Sports, money and politics

Résumé du document

?Sport' has become a significant central activity in the modern day life. Everyone is either directly or indirectly influenced by sports! Results of competitions and impressive performances of sportsmen (for example Z. Zidane's goal in a football match or M. Jordan's feat in basketball match) are very much around. Consequently, sport is not just considered as a mere mode of entertainment but also as a definite reflection of our industrialized and globalized world as it significantly contributes to two of the worlds most important elements that is finance and politics. One can easily conclude that the world had many dimensions and we have to thoroughly analyze them in-order to link finance and politics to other areas to understand it better.

Extraits

[...] You hear about competitions' results when you listen to the radio or when you watch TV; you can't avoid some wellknown figures, like Z. Zidane or M. Jordan. - Sports has consequently to be considered not as a simple pleasure, but as a phenomenon of our industrialized and globalized world, because it's deeply related to the worlds of money and politics. - For this reason we can notice that this particular world has many dimensions. So we have to analyse them and to link them with money and politics in order to understand it better. [...]

[...] From practicing to power 1. Sports in the everyday life - Sports is nowadays a very important activity because of the pressure of School, professional world. It allows people to forget or to get over stress. - Sports must be a pleasure, it is a good way to get the others' recognition, to know different people. - But there is another side of Sports Sports at the top of the hierarchy - Organization of the sports world : Club - national league - international league International Olympic Committee (IOC) - At the bottom of the scale : sport = pleasure, entertainment, the athlete is fully a person - At the top of the hierarchy : fights about power, like during elections. [...]

[...] Sports business, a modern tendency 1. The “innocent criminals” (the audience) and the doping system 3 Rules - People expect results - People want to understand - People always want more - They're innocent criminals because they unwillingly lead sports to many excesses - Professionalization: need of results to get paid: doping (cycling, Tour de France 1998) - Doping market, doping technology - Development of methods in order, not to be taken - Collaboration of the heads of sports to avoid too much positive tests during the greatest competitions to keep a increasing audience 2. [...]

[...] Analysis, reactions and hopes 1. It's time to become aware of the dangers of the latest evolutions of sports - Is it good that Sports should be so intimately related to politics ? - No, it would be evidently better to keep the original mind of antic Olympics - Sports world has often been a peaceful one but it can't be totally independent from international relations, simply because it's now a form of international relation - The economic weight of sports is moreover always bigger, what could now lead to a reversal of the balance between sports and politics Is this process irreversible ? [...]

[...] Sports, politics and history 1. Sports as a showcase for nations - Sports world = performance: performance associated with the country - Berlin 1936 : The Olympics = to show the supremacy of the Aryan civilisation (but it failed) - Mexico = First participation of East Germany as a separate nation - Fights for organising the Olympic Games every 4 years - Soviet athletes during the Cold War = showcase too (doping) 2. Sports and political crisis - when political crisis: sometimes, crisis reflected in sports world, especially during the O.G. [...]