Lincoln Allison is Emeritus Reader in Politics at the University of Warwick, UK. He is the author or editor of numerous books on sport, politics and travel running into over forty editions, and was awarded a D.Litt. (Warwick) for his contribution to the development of the politics of sport. Since retiring from full-time academic work in 2004 he has worked mainly as a freelance writer and broadcaster.

Alan Tomlinson is Professor of Leisure Studies in the School of Humanities, College of Arts and Humanities, at the University of Brighton, UK. He has authored or edited over thirty volumes on sport, leisure and popular culture, and published more than one hundred book chapters and articles. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences, and a full member of the Sport Journalists' Association.

Introduction: SINGOs: From System to Crisis

1. The Origins and Nature of Modern Sport

2. The Consequent Characteristics of International Sport

3. Alternative Sources of Sporting Practice

4. Founding Global Institutions: The Origins and Development of the IOC and FIFA, 1894-1938

5. How Mercurius was Finally Unbound: SINGOs and Twentieth-Century History

6. Conceptualising INGOs and SINGOs

7. The Hegemonic SINGO and the Shaping of Global Sport: The IOC and its Olympic Behemoth

8. Mega-SINGO in Crisis: FIFA's Collapse of Confidence and Credibility

9. A Pattern of SINGOs?

10. Conclusion: SINGOs: Inevitable But Inevitably Problematic?

The governance of international sport is dominated by the SINGOs (sporting international non-governmental organisations). The IOC, FIFA, IAAF and the FIA wield global influence, but how exactly do such complex organisations operate? This important book examines the rise of the SINGOs, their structures, organisational behaviour, and their power in the context of modern sport and international politics.