University of Alberta The End of the Road?: Discipline and Retirement in British Professional and Semi-Professional Football by Luke Keith Jones A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Faculty of Physical Education and Recreation © Luke Keith Jones Fall 2013 Edmonton, Alberta Permission is hereby granted to the University of Alberta Libraries to reproduce single copies of this thesis and to lend or sell such copies for private, scholarly or scientific research purposes only. Where the thesis is converted to, or otherwise made available in digital form, the University of Alberta will advise potential users of the thesis of these terms. The author reserves all other publication and other rights in association with the copyright in the thesis and, except as herein before provided, neither the thesis nor any substantial portion thereof may be printed or otherwise reproduced in any material form whatsoever without the author's prior written permission. Abstract Overman (2009) has noted that there is no single representative experience of retirement in sport; however, it is clear that retirement from sport is challenging (Sparkes, 1998). Despite over sixty years of sports retirement research, problems continue to be reported amongst retiring athletes (Wylleman, Alfermann, & Lavallee, 2004) and specifically British footballers (Drawer & Fuller, 2002). Roderick (2006) suggested that knowledge of football retirement is limited. This study uses a post-structural understanding of power to discover how young men negotiate the challenges of enforced retirement. Data was gathered during in- depth interviews with 25 former players between the ages of 21-34. Markula and Pringle (2006) illustrated that adopting Foucault (1991) allows the researcher to consider an athlete as being produced via his sporting experiences that are structured within relations of power. Adopting Foucault’s analysis of discipline, I examined the practices and relationships experienced within football and considered how, through various techniques of discipline, a docile footballing body is produced. The extent to which this docility influences a player’s retirement experience is also explored. I identified the arts of distributions, control of activity, the organisation of geneses and the composition of forces that influence football player development. Furthermore, how through hierarchical observation, normalisation, examination, and the panoptic arrangement of working football, docile football players are produced. Retired players reported confusion and relief as a result of their initial removal from the highly disciplined environment of football. Furthermore, as a result of their exposure to discipline and the ability to ‘normalise’ using confessional practices, over time, retirees became docile bodies in new alternate realms. Finally, I problematised how retired players are told to negotiate their athletic identities once evicted from the localised disciplinary football environment. This study suggests that the current ‘truth’ of how to develop and produce players in football must be re-conceptualised. This ‘truth’ is restricting and ultimately detrimental to the transitional capacity of working football players. In order to influence player experiences during and after their careers, ‘marginalised knowledges’ (Foucault, 1987) surrounding what it means to be a footballer must be evoked. Acknowledgements I would like to thank several people for their contributions to this research. Ali Jones Jonzon, without you I would never have had the strength to do this, so in a way, it is as much yours as mine. Every day we are moving further on. My family, I have received so much love, patience and support from all of you along the way and I am forever grateful. I love you all. Dr. Jim Denison, It is impossible to thank you enough. You are my mentor, my friend and a wonderful teacher. I thank you for your limitless patience and kindness, but above all, for believing in me at every turn. Dr. Pirkko Markula, Dr. Marvin Washington, Dr. Clive Hickson, and Dr. Robyn Jones, Many thanks for your support, feedback and encouragement throughout the examining process My participants, without these men, who try so hard and please so many, this would not have been possible. “It is simply no good trying to keep any thrill: that is the very worst thing that you can do. Let the thrill go – let it die away – go on through that period of death into the quieter period of interest and happiness that follow – and you will find you are living in a world of new thrills all the time” (C.S. Lewis, 1942). TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. An Introduction to Retirement in Association Football .............................. 1 1.1 A Fresh Perspective on Retirement .......................................................... 10 2.0 Literature Review ..................................................................................... 16 2.1 Retirement from Football ......................................................................... 16 2.2 Reported Difficulties in Retirement from Professional Football ............. 18 2.3 British Football in Context ....................................................................... 24 2.4 Football Studies ......................................................................................... 30 2.5 Football and ‘Athletic Identity’ – Storying a ‘Footballer Identity’ ........ 36 2.6 Athletic Identity and Resistance to the Challenges of Retirement .......... 44 2.7 Summary of Sports Retirement Research ................................................ 47 2.8 Retirement in Football Studies – What Next? ......................................... 51 2.9 Research Question .................................................................................... 53 3.0 Foucault’s Disciplinary Analysis and British Professional Football ....... 58 3.1 Power in British Professional Football - A ‘Modern Discipline’ ............. 61 3.1.1 Docility. ....................................................................................... 68 3.2 Components of Discipline in British Professional Football ..................... 70 3.2.1 The art of distribution in British professional football. ............ 72 3.2.2 The control of activity within British professional football. ..... 75 3.2.3 The organisation of geneses within British professional football.... ..................................................................................... 78 3.2.4 Composition of forces within British professional football. ...... 82 3.3 Mechanisms of Surveillance in British Football ...................................... 83 4.0 Methodology .............................................................................................. 91 4.1 Research Philosophy ................................................................................. 91 4.2 Qualitative Approach to Research ........................................................... 93 4.3 Data Collection .......................................................................................... 95 4.3.1 Interviews. ................................................................................... 95 4.3.2 Interview strategy: semi-structured interviews. ........................ 97 4.3.3 A Foucauldian inspired interview guide: three themes. ............ 99 4.3.4 Interviewer bias. ........................................................................102 4.4 Sampling Strategy ....................................................................................103 4.4.1 Purposeful sampling. .................................................................104 4.4.2 Sample criterion. .......................................................................106 4.4.3 Snowball sampling. ....................................................................110 4.5 Ethics ........................................................................................................111 4.6 Data Analysis ............................................................................................113 4.6.1 Data analysis in poststructuralist qualitative research. ...........113 4.6.2 Retired footballer interviews: data analysis. ............................118 4.7 Ensuring Quality in Poststructuralist Research .....................................120 5.0 Enforced Retirement: Immediate Experiences of Eviction from Football....................... .................................................................... .............124 5.1 Retirement from the ‘Modern Discipline’ of Football ............................125 5.1.1 A disciplined footballer. ............................................................132 5.1.2 The immediate retirement experience. .....................................136 5.1.2.1 Challenging times. ...................................................................136 5.1.2.2 Relief. .......................................................................................141 5.1.3 Impact of eviction on retirement experiences. ..........................148 5.2 Conclusion ................................................................................................150 6.0 ‘Confessions of a Retired Footballer’– The Long-Term Negotiation of Retirement ...............................................................................................154 6.1 Introduction .............................................................................................154