Pezdek, K., Michaluk, T.
The functioning of the Polish Football Association from the perspective of Michel Foucault’s conception of exclusion
(2014) Soccer and Society. Article in Press.
Abstract
One of the management methods used by the Polish Football Association (PZPN) is management through exclusion. Due to such management, the Association constitutes to a considerable degree the status of individuals and institutions with which it enters into relations. As the essential criteria of these relations, the PZPN adopts utilitarian values, legal and business, diminishing the meaning of sport and moral values. From this perspective, the PZPN efficiently conducts the policy of exclusion it has created, dividing and rejecting those people and institutions who are incapable of contributing to the financial success of the Association. It also imposes various prohibitions on everybody who criticizes the workings of the organization or who accuses it of diminishing or even disregarding the interest of Polish football. For this purpose, the PZPN employs its policy of managing knowledge, which to a significant degree can be considered the propaganda of success.
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