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Sammanfattning

The study aims to investigate how the trend and development around centre-backs who make more passes in the Premier League characterizes and affects football at a lower level in Sweden. In recent years, the Premier League has gone through a tactical change together with other parts of football Europe, where a tactical homogenization has taken place and where the football cultures have become more similar to each other. From a theoretical perspective, institutional theory within the field of organization has been applied within a narrower context connected to the organization of tactics, where the football industry can be understood as an organizational field. The theoretical framework also includes what is known as institutional isomorphism to explain how and why organizations are more and more similar to each other. Within isomorphism, there are three central processes that particularly drive institutional isomorphism: enforced isomorphism, mimetic isomorphism, and normative isomorphism. The processes contribute with an understanding of how organizations can begin to resemble each other and thus how the spread of trends occurs, is understood and received by those active in football at a lower level, especially within a Swedish context. The method has been semi-structured interviews where relevant people were interviewed in order to cover all relevant areas. Through a thematic analysis, the central results showed that the trend had an impact as there is a pressure to relate to the trends that originate from, for example, the Premier League. Furthermore, digitization and the development of technology have played a role as this has simplified and accelerated the spread of trends. In addition, the spread of trends has led to a change in the requirements of centre-backs, where these are now expected to be characterized by offensive qualities to a greater extent than before. It is possible to see different approaches linked to the trend, the transformation of the center back position and how this is expressed in Swedish football. Not least, it can be beneficial to continue following the development by being influenced by other football cultures and using isomorphic processes, provided that this happens in a balanced way.