often focuses on career development in elite European leagues, non-core regions like the Thai League remain underexplored. This study investigates the career dynamics of eight Japanese football players in the Thai League through the lens of the Chaos Theory of Careers (CTC). Using semi-structured interviews, it identifies dynamic and non-linear career paths shaped by CTC’s five key concepts: initial conditions, attractors, complexity, patterns, and construction. The findings provide a comprehensive framework for understanding how external and unpredictable factors influence careers in emerging leagues. The research highlights both opportunities, such as skill development and international exposure, and challenges, including financial instability and structural issues. By addressing the gap in non-core league studies, this work contributes to the broader discourse on global sports migration and offers valuable insights into athlete career development in diverse contexts.

ABSTRACT Peter Beck’s study shows that the tours of Football League clubs were a significant component of the history of football from 1900 to 1939. Reflecting and, where relevant, building upon Beck’s work using the archives of the Football League, Everton, Sheffield United, and West Ham United, this chapter offers a transnational and cultural angle on his diplomatic and international history perspective. Setting these tours in the wider context of the scholarship of cultural encounters, it explores five key themes: English/British football’s place in the world game at this time; the internal dynamics of the English game, especially the relationship between the Football Association, the Football League and the elite professional clubs; the club versus country debate; the changing football mobilities that underpinned touring; and, finally, the role of tours in enhancing the experiences and formulating the identities of the predominantly working-class men who travelled. It concludes by emphasizing the value of transnational approaches in future studies of British football.

ABSTRACT During Summer 1929 close season foreign tours conducted by Football League teams became the focus for serious debate by the British media, football authorities, and government in the light of the ‘mediocre’ performances of and ‘scathing’ foreign comments made about some touring clubs. The fundamental issue at stake was British footballing prestige and primacy, or rather fears of British footballing decline. Pointing to the Football Association’s inadequate tour procedures, the ‘holiday’ mindsets of touring teams, and rising foreign standards, critics advocated tougher tour regulations and bonuses to incentivise players to play hard on tour. There were even calls for a ban on tours to avoid further reputational damage. In the event, there was much debate, but relatively little action upon the part of the Football Association, whose inertia and inaction meant that that most questions raised during the 1929 media controversy remained unanswered. Interestingly, Real Madrid toured England in 1925.