Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'African football players in France'

S'ils constituent environ 15% des effectifs des joueurs de football professionnels en France, les Africains sont quasiment absents des postes d'encadrement. Très visibles sur les terrains, quelles sont les raisons pour lesquelles les anciens joueurs africains sont aussi invisibles à ces postes qui constituent pourtant l'essentiel de la reconversion en interne (Hugues, 1958, Becker, 1985) ? Notre travail basé sur une articulation du Big man en tant qu'institution d'emprise tend à démontrer que les joueurs africains peuvent avoir une socialisation et une perception de la réussite différentes de celles de leur milieu professionnel. Sur la base d'une enquête multi-située (Marcus, 1995), d'une observation participante sur plusieurs sites entre France, Belgique et Allemagne, et d'une ethnographie, notre travail montre que par la pratique du football, se jouent des mécanismes de représentation permettant une hiérarchie au sommet de laquelle se trouvent des Big men, ces personnes qui cumulent les richesses symbolique, économique et politique. Par l'extraversion, l'utilisation des ressources provenant du système international, ces Big men accaparent des poches d'accumulation leur permettant de mettre durablement sous leur autorité des groupes de dépendants. À l'origine, seul l'Etat moderne offrait la possibilité d'accéder à ces statuts, désormais accessibles par migration. Le football offre la possibilité à des joueurs de représenter leur pays, leur permettant d'entrer ainsi dans la compétition pour des positions de prestige dans leur environnement national. Mais, si les résultats sportifs et les salaires perçus de leurs clubs professionnels leur offrent richesses symbolique et économique, ils n'ont pas la même reconnaissance que les Big men issus de la configuration étatique. De même, ils ne peuvent pas toujours maintenir un différentiel de prises sur les personnes les plus proches de leur entourage, qui bénéficient de moyens de déprise et peuvent se mettre en compétition avec eux. La fin de leur carrière sur les terrains crée une tension entre l'impossibilité d'être un ancien Big man, et la fin des importants revenus produits par les contrats de joueur. Pour maintenir leur place dans des positions hautes, les anciens internationaux créent donc de nouvelles alliances en diaspora et se maintiennent ensemble en position de jouer des rencontres, espérant ainsi maintenir une position leur permettant de négocier un pôle d'accumulation entre le football et le pays d'origine
If they constitute about 15% of the number of professional football players in France, Africans are almost absent from management positions. Very visible on the pitch, what are the reasons why former African players are so invisible in these positions that constitute the bulk of the internal reconversion (Hugues, 1958, Becker 1985)? Our work based on the articulation of the Big Man as an institution of influence tends to demonstrate that African players can have a different socialization and perception of success than their professional environment. On the basis of a multi-located survey (Marcus, 1995), a participating observation on several sites between France, Belgium and Germany, and netnography, our work shows that through the practice of football, play with the mechanisms of representation allowing a hierarchy at the top of which are Big men, these people who combine symbolic, economic and political wealth. By the extraversion, the use of resources from the international system, these Big men monopolize pockets of accumulation allowing them to put under their authority groups of dependent. Originally, only the modern state offered the possibility of accessing these statutes, now accessible by migration. Football offers players the opportunity to represent their country, allowing them to enter the competition for prestigious positions in their national environment. But, if the sports results and the salaries received from their professional clubs offer them symbolic and economic wealth, they do not have the same recognition as the Big men from the state configuration. Similarly, they cannot always maintain a catch differential on the people closest to them, who benefit from means of unfolding and can compete with them. The end of their career on the fields creates a tension between the impossibility of being a former Big Man, and the end of the important revenues produced by the player contracts. To maintain their place in high positions, the former internationals create new alliances in diaspora and maintain together in position to play meetings, hoping to maintain a position allowing them to negotiate a pole of accumulation between football and the country of origin

Thesis (Ph. D.)--School of Education and Dept. of Sociology. University of Missouri--Kansas City, 2007.
"A dissertation in education and social science." Advisor: Carolyn Thompson. Typescript. Vita. Title from "catalog record" of the print edition Description based on contents viewed July 30, 2008. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 112-121). Online version of the print edition.

