”Kampen om barnfotboll” : En retorikanalys av barnfotbolldebatten i tävlings- och selekteringsfrågor.

Sammanfattning: The purpose of this essay is to provide an overview of the children's football debate in the Swedish press. The study focuses on highlighting who gets to speak, which means of persuasion are used in the debate and whether there have been changes over time.  In children´s football several significant changes have been implemented since the Convention on the Rights of the Child was ratified in 1990. In part, it has concerned training and guidelines on how to train and play at these ages, as well as rule changes and the introduction of new national forms of play. These changes have been debated in different ways depending on the debater’s/actor’s worldview  The study's theoretical framework is based on the fact that all communication is rhetorical. It is based on rhetorical theory with a focus on the rhetorical situation and the three basic means of persuasion logos, ethos and pathos as well as the concept of doxa. The empirical analysis is based on rhetorical analysis. First, I do a qualitative study of the rhetorical situation and then a qualitative analysis of the forms of appeal. The analysis showed that the writers and actors who spoke up and received the most space in the Swedish press are predominantly men. The most common strategies and means of persuasion are pathos which is balanced by ethos and logos depending on the rhetorical situation. Furthermore, it can be deduced that the debate, with the time for the introduction of the new game forms, has undergone a change. The debates in the later time period have more positive voices, are more informative and fact-based, logos is a more common form of means of persuasion and the articles refer to research and proven experience.