ABSTRACT
Sport serves both as an agent of socialisation and an instrument of diversion. Because it can promote national identity as well as confer prestige on those identified with it, sport can create ‘politically useable resources’ (Allison, 1986, p. 12). For these reasons governments, and not only authoritarian ones (Arnaud and Riordan, 1998), become involved with sport, trying to harness it to their objectives. Even if governments do not get involved, however, sport governance and control is political since it has its own power struggles. Thus, in an early treatment of sport and politics, Taylor (1986) distinguished between two standard definitions of politics: anything involving governments or public authorities or any activity involving power, influence and control over people’s behaviour. No matter which definition is chosen sport is a political issue. This chapter pursues the external political relationships of GSOs under both these definitions.
