Grassroots soccer is a major socialisation environment in which young members of society experiences situations and processes of social cohesion, inclusion and exclusion, solidarity and individualism, joy and anger, success and setbacks. In Sweden, the context of this paper, approximately 250 000 children and young people play organized soccer. National sport policy and UN Convention on the Rights of the Child regulates the activities in promoting values such as solidarity, equal value of all players, equal right to participate, learn and develop. Whether this kind of socio-political culture, and political socialisation processes it involves, exist is however an empirical question. A ‘hot’ situation in which values are set in motion is the competitive game revealing which players and what actually counts. In this situation, the coach has a vital role. Thus, the aim of the paper is to contribute knowledge about the political socialisation dimension in competitive games of grassroots youth soccer and the socio-political consequences of coaching behavior.
The paper contributes knowledge about, pay attention to and visualizes the political dimension of competitive grassroots youth soccer games and its socio-political consequences for the educational environment.