Dreams of Europe: The professionalisation of women’s football in Finland
Whilst women’s football has experienced a growth in visibility and popularity in recent years, offering increased professional opportunities to players in the most popular leagues, little is known about processes of professionalisation in countries not at the centre of this phenomenon. This thesis therefore takes as its subject the professionalisation of women’s football in Finland, in order to explore the process in a country which enjoys a strong reputation for gender equality but where football is of less social importance than much of the rest of Europe. Drawing on a methodological framework inspired by the figurational approach to the sociology of sport pioneered by Norbert Elias, the macro-level of women’s football in Finland is explored through an analysis of its top division, Kansallinen Liiga. The league’s strategy is treated as a key document in understanding how professionalisation is understood in Finland; in addition, average attendances at the league’s games over a period of more than a decade are analysed, and migration patterns of top Finnish women’s footballers are examined through the changing composition of the national team’s squads at European championships. The micro-level is then explored through semi-structured life-world interviews with seven players who played for clubs participating in the 2025 Kansallinen Liiga season. The objective is to gain a better understanding of how professionalisation is experienced by the players themselves, and how they see football in Finland in a wider context. Finally, the professionalisation of women’s football in Finland is placed in a wider European context. Although European football’s governing body, UEFA, is investing increasing sums in the women’s game, it is questioned whether this is demonstrative of a true commitment to equality, or instead reflects an increased tendency for the sport’s wealth to be concentrated amongst its top clubs – a process which also reinforces the secondary position of women’s football to the men’s game.
Europe, professionalisation, gender, sociology of sport, figurational sociology, women's football, equality, Finland
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