(Chapter 4)
The world of sport is complicated. Few people appear to understand the reasons why. And it makes sense, because very few people will ever need to consider what is going on at this level op sport. In this blog I will try to explain my take on the complexity.
The easiest way to start thinking about sport, is that it is something people often do together. This makes it something in the public domain, and the public domain is something governments take in interest in.
For instance, soccer is a simple game children play if they have a ball and a field of grass, or even if the have a tennisball and a garage door. So governments regulate that you can’t play soccer in parks, can’t play of the public street, etc.
But soccer is also big business. It drives national pride. It creates revenue. It demands stadiums. It involves hooligans. Which creates a safety issue. Etc.
So, governments have interest in sports on each level.
Now, soccer is clearly a sport. But how do we know that. There are variations of soccer that certainly do not count as sport. Rugby certainly isn’t football. But American football is quite like rugby. But American football is certainly not soccer. So, is soccer football or not?
And that’s just soccer to start off with.
Why is Aikido a sport? Is it a sport? If it is not a sport, what is it? Who determines what it is? All these questions have turned out to be impossible to answer over the last 40 years for the people deeply involved. How should a government answer such questions?
They have a simple solution. If you are Olympic, you are a sport.
But what does that mean, if you are Olympic. To understand that, you need to understand the international world of sport. Which organizations are there, where did they come from? What do they do now, and why are we related to them.
And finally, how does that impact you.
