Football agents as occupational loners - How established practitioners act to win market power

Sammanfattning: The research purpose of this study is to investigate how football agents act to gain market power, despite an apparent decreasing need for intermediaries lowering transaction costs within the football industry. Prior theory has emphasised market conditions to explain the growth of the profession, thereby overlooking the agents as active partakers in market developments. To address the identified research gap and understand the behaviour of agents, a qualitative study was conducted where agents, clubs, players and additional relevant actors in Sweden were interviewed. An interdisciplinary research approach was applied at the intersection of embeddedness and professionalisation theory. The current study finds that agents' work on an individual basis to create embedded ties with players as well as clubs in order to form networks and gain personal trust. Additionally, established practitioners networks and relations characterised by personal trust, rather than professionalisation processes, are exploited to legitimise the need for matchmakers in the labour market and to gain market influence.