From local heroism to global celebrity stardom: a critical reflection of the social, cultural and political changes in British football culture from the 1950's to the formation of the Premier League

This essay through a critical reflection of various social, cultural and political changes in British football, from the 1950s to the formation of the global premier league, explores how they facilitated the broader change in which football players have transformed from local heroes to global stars. As British football became more Europeanized, at the same time, players began to hold greater financial power and the conditions were set for an acceleration in the relationship between football and consumerism, whereby the new economics of signs and space allowed entrepreneurs to commodify the identity of the football club thus providing the foundation for the new consumption of football in the 1990s. Finally, the essay concludes that the development of ‘new’ football and late modern 24 h news culture supports Buckley’s suggestion that new media is primarily concerned with stories of ‘empty global stars, cod personalities and celebrities whose fame is largely self-referential’.