This study udseeksudto establish udwhether, andud,udif so, how, ‘Fudootball in the udCudommunityud’ udcan be udan important source for cultivating and udtendingudsudocial udcudapital. Previous udresearch has paid much attention to the role of sports and leisure pursuits in the uddevelopment of udsudocial udcudapital and the benefits which can be attained through udparticipation in and inudvolvement with sport, sporting organisations and udcudommunity udsudports uddudevelopment (CSD). Using the ud‘sudocial udcudapital udcudycleud’udas a framework for udanalysing the case of udArsenal in the Communityudand uddrawing onudprevious analytical udframeworks, the udfindingsudsuggest thatudsudocial udcudapital is being cultivated and udtenduded udwithin udArsenal in the Community,udparticularly as a result of the environment created udthrough their CSD programmes and the networks developed in partnerships with udother organisations. In some casesud,udthis develoudpment of udsudocial udcudapital has helped to udachieve outstanding results. The Holy Grail of CSD research and practice udisuda udcredible mechanism for udevaluating and measuringudseemingly intangible udvalueudsud. udWhiludeudprevious studies have udemphasisedudthe intangibility of CSD and udsudocial udcudapital, udthe discussions raised in this research suggest two important conclusions. First, that udthe power of an elite football club brandud,udsuch as Arsenalud,udpresents opportunities to udadd and receive value through reciproudcal benefits with uditsudcommunity department. udSecond, that the positive impacts of this mutual benefit can be recognised within a udsocial impact measurement udthatudhas both wider relevance and contemporary udresonance udforudglobal business strategy
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