ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the bidding processes for major sporting events, including for cultural and commercial events. It begins by setting out the importance of global sports organisations (GSOs) and their status as supranational bodies with the concomitant exemptions they enjoy from national, and at times international, financial and legal restrictions by way of their particular history and constitution. The chapter discusses governance processes from the perspective of the event bidding bodies themselves. It draws attention to the politics of the bidding process, including how the voting process operates for the most sought after major events. The chapter also focuses on the challenges to governance and accountability facing major sports events. Most concerning of all from the point of view of governance, ethics and impropriety is the fact that the host city bid committees for major sporting events are often separated or protected from meaningful democratic accountability for the decisions they make.
