ABSTRACT
The United Nations (UN) identified 2005 as the International Year of Sport and Physical Education. In celebration of this year, Kofi Annan, Secretary-General of the UN at the time, exclaimed that ‘sport is a universal language that can bring people together, no matter what their origin, background, religious beliefs or economic status’ (United Nations 2005: ¶ 5). Sport is clearly an international phenomenon. Its global appeal is evident when one considers the viewership of recent sport events. For example, the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games were watched by 4.7 billion people (The Nielsen Company 2008). According to the Nielsen Company (2008: ¶ 1), this level of viewership represented ‘the largest global TV audience ever’. Another example of the trend toward globalisation is the recent introduction of ‘new’ countries (typically non-winter sport countries) and their athletes in the Olympic Winter Games. Specifically, in 2006, in Torino, Italy, athletes from Albania, Madagascar, and Ethiopia participated for the first time in the Winter Olympics while in 2010, in Vancouver,
Carbon footprint – ‘a measure of the greenhouse gases that are produced by activities of a person, a family, a school or a business that involve burning fossil fuels’ (United States Environmental Protection Agency 2009: ¶ 10). Developing country labour force – a country where income level is low relative to other countries. Citizens face low standard of living as a result of low levels of economic and social development. Environmental impact – the positive and negative consequences that activities have on the natural environment. Globalisation – defined as ‘a process through which space and time are compressed by technology, information flows, and trade and power relations, allowing distant actions to have increased significance at the local level’ (Miller, Lawrence, McKay, and Rowe 2001: 131). Transnational corporations – corporations that have entities in more than one country. Their head office is typically located in a developed country and production factories may be located in developing countries.
