Sport & Politics

in a Complex World

David Hassan
Professor of Sport Policy & Management
ulster.ac.uk
Sport & Politics
in a Complex World

David Hassan
Professor of Sport Policy & Management
ulster.ac.uk
Context

• Unprecedented period of change within world sport

• Convergence of ‘new’ nation-states with an increasingly
networked sports governance model leading to the virtual
privatisation of world sport
• Why is this happening? What are the consequences of
this and how complicit are those engaged in the
management of sport?
Theoretical Explanations
• Use of sport to assist a national drive
towards ‘maturation’ (Rostow)
Rostow
• Hosting major sporting events
represents an act of resistance against
‘Western’ principles and practices
(Gramsci)

• Concerns the realignment of any Gramsci Wallerstein

‘core/periphery’ relationships that may
persist (Wallerstein)
Renegotiating Core/ Periphery
Relations (Wallerstein)
• Sport has been important in the maintenance of core/
periphery relations but can also challenge them
• Semi-peripheral and peripheral States are now seeking a
share of ‘sporting equity’
• Very foundations of the established ‘core’ begin to erode,
contributing to a ‘systemic crisis’
Bejing 2008
Olympic Games
Russia 2014
Winter Olympic
Games
Equatorial Guinea
2015
Africa Cup Of Nations
Azerbaijan 2015
European Games
Belarus 2014
World Ice Hockey
Championship
Uganda 2017
IAAF World Cross
Country Championship
Russia 2018
FIFA World Cup
Qatar 2022
FIFA World Cup
Governance of Sport
• Accountability is key in avoiding a concentration of
power
• Self-governing hierarchic networks are
increasingly subjected to stakeholder input
• “Less democracy is sometimes better for
organising a World Cup” (FIFA GS Jerome Valcke)
• The future of sport appears to be in those settings
where things happen unquestionably
The Middle East
• Bahrain, Qatar and UAE = combined populations of 12.7 m
• UAE alone has a GDP of $402.3 bn; Combined the GDP of
Bahrain, Qatar and UAE would rank it in the Top 20
Countries in the world
• UAE, a population of 9m but an indigenous population of < 1
m, critical in the context of Emiratisation
Qatar
Qatar
• Treatment of migrant workers in advance of the 2022
FIFA World Cup
• Formula 1 dispute with Bahrain
• World Handball Championships 2015
• Lack of sustained growth of sport in Qatar
 Geo-Political Tensions and Sport
• The role of the FIA in supporting the Bahrain minority
government
• The candidacy of Jordan’s Prince Ali Bin Al-Hussein for FIFA
Presidency
• The regional rivalry between GCC countries through sport –
UAE and Qatar
 Thank you

ulster.ac.uk