International Sports Bodies Research Articles

Populist Dimensions of Sport Histories

Abstract This article explores the concept of populism to further our understanding of sport-based institutions and discourse and to demonstrate the relevance of “sportive populism” to sport history scholarship. It begins with an account of the application of the concept to strongman populism in historical and contemporary contexts and then focuses on two specific historical cases: the Colosseum in Rome in the first century CE, and the formative discourses of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Based primarily upon secondary sources, analysis of the cases illustrates the interpretive potential of the populist concept for our understanding of a form of sportive populism in the political project of the Colosseum and in the formative discourses and persisting rhetoric of the two international sporting bodies.

Study on approaching the compositional criterion in group rhythmic gymnastics for junior representative teams

Abstract. The increased level of sports performance in rhythmic gymnastics due to fiercer and better and better organised competitions is obvious for any critic. National and international sports bodies and public opinion stimulated by media coverage eager for sensational have created an obsession with the prioritisation of values. Obtaining exceptional results, medals, points and titles, with all the deriving moral effects of pride but especially related to material aspects, is of interest to both athletes and the countries represented by sports delegations in official international competitions. Competition analysis provides highly valuable information on the level reached in terms of qualitative and quantitative gains and the impact of regulations on a team’s performance at a certain time in relation to the ideal model imposed by the requirements of the FIG Code of Points. Romania’s position in the team ranking for the group event in two major competitions generated a number of questions that formed the core of the current study. In this context, we aimed to perform an objective analysis of the way in which coaches approached the compositional criterion in designing the competition routines and identify possibly strategic elements that made the difference in team ranking. The study was conducted on the first 8 junior teams ranked at the 2019 European Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships (Baku) and the 2019 Rhythmic Gymnastics Junior World Championships (Moscow). Video analysis allowed us to identify the vectors that directly or indirectly influenced the mechanisms involved in the creation of compositions for the group event.

PROBLEMS OF SETTLING LEGAL RELATIONS IN THE FIELD OF PROFESSIONAL SPORTS DURING THE PANDEMIC

The article is devoted to the specifics of civil law regulation of public relations in the field of professional sports in the quarantine period. It is determined that the main areas of research in the field of legal regulation of professional sports relations during the pandemic are the specifics of contractual and non-contractual obligations by clubs and leagues in conditions of financial instability and the influence of external factors on competitions; the consequences of athletes' refusal to perform contact obligations due to the risk of infection; the effect of contractual obligations over time due to changes in the structure of the sports season; the possibility of considering a pandemic by force majeure and the corresponding consequences of such equating; compensation to clubs and leagues for the imposition of restrictions that lead to significant financial losses. It is proved that in game sports it is possible to use civil law agreements to regulate relations with the participation of professional athletes. Thus, it is substantiated that the peculiarities of the extension, performance or termination of such agreements are the subject of legal regulation of civil law. The expediency of extending the professional contracts of players until the end of the season in accordance with international norms has been proved, as this approach corresponds to the original intentions of the parties at the time of signing the contract, as well as preserves sports honesty and stability. The lack of absolute status of force majeure in relation to the situation with a pandemic and quarantine restrictions in the context of professional sports contracts has been determined. It is determined that the issue of fulfillment of contractual obligations to the owners of season tickets, prepaid tickets for sports competitions should be regulated by sports associations in cooperation with the executive authorities, whose powers include regulation and control over the organization of sports competitions. It has been proven that the issues of fulfillment of contractual obligations in the field of professional sports during the pandemic are not sufficiently regulated by the current legislation, and the settlement of disputes arising in this area is entrusted to international sports bodies. Legal regulation of these relations is under the jurisdiction of international sports federations, national associations and is based on the provisions of existing agreements (both individual and collective).

No Fouls on Human Rights

Mega-sporting events such as the Olympic and Paralympic Games, or the FIFA World Cup, have received increased criticism in recent years for their adverse impacts on human rights. The documented cases and reports of human rights abuses that occur on the context of organizing and staging these events have caused many to question their legitimacy and legality. This article summarizes recent examples of mega-sporting event-related human rights abuses. It analyses the current developments on the side of international sports bodies and other actors within the international community in reaction to the increased awareness of the adverse human rights impacts of these events.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS): its relevance to Kenya after Pechstein?

