Seems like a very specific, but interesting PhD topic! It will, however, be rather difficult to find a professor that is capable of supervising such a project. Finding a good supervisor that is interested and knowledgeable in the topic, is the most important factor for obtaining a PhD successfully. Perhaps that might be possible in a university that is specialized in sport sociology and discrimination in sport sociology. With regard to the European perspective: it is interesting to note that there is a major gap between the goals of football clubs (taking an antiracist stance, as a lot of players have an ethnic minority background, while racism also hurts the economical potential of attracting sponsors) and the racism that is prevalent in a lot of football fan bases. For example, national teams get a lot of negative feedback when they kneel for Black Lives Matter. I am not familiar with the South American context, however, and thus not capable of comparing these two different contexts. For me, it would be interesting to see how refugees from Venezuela are perceived in the rest of South America, and if there is racism and/or classism attached to it. Good luck with your PhD in the future!

Thank you for the feedback and input I really appreciate it

I have found 2 potential supervisors that have an interest in football within the region, I will contact them once I have something more concrete. It is interesting you mention sport sociology, I had not thought of that, as I was looking at Latin American, migration and development studies. Yes I agree, we saw that at the Euro's, with some national teams taking the knee or, pointing towards the 'respect badge' on the shirts, each caused a lot of debate. It is interesting to see ant-racism symbolism be considered by some, as 'political'. I will definitely look into BLM in Latin America. I am seeing some cross-over in terms of how the refugees are viewed, I will do some more digging I think it is both. What's interesting is the UN credited Latin America, for the way they are handling the refugee crisis which I found interesting furthermore, I have found some evidence of football in the region helping refugees from Palestine! All exciting stuff.

I think it is a great PhD topic. In Latin America there is a very important tradition of working on political refugees, which puts in tension the differences between the different waves of expatriates. I would advise you to refer to them more than to the works on migrations. Similarly, to explore the tense relations between exiles and futbol, for Argentina, the work of Laura Franco

In 2016, the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) approved a new rule that establishes that athletes who carry humanitarian refugee visas may be registered as national athletes, without being part of the foreign quota, which is currently five per team. This experience, as well as a similar one in Argentina, are based on a CONMEBOL policy.

Josefina Mallo Carlos Revilla

Thank you very much for the feedback and information, I will look into your recommendations.

Carlos Revilla Hi Carlos I can't seem to find anything on the CONMEBOL policy, is it possible to send me a link? Thank you

Sure Ben David Anthony Bird. Ben, here it is: https://www.conmebol.com/es/el-futbol-cobijo-de-un-refugiado

https://www.conmebol.com/es/la-cbf-aprueba-inscripcion-de-refugiados-fuera-del-cupo

An anthropologist on a closely related topic (integrating immigrants):

Santos-Gómez, Hugo. 2017. “Leveling the Field: Soccer, Farmworkers, and Citizenship in the California San Joaquin Valley.” Human Organization 76(1): 28-37.

Carlos Revilla Thank you for sending me the links! I have read over the articles, but I couldn't find any mention of policy on CONMEBOL's part. Here is what I was referring to on UEFA's part; https://ec.europa.eu/assets/eac/sport/library/documents/uefa-mapping_en.pdf

https://www.infomigrants.net/en/post/32447/uefa-and-unhcr-join-forces-to-support-refugees

Does CONMEBOL have anything like this?

You have a nice topic to talk about but the only thing is that your topic is looking like an M.Sc. topic

A number of anthropologists have studied sports. I don't know the citations as that topic is far from my interests, but searching for "anthropology of sports," or "anthropology and sports" should get you started.

You can't expect to find reference to CONMEBOL's policy, but you can learn how researchers study sports. You will have to search for the policy yourself, or even interview CONMEBOL officials.

The subject matter is beyond my interest and expertise. However, this can be a PhD study when you make a contribution to the subject field. Although policy documents are important, it important to explore the attitudes of players, officials and to an extend the supporters too. You can then determine what did official and players do where such integration was successful. Your contribution may be the development of a model on how football can contribute to the integration of refugees in a foreign country. With credit to the Brazilian Football Confederation, changing or adding rules is a starting point, it is the attitudes and perceptions of people that lead to resentment and racism.

Best wishes for the journey towards your PhD.

commend . http://biblioteca.clacso.edu.ar/clacso/gt/20100919011639/2prologo2.pdf

Panfichi, Aldo et al 1990 (1987) Fútbol, identidad, violencia y racionalidad (Lima: FCS-PUC).

you also can e-mail Dr. Nurhafizah Yusof from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. She was one of the Sociologists in Football Hooligan in Malaysia

Of course: YES!!

Would like to say a big thank you for everyones feedback! I’m pleased to say I have a meeting next week with a potential supervisor.

Yes! Football plays an important role when we talk about racism, migrants, gender imbalance. This is a very proper case dealing with a contemporary issue and a very expressive phenomenon.

Dear Dr. Ben David Anthony Bird, As a topic for a potential PhD, I think it's a great idea. Currently there are already footballers in Serie A.

To get an idea, take a look at the following page:

blog.marathonbet.tv/futbolistas-venezolanos-europa/