1. Origins

2. Contemporary world

3. Controversies

4. References

Globalization of sports refers to the process of expansion of the idea of sport across the world and phenomena is how that are associated with it.The field of sports in the 20th-21st century was naturally influenced by the process of globalisation.Globalization not only impacts the way in which sports are conducted and organised but also how they are perceived and what they mean in today's world.

Origins

The roots of modern sports can be found in the mid-nineteenth century in Great Britain and the United States where first professional sports were organised in mining and industrial towns and cities. Back then, sport competition was conducted mostly on local and national level. First signs of globalization in that matter appeared because of the global hegemonic position that Great Britain had in the nineteenth century. Due to the British influence, popularity of such sports as football, rugby or cricket grew rapidly throughout the world, very often replacing traditional local games.^[1]

Another step in the globalization of sports was taken with the establishment of the International Olympic Committee in 1894 and the revival of the Olympics Games in 1896. The first modern Olympics Games were organised in its ancient birthplace of Athens and attracted athletes from fourteen nations. Despite that most of the participants were European, the Olympics Games of 1896 initiated regularly held international sport competition that soon spread on a global scale.^[2] In 1904 in Paris, the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) was founded by representatives of France, Belgium, Denmark, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. Shortly after, other European associations joined and by 1909 FIFA was consisted only from nations of the “old continent”. This state of affairs did not last long and South Africa was the first country from overseas that joined the Federation followed by Argentina and Chile (1912) and the United States (1913). This allowed FIFA to start its global activities and in 1930 the first FIFA World Cup was organised. The tournament which was hosted in Uruguay was announced as a great success despite that only four European teams were able to participate.^[3] Meanwhile other international sport federations started appearing and after the World War II, when the United States rose as a global power, “American” sports like basketball and volleyball began getting more popularity around the world. International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) organised their first World Championship in 1949 while International Basketball Federation (FIBA) hosted theirs in 1950.^[4]

Later on, globalization of sports was fueled by the expansion of technology and the introduction of commercial aspects to sports. On one hand newspaper, radio and especially television exposed sports to the wider international audience (first FIFA World Cup was televised in 1956 and first Summer Olympics in 1960), on the other commercial advertising allowed to profit from them.

Contemporary world

Since the end of the world it was said that twentieth century the globalization of sports rapidly accelerated by bringing television and corporate sponsorship. It led to the commercialization of sport and gave birth to the sport industry. Therefore, in the context of globalization, sport in the contemporary world can be characterised by the following tendencies:

• Increased involvement of global telecommunication companies allows international sport organizations and federations such as the International Olympic Committee or International Federation of Association Football to generate enormous revenues by selling television rights.^[5]

• Increased involvement of transnational companies (even those not connected to the sports industry) leads to a new trend of “naming” in which sponsor’s name or label is associated with stadium, sports arena, team or sports contest.^[6]

• Involvement of those companies leads to the professionalization of sports that allows formerly amateur athletes to earn money. In the same time, at the highest level, we can observe enormous growth of income among athletes.

• Promotion of national leagues or team in markets overseas is more and more popular. During pre-season top-tier teams travel to different parts of the world no longer solely to prepare themselves for the upcoming season but rather to promote their team, league, merchandise and sponsors - European football teams organize matches and tournaments in the North America and Asia, while American basketball teams travel to Europe and Asia.

• Future expansion of regional tournaments, leagues and competitions to new geographic areas becomes a new possibility. Even though some games of the regular season of the National Basketball Association (NBA) were already organized outside of the United States and Canada, there are further plans of establishing a team based in London or even adding several European teams to the Association.^[7] On the other hand the president of the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) suggested that UEFA Champions League final could be played outside of Europe - for example in New York.^[8]

• Increased diversity in athletes’ origins participating in national professional leagues around the world as well as the number of countries participating in sports events.^[9]

Controversies

Globalization of sports has also a negative impact that can be visible in the following issues:

• Because of globalization and commercialization, the value of a certain sport is very often determined by the size of available audience for media, advertisers and sponsors. It undermines basic principles of sport and may eventually lead to a decrease in the diversity in sport and sporting heritage.^[10]

• Even though migration and movement of athletes can be seen as something positive there are some controversies around it. First of all, rich countries are able to drain talent from poorer countries negatively influencing their sport system. That happened in the case of the massive exodus of Kenyan athletes who were lured by opportunities offered by Qatar and Bahrain. Secondly, globalization led to a trend of recruiting athletes from other countries in order to compete in international sport events. In that case citizenship and affiliation are easily exchanged for the right sport skills and abilities.^[11]

• Globalization of sports creates also possibilities for different kinds of criminal activity. Match fixing and referee corruption are a rising threat because of the growth of international betting and gambling on sports events. Alleged corruption of officials of the most important international sport organizations and associations (like FIFA) may lead to controversies associated with organization of sport events. In the same time, those big sport institutions may be used as tools for money laundering. Another issue that shows the dark side of globalization of sports is the use of banned athletic performance-enhancing drugs.^[12]

References

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• List of shows produced by Legendary Television
• List of shows produced by Skydance Television
• List of shows produced by the Endemol Shine Group
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• List of Sicilian mobsters
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• List of Side degree and related bodies
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• List of Sidewalk Film Festival Award Winners