Claudia Pechstein, a female elite German speed skater, was convicted of an anti-doping rule violation by the disciplinary committee of the International Skating Union (ISU) on 1 July 2009 and suspended for 2 years by the ISU. Her appeals to the Court of Arbitration for Sport on 25 November 2009 (CAS 2009/A/1912–1913 Pechstein, DESG gegen ISU) and eventually to the Swiss Federal Tribunal in February 2010 (4A-612/2009 Claudia Pechstein v ISU and DESG) were unsuccessful. CAS is a judicial organ recognized by all international sports bodies as the final forum for the resolution of sporting disputes. This applies also to National sporting bodies in Kenya. On 30 December 2012, she approached a Regional court in Munich (Landesgericht Muenchen 1). She advanced several arguments. First, the provisions in the ISU prohibiting sportspersons from approaching national courts violated her right to approach an independent and impartial tribunal under the European Convention on Human Rights and German law (art. 2 para. 1). Second, the agreement between herself and the ISU binding her to arbitration by CAS was mandatory, and not voluntary, and, therefore, invalid. Third, the CAS is not independent as its arbitrators are picked by sports bodies like the defendant. Finally, both the ISU and its German affiliate (DESG) abused their dominant market position by requiring any athlete interested in the sport of speed skating to follow their rules, which rules were used to suspend her and bar her from competition and use of defendant’s facilities. These issues raised by Pechstein apply to sportspersons in Kenya as well. Pechstein sought a declaration that her ban due to doping was unlawful, and damages for material damage, pain, and suffering. The court dismissed her claim. She appealed to the Court of Appeal in Munich (Oberlandesgericht Muenchen, WuW/E DE-R 4543) on 6 November 2014. The Appeals court, in its decision, agreed with her on all those points, declined the declaration, but awarded her damages. In effect, this decision rubbished the very existence of CAS. In a further appeal, the Federal Court of Justice (KZR 6/15) reversed this decision on 7 June 2016. This paper will analyse the issues that arose in this case. From an analysis of the jurisprudence of the European Court of Justice, European Commission on Human Rights, the European Court of Human Rights (all of which are binding on Germany), as well as jurisprudence from other European countries, it is apparent that the decision by the appeals court was flawed as confirmed by the decision of the Federal Court of Justice. CAS has been and continues to be used by Kenyan sportspersons. Currently, CAS enjoys statutory recognition in Kenya through the Anti-doping Act, 2016, which effectively ousts the jurisdiction of Kenyan courts. It is concluded that CAS is a vital institution for the resolution of sports disputes and that it can benefit from a little strengthening.

Match-Fixing: A Historical Perspective

Match-fixing has a long history, but while use of drugs in sport has a substantial secondary literature, match-fixing has only recently begun to attract the attention of historians. This essay begins with a brief overview of its global contemporary contexts, the broad range of sports where it now surfaces, increased recognition of its moral, social, and economic threat, and the varied responses of leading sports organizations, legal gambling operators, police forces, governmental departments, and regulators. The following section explores the challenges of finding any reliable evidence of match-fixing in the past. Such material can include reports of criminal trials and investigations, the decisions of national and international sporting bodies, journalistic investigations, players confessions, suspended investigations, and the many various unsubstantiated allegations of fixing. An overview shows that match-fixing has been a major and substantial long-standing historical continuity in sport usually but not always is linked to gambling and sporting materialism. Examples are brought forward to show that it could be found in Ancient Greece and Egypt, and was widespread across the early modern and modern periods in Britain, America, and Australia. The essay concludes by suggesting some key questions which a future agenda for the historical study of match-fixing might address.

‘Neutrally anti-communists’ international sports institutions and the case of Trieste (1945–1954)

ABSTRACTFrom 1947 until 1954, the Free Territory of Trieste (FTT) was formally an independent territory under the direct control of the UN. However, unlike the case of the Saar Protectorate, the FTT never managed to achieve recognition in the international sports arena. This article has two key aims. The first is to investigate how different international sports organisations, such as IOC, FIFA and UCI, dealt with the issue of the recognition of an in-limbo state. The second is to analyse the role of the Cold War in the decision taken by the main international sports bodies to not recognise the UCEF. The case of Trieste also allows an analysis of the dual nature of the international sports institutions when they have to deal with political issues. From one side, the IOC and the ISFs can be seen as an arena of confrontation between the interests of different nations. However, at the same time, those sports organisations managed to maintain some degree of autonomy from the realm of international politics. In fact, the decision on Trieste was a compromise between the respect of the rules, the influence of international politics and the internal balance of power of every single body.

Mega-Sporting Events and Human Rights—A Time for More Teamwork?

AbstractMega-Sporting Events (MSEs) like the Olympics and FIFA World Cup inspire humanity and have the potential to promote human rights, including through job creation and urban regeneration. Yet for over a decade MSEs have been linked to a pattern of human rights abuses that reads like a panoply of Business and Human Rights themes. The very legitimacy and social license of MSEs is increasingly on the line. Yet we may have reached a tipping point. In the past year the Commonwealth Games Federation, FIFA, and the International Olympic Committee have begun to instigate human rights reforms. A new multi-stakeholder coalition, chaired by Mary Robinson and facilitated by IHRB, meanwhile is pursuing innovative collaborate solutions to the human rights issues at stake. Supported by international agencies, governments, sports bodies, sponsors and broadcasters, and civil society, this coalition seeks to promote learning and accountability in a sector for whom business and human rights is new territory.