For some years now, African football labour migration has been of academic and public concern. With a number of notable exceptions, much of the existing academic research on African football migration has been framed in terms of its macro-level structural determinants. This thesis specifically concentrates on the role of football academies in the Ghanaian football migration industry, and seeks to position agency and the ways that it is employed to navigate through the structural constraints that young players encounter as part of their experience of entering, living in and exiting football academies. The overarching research question is whether internal migration to a football academy features as a household livelihood strategy for international migration. Drawing on nine months of multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork in Ghana, three specific, hitherto unexplored aspects of African football migration are addressed: 1) the role of the family in processes of athletic relocation; 2) the movement of young players into academies as a process of internal migration; and 3) the experiences of international immobility of Ghanaian academy players. To tackle this research question and related caveats, and to capture the multiplicity and complexity involved with academy players' internal migration, Mabogunje's (1970) migration system theory is reworked to an Integrated migration model, which is used as a heuristic framework to analyse the ways in which the various stages of football players' internal migration trajectory are experienced and navigated by players and their family members. It is demonstrated that a meso-level approach, that accords significance to the family as a unit of analysis, provides a unique insight into the social processes that underpin the mobility and immobility of young Ghanaian football players, and reveals that the role of football academies in the migration of African football players is a complex and dynamic reality, informed by a series of social forces.

When rugby became professional in 1995, both the game and the social and financial position of the players changed (Basson, 2003). Players started to train full-time and earned annual salaries (Goldman& Johns, 2009). Due to the transition from amateur to professional status, rugby players needed to make adequate personal financial management decisions. The purpose of this study is to investigate the personal financial management attitudes and practices of South African rugby players. Previous research about personal financial management largely focussed on the general public, and did not focus on South African rugby players. Rugby is a professional sport where players earn money from a young age. It is expected of rugby players to make adequate personal financial decisions from as early as 19 years old. The literature review provided an overview of personal financial management and a discussion on the various components that should be included in personal financial management. A framework for this study was developed. The framework used these components as the base for the personal financial attitudes and practices and how it relates to the demographics of the respondents. Three hypotheses were also formulated based on the literature overview and framework. The objectives of this study were achieved by adopting a quantitative research methodology. A convenience sample of 132 rugby players was drawn for this study. Rugby players from NMMU Madibaz, Eastern Province Rugby Union (EP), South Western Districts Rugby Union (SWD) and Sharks Rugby Union participated in this study. The results of the empirical survey showed that respondents have positive attitudes towards the importance of budgeting, retirement planning, risk management, debt management and investment and the importance of employing a financial planner. On the other hand the personal financial management practices of the respondents in this study can be described as weak. From the results of the empirical survey it is clear that the respondents have weak practices towards the majority of the personal financial management practices. Only one of the three hypotheses was accepted namely that there is a relationship between the demographics of rugby players and their personal financial practices. There is no relationship between personal financial management attitudes and personal financial management practices of South African rugby players and that there is also no relationship between demographic variables and personal financial management attitudes of South African rugby players. This study has provided insight into the personal financial management attitudes and practices of South African rugby players. Valuable information was obtained that could help to address the personal financial management needs of rugby players.

Thesis (M.S.)--Georgia Southern University, 2008.
"A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Georgia Southern University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Science." Under the direction of Daniel R. Czech. ETD. Electronic version approved: May 2008. Includes bibliographical references (p. 88-91) and appendices.

Thesis (M.A.) -- University of Maryland, College Park, 2005.
Thesis research directed by: Counseling and Personnel Services. Title from t.p. of PDF. Includes bibliographical references. Published by UMI Dissertation Services, Ann Arbor, Mich. Also available in paper.

George Taliaferro was a trailblazer. He was the first black quarterback in professional football, the first black quarterback in the National Football League (NFL), and the first black man to be drafted by an NFL team.Taliaferro's story of perseverance revealed the slow and difficult process of integration in high school, at Indiana University, and in his professional football career. The obstacles he faced and the lessons he learned were representative of issues related to the integration of the NFL.A combination of personal narrative and historical investigation was used in this creative project. In addition to Taliaferro's first-hand accounts, depth and perspective were added through interviews and reportage.The biography that resulted, the story of Taliaferro's resolve, became a vehicle for telling a larger story, the integration of the NFL.
Department of Journalism

