Contact
Biography
Tobias completed his PhD in March 2024 at the School of Politics and IR. His thesis seeks to take the recent Chinese government's push for national football development - The Chinese Football Dream - as a case to explain state-business relationships in Chinese policy making.
Tobias regularly publishes in as well as for and other China online magazines. Tobias is a regular speaker at public events (e.g. Confucius Institute, university talks, China centre) on China's recent football developments.
Tobias used to serve as an Editorial Assistant for China-related content to the university's online magazine.
Before starting his PhD, Tobias was employed with the German football Bundesliga as a manager in international marketing, working on projects related to China's football industry. Since November 2023 Tobias works as international marketing manager for German Bundesliga club RB Leipzig.
Tobias completed a MA in Development Studies at Beijing Normal University, China. He completed his BA in Chinese and Business at the University of Applied Sciences Bremen, Germany.
His MA as well as third year of his BA was fully funded by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). His empirical fieldwork for his PhD project was funded by the Confucius Institute / Hanban China and Universities' China Committee London (UCCL), but had to be partly canceled due to Covid-19.
For more info:
Expertise Summary
Chinese Political Economy
Development Studies
Sports Marketing
Chinese Football Dream
Research Summary
Tobias' research project seeks to take China's recent push for football development - The Chinese Football Dream - as a case to explain state-business relations in Chinese policy making. With the… read more
Recent Publications
JONATHAN SULLIVAN and TOBIAS ROSS, 2023. . In: SIMON CHADWICK, PAUL WIDDOP and MICHAEL GOLDMAN, eds., The Geopolitical Economy of Sport Routledge.
TOBIAS ROSS, 2023. . In: FAN HONG and LIU LI, eds., Routledge Handbook of Sport in China Routledge.
TOBIAS ROSS, JONATHAN SULLIVAN and HONGYI LAI, 2023. Journal of Current Chinese Affairs.
JONATHAN SULLIVAN, TOBIAS ROSS and CHAOJIN WU, 2022. Soccer & Society.
Current Research
Tobias' research project seeks to take China's recent push for football development - The Chinese Football Dream - as a case to explain state-business relations in Chinese policy making. With the help from empirical data gathered from over 60 semi-structured interviews with representatives from the wider Chinese football industry (investors, club officials, sport governing bodies, media), this project is taking a specific policy as a case to contribute to the existing literature on state-business relationships (especially 'Corporate Political Strategies') in China and other politicized transitional economies. With drawing on 'Resource Dependence Theory' as theoretical framework, it gives nuanced evidence for a symbiotic (while asymmetric dependent) relationship between local governments and economic actors with varying outcomes in a 'state-capitalist' political economy.
Tobias' research supervisors are Jonathan Sullivan and Hongyi Lai.