Международный арбитраж в спортивной борьбе

Purpose: to study the international sports arbitration court as the sole competent body for appeals against the decisions of national and international sports bodies. Material and Methods: the complex of General scientific methods of cognition, systemic method, formal logical, method of analysis and synthesis, method of ascent from the abstract to the concrete, as well as special legal methods: comparative-legal, formal-legal, normative-logical. Results: the used works in the field of sports arbitration and sports law, the works of foreign authors were analyzed. There is a voluntary-compulsory closed system of dispute resolution that exclude other ways of protecting the interests of athletes and sport organizations, including such as the use of the courts of General jurisdiction. Conclusions: the solution to this situation may be making problems of legal regulation of disputes in the field of sport in the sphere of public international law

Not Quite Free? Irish Postcoloniality and the Career of Pat O'Callaghan

This paper explores the career of the Irish Olympian Pat O'Callaghan. He won successive hammer-throwing titles in the 1924 and 1928 Olympics as a representative of the independent Irish state. The paper argues that in these Olympics, O'Callaghan can be considered as representing a postcolonial state, in line with much scholarship on other aspects of Irish culture. However, the Irish later fell into a dispute with the International Amateur Athletics Federation and the International Olympic Committee, which were largely steered by the British in dealing with contentious issues over the Irish border, and the Irish were thus effectively banned from the 1936 games. The paper concludes with a discussion over the nature of postcolonial identities in sport, and the complexities around the issue in relation to the constant mediation over what national identities mean within the context of rule-making by international sporting bodies.

Modest agreement in ECG interpretation limits the application of ECG screening in young athletes.

Athlete ECG screening has been recommended by several international sporting bodies; however, a number of controversies remain regarding the accuracy of ECG screening. An important component that has not been assessed is the reproducibility of ECG interpretation. The purpose of this study was to assess the variability of ECG interpretation among experienced physicians when screening a large number of athletes. A sports cardiologist, a sports medicine physician, and an electrophysiologist analyzed 440 consecutive screening ECGs from asymptomatic athletes and were asked to classify the ECGs according to the 2010 European Society of Cardiology criteria as normal (or demonstrating training related ECG changes) or abnormal. When an abnormal ECG was identified, they were asked to outline what follow-up investigations they would recommend. The reported prevalence of abnormal ECGs ranged from 13.4% to 17.5%. Agreement on which ECGs were abnormal ranged from poor (κ = 0.297) to moderate (κ = 0.543) between observers. Suggested follow-up investigations were varied, and follow-up costs ranged from an additional A$30-A$129 per screening episode. Neither of the 2 subjects (0.45%) in the cohort with significant pathology diagnosed as a result of screening were identified correctly by all 3 physicians. Even when experienced physicians interpret athletes' ECGs according to current standards, there is significant interobserver variability that results in false-positive and false-negative results, thus reducing the effectiveness and increasing the social and economic cost of screening.

Mapping the relationship between international sport and diplomacy

To date, the relationship between diplomacy and international sport has been relatively under-theorized. This paper seeks to redress the deficiency by proposing an analytical taxonomy of the multiple convergences between international sport and diplomacy. The principal analytical distinction to be drawn is between (1) international sport consciously employed by governments as an instrument of diplomacy and (2) international-sport-as-diplomacy, the diplomatic representation, communication and negotiation between non-state actors that take place as a result of ongoing international sporting competition. By increasing understanding of the rôles of sport in diplomacy and diplomacy in sport, the paper seeks to promote the adoption of best practices to facilitate effective use of sport in diplomacy by governments and effective use of diplomacy by international sporting bodies, and to instigate a debate between theorists and practitioners from both realms.

Transferring national allegiance: cultural affinity or flag of convenience?

In international sport in recent years there has been a growing tendency for sportspeople to represent a country other than the one in which they were born. Most international sporting bodies allow people to represent either the country of their birth or one to which they have an attachment through ethnicity, residency or marriage. This article explores the senses of national identity and belonging felt by sportspeople competing for a country other than the one in which they were born and grew up. It does so through a focus on the case of the Republic of Ireland soccer team since the 1980s. It examines perceptions of national identity amongst the so-called ‘Anglo’ contingent, players who were born in Britain but were eligible to play for Ireland under FIFA rules relating to parentage. The article is based on self-evaluations recorded in newspaper and magazine interviews and in players' ‘auto’ biographies. It further examines the reactions by various individuals outside Ireland to this phenomenon and the views of Irish fans towards player eligibility and selection. The article places this work in an analytical context of sport and nationalism, with particular emphasis on the complex relationships between sport and nationalism in Ireland. The article argues that there is evidence of significant attitudinal differences between players; that players' attitudes are by no means uniform but range from the ’careerist’ to the ’nationalist’ position. Responses to this phenomenon have been sharply divided between those who view it as a dilution of the authentically Irish nature of the team to those who see it as a pragmatic response to an otherwise limited player pool.

