Football in Asia

This book is the first comprehensive study on history, culture, and business of football
in Asia. Football has been a symbol of the modern invention, a catalyst of local, national
and regional identities, all time favourite among kids and youths, and even a harbinger
for cultural globalization and consumerism in Asia. The economic growth and the current
proliferation of football culture in Asia make it imperative to examine the complex
relationship between the globalization of football and the local appropriation. The
essays in the book deal with various topics on football in Asia from history of football in
Asia, football and local, national and regional identities, to commercialization of football
cultures, global mobility and athletes’ migration, and then new Asianism and football.
This book argues that football in Asia contributes to reconfiguring both national and
regional identities among football fans in the active interconnection with the global flows
of football and cultural globalization without homogenizing Asian identities into a
cosmopolitan one.
This is the textbook to presents football’s implication and influence on Asian populace
and social changes while using football as a lens assessing the modern development and
current diversification of Asia.
This book was originally published as a special issue of Soccer and Society.

Younghan Cho is Associate Professor of Korean Studies at Hankuk University of

Foreign Studies (Seoul, South Korea). He is co-editor of many special issues including
Glocalization of Sports in Asia, Modern Sports in Asia: Cultural Perspectives, Colonial
Modernity and Beyond, and American Pop Culture.

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 Football in Asia
History, Culture and Business

Edited by
Younghan Cho

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 First published 2015
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN, UK
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2015 Taylor & Francis
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced
or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means,
now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording,
or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 13: 978-1-138-81602-2

Typeset in Times New Roman

by RefineCatch Limited, Bungay, Suffolk

Publisher’s Note
The publisher accepts responsibility for any inconsistencies that may have
arisen during the conversion of this book from journal articles to book chapters,
namely the possible inclusion of journal terminology.

Disclaimer
Every effort has been made to contact copyright holders for their permission to
reprint material in this book. The publishers would be grateful to hear from any
copyright holder who is not here acknowledged and will undertake to rectify
any errors or omissions in future editions of this book.

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 Contents

Citation Information vii

1. Introduction: football in Asia 1

Younghan Cho
2. The slow contagion of Scottish example: association football in
nineteenth-century colonial Singapore 10
Nick Aplin
3. From shamateurism to pioneer of Asia’s professional football: the introduction
of professional football in Hong Kong 25
Chun Wing Lee
4. The politics of Indonesian and Turkish soccer: a comparative analysis 37
James M. Dorsey and Leonard C. Sebastian
5. ‘Hamlet without the Prince’: understanding Singapore–Malaysian relations
through football 57
Charles Little
6. The otherness of self: football, fandom and fragmented (sub) nationalism in
Bengal 74
Madhuja Mukherjee
7. ‘Hope for the win and hope for the defeat’: constructions of South Korean
identity and the 2010 FIFA World Cup 92
Miyoung Oh
8. South Asia and South-East Asia: new paths of African footballer migration 106
Gerard A. Akindes
9. Twenty years of development of the J-League: analysing the business
parameters of professional football in Japan 124
Harald Dolles and Sten Sçderman
10. Latin America, football and the Japanese diaspora 144
Jorge E. Cuellar
11. ‘A’ is for Australia: New Football’s billionaires, consumers and the ‘Asian
Century’. How the A-League defines the new Australia 156
Zoran Pajic

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 CONTENTS

12. Australia, Asia and the new football opportunity 173

Chris Hallinan and Tom Heenan

Index 191

vi

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 Citation Information

The chapters in this book were originally published in Soccer in Society, volume 14, issue
5 (September 2013). When citing this material, please use the original page numbering for
each article, as follows:

Chapter 1
Introduction: football in Asia
Younghan Cho
Soccer in Society, volume 14, issue 5 (September 2013) pp. 579–587

Chapter 2
The slow contagion of Scottish example: association football in nineteenth-century
colonial Singapore
Nick Aplin
Soccer in Society, volume 14, issue 5 (September 2013) pp. 588–602

Chapter 3
From shamateurism to pioneer of Asia’s professional football: the introduction of
professional football in Hong Kong
Chun Wing Lee
Soccer in Society, volume 14, issue 5 (September 2013) pp. 603–614

Chapter 4
The politics of Indonesian and Turkish soccer: a comparative analysis
James M. Dorsey and Leonard C. Sebastian
Soccer in Society, volume 14, issue 5 (September 2013) pp. 615–634

Chapter 5
‘Hamlet without the Prince’: understanding Singapore–Malaysian relations through
football
Charles Little
Soccer in Society, volume 14, issue 5 (September 2013) pp. 635–651

Chapter 6
The otherness of self: football, fandom and fragmented (sub) nationalism in Bengal
Madhuja Mukherjee
Soccer in Society, volume 14, issue 5 (September 2013) pp. 652–669

vii

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 CITATION INFORMATION

Chapter 7
‘Hope for the win and hope for the defeat’: constructions of South Korean identity
and the 2010 FIFA World Cup
Miyoung Oh
Soccer in Society, volume 14, issue 5 (September 2013) pp. 670–683

Chapter 8
South Asia and South-East Asia: new paths of African footballer migration
Gerard A. Akindes
Soccer in Society, volume 14, issue 5 (September 2013) pp. 684–701

Chapter 9
Twenty years of development of the J-League: analysing the business parameters of
professional football in Japan
Harald Dolles and Sten Sçderman
Soccer in Society, volume 14, issue 5 (September 2013) pp. 702–721

Chapter 10
Latin America, football and the Japanese diaspora
Jorge E. Cuéllar
Soccer in Society, volume 14, issue 5 (September 2013) pp. 722–733

Chapter 11
‘A’ is for Australia: New Football’s billionaires, consumers and the ‘Asian Century’.
How the A-League defines the new Australia
Zoran Pajic
Soccer in Society, volume 14, issue 5 (September 2013) pp. 734–750

Chapter 12
Australia, Asia and the new football opportunity
Chris Hallinan and Tom Heenan
Soccer in Society, volume 14, issue 5 (September 2013) pp. 751–767

Please direct any queries you may have about the citations to
clsuk.permissions@cengage.com

viii

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