The Influence of Real World Football Events on Online Game Popularity

In many parts of the world, สิทธิพิเศษ UFABET เว็บตรง football is a major socio-economic force. It can bring prosperity through commercial development, attract global attention to a nation through the ‘Hillsborough moment’ or generate negative headlines such as police-fan clashes, hooliganism and terrorism. These factors influence fan responses to international tournaments such as the FIFA World Cup, Euros and Commonwealth Games.

Nevertheless, academic research on the sport has been relatively sparse in recent years, with studies mostly focussing on individual players or clubs. As such, the overall structure of a global football society remains unexplored, but this could change. The application of network analytic methods, facilitated by contemporary and rich datasets can provide valuable insight into the current structure of this global society.

From the Sidelines to the Screens: The Evolution of Football Managerial Skills through Video Game Training

The popularity of football-based video games is growing. Esports, competitions involving professional gamers, have been on the rise for several years and the latest events, like the Fortnite World Cup, have drawn large audiences. The biggest games are free-to-play but are augmented by in-game purchases. They are social and competitive, and arguably more addictive than traditional sports. Some have even become cultural phenomena.

This special issue of Frontiers in Digital Humanities aims to explore the complex, social and global dimensions of this new phenomenon using network analytic methods. It also seeks to uncover the historical patterns of connectivity in football community networks, revealing the evolution and development of the global football network over time.