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"Whilst corruption and organized crime have been widely researched, they have not yet been specifically linked to sport, Corruption, Mafia Power and Italian Soccer offers an original insight into this new research area. Adopting a psycho-social approach based mainly on Pierre Bourdieu's praxeology, the book demonstrates that corruption and the mafia presence in Italian soccer reflect the Italian socio-political and economic system itself. Supported by interviews with security agency officials, anti-corruption organisations and anti-mafia organisations, and analysing empirical data obtained from a case study of 'Operation Dirty Soccer', this important study explains why mafia groups are involved in soccer, what the links are to political corruption, and what might be done to control the problem. It also examines the mechanisms that make it possible for mafia groups and affiliates to enter the football industry and discusses how mafia groups exploit and corrupt Italian football. This is important reading for undergraduate and postgraduate students, researchers and academics working in the areas of sociology, criminology, policing, anthropology, sociology of sport, sport deviance, sport management and organised crime. It is also a valuable resource for practitioners in the football industry"--

This article offers an overview of a four-month research project, conducted in 2019/2020, which studied extremism in the Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) football terraces. This work was funded by the International Organisation for Migration - United Nations and by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The research focused on risk factors and how these may govern the "entry" of BiH youth into extreme hard-core football fans groups (Ultras1) and prolong their involvement in them. The study highlighted the nature of these groups and their activity providing detailed recommendations for BiH policymakers, security agencies, and football federations and clubs who wish to understand and effectively respond to this emergent threat for public security in BiH.

This paper presents an initial assessment of the results of a four month research project studying the Ultras groups in BiH. This research contributed to the Bosnia & Herzegovina Resilience Initiative (BHRI) Programme (implemented by the International Organization for Migration - United Nations, funded and closely coordinated with the U.S. Agency for International Development - USAID) aiming to reduce the threat of violent extremism in BiH and to counter extremist efforts to deepen or exploit community tensions.

The football (soccer) stadium in Italy has been, since its origin, not only a ludic space but also a symbolic setting that has often reflected national socio-political issues such as the country's north/south economic and political divide, the existence of organized crime, the promotion of radical political ideologies, and, concomitantly, racism and homophobia. In such a milieu, the spectacle of football can suddenly shift to symbolic and factual violence. One of the main tools of the complex Italian counter hooliganism model (CHM) is the Tessera del tifoso, a compulsory fan ID scheme adopted in 2009 to curb football spectator violence. This paper attempts to systematically evaluate this scheme for the first time, adopting as its conceptual frame Giorgio Agamben's concepts of the state of exception, bare life, the (concentration) camp, and dispositivo (apparatus). It is argued that the Tessera del tifoso serves as a most prominent example of a CHM based on a permanent state of exception manifested by an increase in State surveillance, control, and regulation of fans' lives with potential implications for their civil liberties and freedom.

The football (soccer) stadium in Italy has been, since its origin, not only a ludic space but also a symbolic setting that has often reflected national socio-political issues such as the country's north/south economic and political divide, the existence of organized crime, the promotion of radical political ideologies, and, concomitantly, racism and homophobia. In such a milieu, the spectacle of football can suddenly shift to symbolic and factual violence. One of the main tools of the complex Italian counter hooliganism model (CHM) is the Tessera del tifoso, a compulsory fan ID scheme adopted in 2009 to curb football spectator violence. This paper attempts to systematically evaluate this scheme for the first time, adopting as its conceptual frame Giorgio Agamben's concepts of the state of exception, bare life, the (concentration) camp, and dispositivo (apparatus). It is argued that the Tessera del tifoso serves as a most prominent example of a CHM based on a permanent state of exception manifested by an increase in State surveillance, control, and regulation of fans' lives with potential implications for their civil liberties and freedom.

Since 1989, the year which witnessed the first Italian football-spectator anti-violence law (Law n.401/1989) approved by the Italian Parliament, football-spectator violence has been tackled by the Italian Government using emergency legislation, tens of ministerial directives and various rulings of sporting bodies. This paper aims to explain the development of the legislation employing, at the same time as an interpretational framework, Giorgio Agamben's State of Exception theory. Following Agamben's analytical framework, this paper asserts that the developments of the Italian counter-hooliganism legislation is based on a strategy of controlling biopolitical risk which not only challenges the civil liberties of Italian football fans but also constructs the same football fans as 'ideal suspects'.

The UK Government's recent funding cuts in higher education, coupled with the importance of maintaining competitiveness at a global and national level — a competitiveness that has worsened lately due to a gloomy recession — have placed even more pressure on UK academic institutions to adopt innovative curricula and, most importantly, to increasingly use technology in their courses. Blended Learning — defined as "the thoughtful fusion of face-to-face oral communication and online learning experiences" (Garrison & Vaughan, 2008, p. 5), is replacing traditional teaching formats. Virtual Learning Systems (VLS) such as Web-CT and U-Link are part of the Blended Learning strategies, and represent a significant way to assess teaching quality at an academic institution, particularly at the departmental level. Hence, VLS should be constantly promoted, developed and, most importantly, evaluated. This case study aims to evaluate students' attitudes towards the Virtual Learning System U-Link. Data were gathered using a survey administered to 116 first-year Sport Sciences students at Brunel University, a large UK academic institution. The students' attitudes were assessed using a Likert Scale and open-ended questions. Overall, the respondents were satisfied with their U-Link experience and considered U-Link to be a key tool in their learning. In line with Bennett's (2002) work, students judged their experiences with academic modules adopting U-Link more favorably than they did with modules that did not have online web-based support. Students' comments, however, were not all positive; negative feedback pointed to an absence of interaction (lack of communication and feedback) between instructors and students, and a lack of interaction among students.

Despite their presence in Italian football stadiums, the UltraS have been the subject of limited empirical research. I use the capital S to identify neo-fascist oriented fans to distinguish them from the wider football supporters ultra' (Testa and Armstrong 2008; Testa 2009; Testa and Armstrong 2010a). This study is part of a series of publications to fill in this lacuna; it is part of an ethnographic research project carried out from 2003 to 2009. The research aimed to analyze the UltraS social world using as a sample two hardcore subculture of fans at the two main Rome football clubs - AS Roma and SS Lazio. With neo-fascist sympathies, these groups -the Boys at Roma and the Irriducibili at Lazio- are political and well-organized (Testa and Armstrong, 2010a). The present paper focuses on the relationship between the UltraS and the Italian media; the media are often considered by the UltraS as enemies because believed to be biased against them. To complement the ethnographic data, three renowned Italian sports journalists were interviewed in 2008. One was Franco Arturi, deputy director of La Gazzetta dello Sport, which is the most established and popular of the Italian sport newspapers. Another was Giuseppe Tassi, a sport journalist and deputy director of Quotidiano.net (internet edition of the Resto del Carlino, La Nazione and Il Giorno editorial group). The third was Gabriele Marcotti, journalist for the British The Times and the popular Italian daily IL Corriere dello Sport. Analysis stresses the importance of media coverage in influencing the UltraS deviant dynamics and suggests, considering the experiences of other European countries, a reduction of media attention towards the UltraS as a strategy to contain this phenomenon.