L’objet de cette recherche expérimentale est d’analyser le statut, le rôle et l’influence de la préparation mentale sur la performance individuelle du footballeur professionnel évoluant dans des équipes françaises. L’échantillon est constitué de 168 joueurs professionnels de sexe masculin ayant une moyenne d’âge égale à 25,7 (± 4,8) et issus de trois niveaux de jeu : Ligue 1, Ligue 2, National. Une équi-répartition de la population expérimentale a permis une description et une analyse détaillée des modalités de l’entraînement mental dans ce sport collectif. La méthode expérimentale retenue fut le questionnaire. Cet outil d’enquête a été construit à partir de questions fermées, avec une échelle de 1 à 9, et sous forme de classement. L’ensemble du « questionnaire joueur » porte sur 35 questions sous administration directe. Nous avons procédé à une distribution de 232 questionnaires afin d’optimiser le taux de retour qui s’est élevé à 168 unités (72,4 %). Les résultats de l’étude ont montré que la prise en charge du facteur psychologique est très peu traitée dans les clubs par des préparateurs mentaux ou des psychologues du sport diplômés et par l’entraîneur, au contraire des aspects technico-tactiques et physiques qui sont, quant à eux, traités de façon très importante par lui-même et son staff. L’absence de préparation mentale a très peu d’influence sur la performance individuelle ce qui contraint les joueurs à s’autogérer mentalement. Cette autogestion a beaucoup d’influence sur la performance individuelle et produit un effet modéré sur la performance collective. Selon la population de l’étude, le mode de prise en charge des facteurs psychologiques détermine le niveau de performance individuelle du footballeur professionnel. L’autogestion a beaucoup d’influence tandis que l’absence de préparation mentale en a très peu. Ce travail de recherche a démontré que la psychologie du sport est jugée comme un pilier de la pratique des footballeurs, mais son institutionnalisation demeure instable et fragile. L’étude a démontré que le suivi psychologique doit s’installer avec des professionnels diplômés dans les clubs français pour accompagner les joueurs dans leur quête de performance. Cette longue recherche expérimentale a tenté d’apporter une nouvelle pierre à l’édifice de la préparation mentale dans le football
The aim of this experimental research is to analyze the status, role and impact of mental preparation on the individual performance of professional footballers playing in French teams. The sample population comprises 168 male professional footballers, with an average age of 25.7 (+/- 4.8 years), playing in three French leagues: Ligue 1, Ligue 2 and National. An equidistribution of the sample population enabled a detailed analysis and description of the different types of mental preparation in this team sport. A questionnaire was used as the experimental method. The “player questionnaire” comprised 35 self-administered closed questions, and players were asked to position their answers on a ranking scale of 1 to 9. 232 questionnaires were distributed, in order to receive a significant number of responses; 168 units were completed and returned to us (return rate of 72.4%). Psychological factors are rarely addressed in football clubs, whether by sports psychologists, mental trainers, or managers. In contrast, great stock is given to the physical, technical and tactical aspects of the game by managers and their staff. The lack of organized mental preparation means that this mode of preparation has little influence on individual performance, so players have to manage the mental side of their game themselves. This self-management has a considerable influence on individual performance, but only a moderate influence on team performance. According to the sample population, the way in which psychological factors are addressed affects the individual performance levels of professional footballers. While self-management has considerable influence, the lack of mental preparation results in little influence. This research demonstrates that while sports psychology is deemed to be an essential part of training footballers, its formal use as a practice in clubs remains patchy and inconsistent. The study shows that psychological monitoring needs to be implemented in French clubs, with certified professionals helping players to improve their performance levels. This long experimental research has striven to contribute to awareness about and practice of mental preparation in football

Football violence was a rare phenomenon in France until the nineteen eighties. Harsh economic times coupled with the challenges of unemployment brought a different type of fanatic to football stadia. To vent their frustration about the economic difficulties of their time, some fans found an easy scapegoat: the increasing number of African immigrants in France. These fans, known as hooligans, have become organized and can be found supporting most major French football clubs, disrupting what once was a relatively tranquil national pastime. This thesis traces their development in France, looks at what they borrowed from Italian and English fan groups, and suggests how their organization is now uniquely French.

College football is big business, earning slightly more than $1 billion in profit in the last few years. As a result of its popularity, fans of the game devour massive amounts of information about college teams and their players. Less known are the non-academic challenges college football players face, in addition to the typical concerns shared with their non-athletic peers. Along with academic and cognitive challenges, the ability to effectively navigate non-academic areas - such as personal, social and cultural - is critical to the development and holistic growth of today’s college football players. These factors can affect a student's ability to thrive or persist toward graduation. In this report, I explore the specific challenges of African American college football players at predominantly White institutions. Within this scope, I will examine the growth of college football in addition to the reach and impact it has on African American families. Within these communities, research shows a pervasive focus on playing professional football. Some players believe that college football is a mere stepping stone on the road to a professional career. The reality is that very few college football players are chosen to play professionally – actually less than .2%. This report explores some of the psychosocial issues that can impact the on and off the field success of African American college football players at predominantly White institutions The goal of this work is to lay a foundation and make an argument for counseling and therapeutic support targeted to, but not exclusively for African American college football players. As systems that seek to understand growth and change for optimum mental and physical well-being, the field of counseling and sports psychology present intervention models that can be useful for today’s African American college football players.
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