An academy is an organisational context operated by professional football clubs, governed by the rules of the English Football Association and the English Premier League. Academies provide coaching and education for youth football players aged from under 9 to under 21. The Academy Manager is responsible for the strategic leadership and operation of the club’s academy. This includes implementing the club’s philosophy, coaching and games programme, player education, and the management of academy staff. The purpose of this paper is to explore the experiences of Simon [pseudonym], an English Premier League Academy Manager, when implementing organisational change within an academy. Data were collected from a work-based diary and four in-depth semi-structured interviews. The notion of orchestration is used as an analytical frame to make sense of Simon’s experiences through the change process and further our understanding of the social complexities of organisational change in elite sporting environments

Employment within professional football is characterised by high levels of staff turnover, uncertainty, vulnerability and insecurity. This paper aims to investigate the experiences of James, Head of Foundation Phase within an English professional youth academy, during a period of organisational change. Data were collected through field notes, informal observations and meetings, formal academy team meetings, co-worker interviews and four semi-structured in-depth participant interviews, which were subjected to an iterative process of inductive and deductive analysis. Theorising regarding the influence of professional selfinterests upon the actions and strategies of the social actors was utilised to make sense of James' narrative. The findings highlighted how James strategically managed his relationships with others to further his own professional selfinterests. Finally, following the findings of this study, we propose that the ability to develop micro-political literacy and a repertoire of micro-political actions and strategies would benefit coaches working within professional football during such periods of instability and change.

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Gender inequality remains a pervasive issue. Women are more likely to be poorer and to have fewer assets; for instance, they are half as likely as men to own land. 16 Geographical inequality is also stark, with clear north/ south and rural/urban divides. Rural poverty is now almost four times as high as urban poverty. 17 Ghana must tackle inequality if it wants to ensure a more prosperous future for all Ghanaians and meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It must do so for three key reasons:

Rising economic inequality across Asia is threatening poverty reduction and slowing down the fight against gender inequality. Although the region has experienced economic growth, the bottom 70 percent have seen their income share fall while the share for the top 10 percent has increased rapidly. Low wages and a lack of rights at work, particularly for women, are at the heart of this scandal. At the same time, women are subsidizing the economy with a disproportionate responsibility for unpaid care work. Achieving living wages and recognizing, redistributing and reducing unpaid care work could support both economic and gender equality in Asia and should be prioritized by both governments and businesses.