ABSTRACT
It has often been suggested that nationalism is becoming obsolete as a result of globalisation and that the relationship between sport and nationalism is weakening. Nation states may no longer be viewed as absolute governing powers able to impose outcomes on all dimensions of policy, including sporting policy. They nonetheless remain an influential locus of power because of their relationship to both territory and populations. Populations remain territorial and subject to the citizenship of a national state not in the sense that they are all-powerful, but because they still have a central role to police the borders of a territory and, to the extent that they are potentially legitimately democratic, they remain representative of the citizens within fluid border territories. The corollary is that national governing bodies of sport and national sports agencies continue to be vital to the governance of sport within certain countries. At the same time, international decisions and forces also influence the governance of national sport.
