Question

According to the definition used in this chapter, is a professional football player a professional worker? Why or why not? Would your answer to this question differ if you adopt the conflict approach instead of the hallmark (struggle-functional) approach?

Answer 1

According to the EU rules considers professional football players as self employed and provides free movement like any other highly skilled labours such as a scientist, Software engineer etc.

According to Karl Marx the founder of Conflict theory it's the struggle for identifying the limited resources. When identified they are paid more and this causes inequality in the society. Conflict theory also suggests that it's all about power and money. So if an employer is rich they can bring anyone from any country as a football player under the highly skilled programme or as self employment. Although it comes under sports, it's also considered as a profession.

In my point of view, professional football players are professional workers.