ABSTRACT
Large-scale international sporting events, often described as mega-events, are now well established as a focus of academic study for scholars across the globe. Cities and nations all over the world continue to compete for the rights to host these events, although there continues to be a great deal of controversy surrounding the bidding process for many of these. Maurice Roche (2000) describes such events as something ‘which have a dramatic character, mass popular appeal and international significance’ (1). Roberts (2004) notes how the lines are blurred, and that ‘some megas are bigger than others’ (109) although to date little work has attempted to begin to unpack the ways in which many of these events jockey for position below the ‘big two’ of the Olympic Games (Summer) and (Men’s) FIFA Football World Cup.