289 Sex and Gender in Sport: Fallacy of the “Level Playing Field”

There is controversy regarding participation in high profile competitive events by female athletes perceived as inappropriately “masculine” by competitors and others. Over 50 years, international sports bodies such as the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) employed - and ultimately discarded - various procedures to ensure feminiity. Though ostensibly to detect male imposters, in practice these identified women with genetic Disorders of Sex Development (DSD), such as androgen insensitivity syndrome, complete or partial; 5 alpha-reductase deficiency; mixed gonadal dysgenesis. Further, increased participation in women's sport has vastly enlarged the competitive field and the probability of athletes with a DSD competing. Do female athletes with a DSD have any “unfair” competitive advantage, especially since specific genetic endowment provides advantage to excel in specific events? This “endowment” can include recognized medical disorders such as height in Marfan Syndrome and delayed maturation and short stature in gonadal dysgenesis, even simple genetic variation such as more fast or slow twitch muscle fibers. A Finnish athlete with exceptional success in endurance Nordic skiing was found to have high hemoglobin and increased oxygen carrying capacity due to an inherited mutation in the erythropoietin receptor; similar mutations occur world wide. Even longer toes are associated with greater “lift-off” and success in sprint events. Thus the ideal of a “level playing field” is illusory and fundamentally women with some DSDs have no more competitive advantage than other elite athletes with favorable genetic characteristics.

The Globalization of Sports, the Rise of Non-Western Nations, and the Impact on International Sporting Events

International sports have been traditionally dominated by the Western nations that monopolized the decision-making process of various international sporting bodies, determined the rules of the game and decided on the venues, television schedules and formats that the games would take. This article argues that with the advent of globalization non-Western nations are increasingly asserting themselves in the decision making and economics of international sporting events. Consequently, this will result in reshaping the power structure in international sporting bodies as well as in how the allocation of sporting events is determined.

Periodical cardiovascular screening is mandatory for elite athletes.

In recent years sudden cardiac death (SCD) in sport has received more media attention. The death of a young competitive, sometimes well-known, athlete is a tragedy with great impact on lay and medical communities. The public and medical awareness of SCD will result in public, medical and political demands to introduce preventive measures to avoid SCD. In many countries it is being debated whether mandatory screening of athletes is the answer and some international sports bodies such as the IOC, FIFA, UEFA and ICU have already adopted screening procedures to fight SCD in sport.

Should We Allow Performance-Enhancing Drugs in Sport? A Rebuttal to the Article by Savulescu and Colleagues

Savulescu et al. [1] propose that, since it will never be possible to control drug use in sport, athletes should be allowed to use those performance-enhancing drugs that are “safe”. The authors fail to explain, however, why appropriate doping control has yet to be achieved in world sport. In this rebuttal, it is argued that the widespread doping of elite athletes, as is now common, cannot easily occur without government collusion that is either overt or covert. There is also evidence that a number of international sporting bodies have followed the same principle. Furthermore, since their products are so readily available to elite athletes, those pharmaceutical companies that manufacture the most popular performance-enhancing drugs would appear to be indifferent to the misuse of their products by athletes for nonmedical purposes. The control of drug use in sport has never been achieved, because these three stakeholders who should have acted to eliminate doping in sport appear to have chosen an opposite action without due consideration for their ethical responsibility to protect athletes from the proven dangers of doping. Doping in sport can only ever be defended for exclusively commercial reasons (both legal and criminal) and certainly not on the illusory ethical grounds proposed by Savulescu et al. [1].

POLITICS, SPORT AND EDUCATION IN SOUTH AFRICA

DURING THE LAST THIRTY YEARS, the pressure to isolate South Africa from international sport has steadily intensified. As a result, South Africa is now excluded from official international competition in all major team sports except rugby. The official reason for exclusion advanced by the various international sporting bodies bears repeating, since it is based not on an abhorrence of the political system of South Africa as such, but on opposition to the political distortion of sporting activity in South Africa: the legal ban on blacks and whites mixing on sports fields and the straitjacket imposed on black sporting development, which has denied basic sporting opportunities and freedoms. The South African government has been slow to react to the growing boycott. During the 1970s a number of initiatives were launched, but to little effect. It was not until the advent of the Botha administration in late 1978 that a more assertive response to the boycott began to emerge. This has now developed into a full-scale international offensive aimed at 'setting the record straight' about the actual sporting conditions now prevailing in South Africa and thereby securing the country's re-admission to international sport. The recent appointment of a sport attache to the South African Embassy in London, and the opening of a South African Sports Office there are indicative of the lengths to which the government and various South African sporting bodies are now prepared to go to regain