Sport presents one of the most advanced cases of globalization, arguably because there are fewer cultural and political obstacles to the development of trade and international power in sport than there are in other fields. Thus there has been a change in the nature of the politics of sport since the end of the Cold War; the subject must be rewritten to acknowledge a twenty-first century world in which international sporting organizations and transnational corporations have become far more important than states.
"The Global Politics of Sport" presents a range of essays examining the emerging global political issues in twenty-first century sport including the role, and power of organizations such as FIFA and the IOC; the influence of US exceptionalism; the construction of global sports heroes; and tensions developing within traditionally alternative sports in a global commercial culture
Lincoln Allison is founding Director of the Warwick Centre for the Study of Sport in Society. He is currently Visiting Professor in the politics of sport at the University of Brighton and Emeritus Professor at the University of Warwick.
1. Sport and Globalisation: The Issues 2. Sport, Prestige and International Relations 3. Not for the Good of the Game: Crises and Credibility in the Governance of World Football 4. Olympic Survivals: The Olympic Games as a Global Phenomenon 5. Alternative Models for the Regulation of Global Sport 6. Sport and Nation in the Global Era 7. The Curious Role of the USA in World Sport 8. Local Heroes and Global Stars 9. Selling Out? The Commercialisation and Globalisation of Lifestyle Sport 10. Afterword: More Questions Than Answers