Glocal processes in peripheral football countries: Elite youth football clubs in Finland and Hungary

The aim of this article is to increase the understanding of the global and local contexts in football by finding out what complex and interdependent social, cultural and economic dimensions seem to shape periphery football. More specifically, the differences and similarities of Finnish and Hungarian elite youth football clubs in the 2010s are discussed. The theoretical framework is formulated within the social sciences of sport around the globalization of football. The main sources of data are interviews with football practitioners as well as popular publications on Finnish, Hungarian, and international football. The data were analysed with thematic content analysis. It was found that the concept and organization of top-level youth football is different in these two countries. At the same time, homogenization processes related to professionalization and specialization were observed. It is suggested that in spite of their peripheral status, both countries have become increasingly integrated into the global football system. However, the results also indicate that it is highly challenging for these countries to compete on the global football market. Keywords: periphery football, glocalization, youth football, Finland