Newcomers in a neo-liberal sports world: The self-presentations of private football academies in Aotearoa New Zealand and Norway

With sport's modernity and commercialization as a backdrop, we investigate private football academies in New Zealand and Norway and discuss their institutional resonance with the volunteer-based mainstream football field. We ask: How do private football academies present themselves online, in terms of their roles and responsibilities? Drawing on institutional theories, we analysed the internet sites of four private academies in each country and identified three dominant logics therein. First, private academies are competence-oriented, documenting and flagging the education and experience of their coaches. Second, the private academies are focused on individual player skills development (over the collectivity of a club/team). Third, the private football academies cultivate a commercial outlook. The latter is the most distinguishing characteristic compared to football clubs. The understanding of commercialization and commodification of football goes beyond the mainstream system of clubs and associations. If equal opportunities are a goal, policymakers, administrators and practitioners should be aware of the growth of academies and discuss the possibilities and implications of a two-tiered development system.