Dr. David Webber
Senior Lecturer
Sports Business and Politics
Having obtained his PhD in Politics and International Studies from the University of Warwick in 2012, David’s teaching and research has since evolved to focus upon the critical study of football, both here in the UK and overseas. With nearly two decades of teaching experience under his belt, David has also had his research published in several prestigious peer-reviewed scholarly journals. This research, however, has not remained within the academy. David has submitted evidence based upon his research to a number of parliamentary select committees, and is often invited to provide commentary on the political, economic and social significance of those contemporary issues that football faces.
Area of expertise
David’s main areas of expertise are (but not limited to):
- the cultural political economy of football
- the structures and institutions of governance within football and regulation of the game, specifically financial rules including Financial Fair Play, Profit and Sustainability, and Associated Party Transactions regulations
- political and social issues in football
- the historical and cultural significance of football
Industry expertise
- David has worked closely with figures at football clubs including Liverpool FC and Southampton FC
- David has been involved with supporter groups and networks such as the Football Supporters Association as a member of the FSA Academic Network, and Spirit of Shankly, specifically in relation to the issue of ‘safe standing’
- He has also made several media appearances to the governance and political economy of football, including:
- the US-led investigations into the affairs of FIFA officials
- the Hillsborough disaster inquests
- standing at football matches
- fan culture
- the likely impacts of ‘Brexit’ upon British football
- football finance, including Financial Fair Play and the Profit and Sustainability Rules
- fan violence
- the proposed European Super League
- changes to the format of the UEFA Champions League
- the impact of conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza upon football
To this end, David has appeared on BBC and regional radio stations; ITV News (local and national); Sky News; Sky Sports News; TalkTV; A News (Turkey); Al Jazeera; CNN; Deutsche Welles; Euronews; France24; abc (Australia); CTV and Business News Network (both Canada); and in online and print editions of BBC Sport; Bloomberg; City AM; Daily Express; The Daily Telegraph; The Economist; L’Équipe (France); The Independent; Morning Star; New Statesman; Today (Singapore); the Washington Post; and Yleisradio (Finland).
David has also also appeared as a guest on the Sustaining Sport podcast and contributed pieces to The Anfield Wrap fanzine.
David teaches across all three levels of the undergraduate programme here at UCFB, and this teaching is mapped on to and led by his research interests:
- the political economy of football
- the structures and institutions of governance within football and regulation of the game
- political and social issues in football
- the historical and cultural significance of football
- David is a Fellow of the HEA (Higher Education Academy)
Peer-Reviewed Research:
- Webber, D. M. (2025). ‘We ain’t no hooligans, this ain’t a football song…’: Italia ’90 and the trasformismo of English football. In D. N. Voionmaa (ed.) World Cup! History, Politics, and Art of the Beautiful Game. Wilmington: Vernon Press, pp. 195–218.
- Webber, D. M. (2025). Only a game? The politics of football, the English Premier League, and its wider international relations: A critical research agenda for the next 25 years. The British Journal of Politics and International Relations 27(2): 658–73.
- Webber, D. M. and M. Turner (2023). Standing here: rituals, rights, and the radical democratization of football spectatorship. Annals of Leisure Research 27(3): 381–98.
- Webber, D. M. (2022). Towards an ‘everyday’ cultural political economy of English football: conceptualising the futures of Wembley Stadium and the grassroots game in England. New Political Economy 27(1): 47–61.
- Webber, D. M. (2021). Feasting in a time of famine: the English Premier League, ‘conspicuous consumption’ and the politics of austerity. Journal of Consumer Culture 21(3): 598–617.
- Webber, D. M. (2018). The Great Transformation of the English game: Karl Polanyi and the double-movement ‘Against Modern Football’. In B. Garcia and J. Zheng (eds.) Whose Game Is It? Supporter Activism and Regulation in European Football. Cham: Palgrave, pp. 9–26.
- Webber, D. M. (2017). Global Statesman: How Gordon Brown took New Labour to the World. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press (Oxford University Press).
- Webber, D. M. (2017). Playing on the break: Karl Polanyi and the double-movement ‘Against Modern Football’. International Review for the Sociology of Sport 52(7): 875–93.
Other Published Work:
- Master plan. When Saturday Comes, December 2024, issue 448.
- Wrexham’s Hollywood drama exposes harsh realities facing English football. Morning Star, 25 April 2023.
- Rail road. When Saturday Comes, June 2021, issue 410 (co-authored with Dr Mark Turner).
- Figure skating. When Saturday Comes, April 2020, issue 397.
- Arch nemesis. When Saturday Comes, December 2018, issue 381.
- Safe standing would be fitting legacy to Hillsborough victims. The Football Supporters Federation, 29 September 2016.
- Hillsborough inquest rights the wrongs, but now attitudes towards fans must change. The Conversation, 27 April 2016.
- Party policies. When Saturday Comes, May 2015, issue 339.
- Priced out of matches and treated as commodities, football fans are finally starting to reclaim the beautiful game. New Statesman, 23 December 2014 (with introduction by Martin Cloake).