ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on governance, as the processes through which rules are made and applied to that sport are efficiently organised and regulated by looking first at how rules are made and who makes them. The Olympic Games offer an example of a sporting regulatory body which has the power to make rules. Second, the chapter looks at what happens when rules are broken, and, finally, at the issues in the contemporary governance of sport and then the possibilities of changing the rules, especially in promoting wider participation and greater equality in sport. As Chapter 8 demonstrated, sport and politics are interconnected. Sport and its practices are situated within wider political and social terrains in which rights and responsibilities are contested and which are marked by power struggles. Sport is big business, so sometimes the stakes are high. Sport also generates its own power struggles and contributes to, as well as reflecting, social and political change. The governance of sport is embedded in the politics of sport because power operates at different levels; through routine and everyday compliance with rules and regulations and through the regulatory practices, which govern sport at local, national and international levels. Sport involves rules: playing by the rules and sometimes breaking the rules. Sport is ruled and governed but rules are also broken and the governance of sport involves measures to limit such transgressions.
