Bakom kulisserna : Maktspel, inflytande och tränaravsked i Allsvenskan

This thesis examines how power is exercised, distributed, and legitimised in decisions to dismiss head coaches in Swedish elite football. The study focuses on all coach dismissals in the Swedish mens first league Allsvenskan between 2024 and 2025 and is based on a qualitative document analysis of press releases, official club statements and coverage from established sports media. Through an abductive research approach, the empirical material has been analysed using a theory-driven thematic analysis. The theoretical framework combines Foucault’s discourse-oriented concept of power, neo-institutional theory on organisational legitimacy and isomorphism, and Simon’s theory of bounded rationality. The results show that coach dismissals are overwhelmingly framed through a performance discourse, where weak results and form slumps are highlighted as primary motives, while more complex organisational factors gives limited space. At the same time, generic narratives about “change”, “new energy” and “leadership” are frequently used to legitimise interventions without specific problem descriptions. In several cases, dismissals are presented as mutual decisions or strategic realignments, which function symbolically to signal control and professionalism towards external stakeholders. The study concludes that coach dismissals in Allsvenskan should be understood less as purely performance-driven measures and more as institutionalised power practices and satisficing responses under uncertainty, shaped by discursive norms, legitimacy pressures and constrained decision environments.