ABSTRACT
According to Pierre Bourdieu, journals play an important role in the distribution of power within the field of science. Indeed, the creation and further development of journals of/in sports history reflect both the political and scientific divisions of the community. Significantly, if one considers the earlier North-American experience and the wish for self-legitimacy, the very first editorial mentioned that the history of sport has until now had no international scholarly journal devoted to it. In Europe, the creation of the British society of sport history in 1982 was the result of a flourishing national historiography. Most of the topics in sports history remain local or national and might be better described in national languages. However, the obvious risk of restricting the publication of studies in sport history within specialised journals and book series is to split the field, and its community from their rich, chaotic but stimulating mainstream bases.
