Community sport development events, social capital and social mobility: A case study of Premier League Kicks and young Black and minoritised ethnic males in England

This paper examines the effectiveness of ‘Premier League Kicks’ – a football community outreach initiative - to produce and leverage social capital among young Black and minoritised ethnic males in England. The paper draws upon semi-structured interviews with Kicks participants and community coaches to analyse the social capital created through participation in the programme, in addition to constraints faced by participants in utilising and leveraging their accumulated social capital to obtain a professional football career. Drawing upon Putnam’s conceptualisation of bonding and bridging social capital and the associated concepts of linking and sporting capital, the analysis concludes that Premier League Kicks was effective for building bonding social capital, which can lead to greater individual empowerment and self-belief. However, opportunities for leveraging such capital for personal reward was limited to horizontal networks/mobility and subsequently, converting this capital into other forms, such as bridging, linking and sporting capital was highly regulated and exclusionary.