A Governance Perspective on Sport Mega-Events the 2010 Football World Cup in South Africa as a Lubricant in Domestic and International Affairs?

2012 ◽  
pp. 151-165
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
International Affairs ◽  
World Cup ◽  
Mega Events

South Africa’s Engagement in Sports Diplomacy: The Successful Hosting of the 2010 FIFA World Cup

2013 ◽  
Vol 8 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 197-210 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andreia Soares e Castro
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
South African ◽  
Soft Power ◽  
African Continent ◽  
World Cup ◽  
Fifa World Cup ◽  
Mega Events ◽  
Sports Diplomacy ◽  
Policy Goals

Summary This article begins by recognizing the importance of sport in South African history, before turning to South Africa’s vision and strategy, as articulated around and beyond the successful hosting of mega-events, particularly the 2010 FIFA World Cup, the first World Cup to be held on the African continent. The article suggests that mega-events are an important stage and priority of a broader and longer-term strategy of enhancing South Africa’s soft power, prestige and visibility. In this context, sport and mega-events are important foreign policy tools and have greatly benefited South Africa, the African continent and the international relations system. Using South Africa as a case study, this article explores the concept of sports diplomacy — that is, the use of sports as an instrument for furthering foreign policy goals, causes or interests — and argues that it is a significant and a rising source of soft power.

Status Signaling and the Risk of Domestic Opposition: Comparing South Africa and Brazil's Hosting of the 2010 and 2014 World Cups

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Janis van der Westhuizen
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Economic Crisis ◽  
Opposite Direction ◽  
The Political ◽  
World Cup ◽  
South Africans ◽  
Mega Events ◽  
Status Signaling ◽  
Domestic Support ◽  
First World

Abstract Whereas much of the literature on status and domestic audiences analyzes how international achievement helps shore up domestic legitimacy, analyses regarding the opposite direction—how the lack of domestic support undercuts status signaling—remain rare. Mega-events constitute a highly public and visible example of conspicuous consumption as a form of status signaling. However, in rising democracies state elites are obliged to frame the benefits of hosting a World Cup in both instrumental dimensions and expressive virtues. In Brazil, the political fallout from the economic crisis, however, made it very difficult for state elites to rely on the expressive value of Brazil's status as World Cup host to subdue domestic opposition driven by instrumental logics. In contrast, for South Africans, the 2010 World Cup not only became an “exceptional status moment” but also constituted a “nation founding moment,” which meant that the expressive significance of hosting the first World Cup in Africa mitigated similar instrumental criticism.

Sporting Mega-Events and South-to-South Security Exchanges: A Comparative Study of South Africa and Brazil

2013 ◽  
Vol 8 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 313-332 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher McMichael
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Comparative Study ◽  
Urban Crime ◽  
Urban Environments ◽  
Perceived Threat ◽  
Sporting Events ◽  
Security Measures ◽  
World Cup ◽  
Mega Events ◽  
The World

Summary The FIFA World Cup and the Summer Olympics are the most prestigious major sporting events in the world, and host governments implement security measures to match this stature. While global concerns about terrorism have led to a dramatic upsurge in the extent of security measures, the perceived threat of urban crime is becoming an increasingly prominent cause for apprehension. This has been of particular importance to South Africa’s recent 2010 World Cup and for the unprecedented sequential hosting of both the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympics in Brazil. In both contexts, security has been used as a statement of intent: the respective states have instrumentalized mega-events as an international platform to signal their ability to secure urban environments. This article will focus on a comparative study of areas in which the respective security preparations for the World Cup in Brazil have overlapped with the measures deployed in South Africa. Using examples of how Brazilian authorities have sought advice from their South Africa counterparts, it will suggest that both countries have adopted comparable risk aversion strategies.

scholarly journals Fifa-isation: Security, brand protection and media management at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa

2013 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 377-391 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simone Eisenhauer ◽  
Daryl Adair ◽  
Tracy Taylor
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Media Management ◽  
World Cup ◽  
Mega Events ◽  
Brand Protection ◽  
Key Stakeholders ◽  
Spatial Management ◽  
The Media

This paper presents a case-study of spatial brand protection and media management and security strategies at the 2010 Football World Cup (FWC) in South Africa (RSA). This focus stems from the realisation that commercially designated event spaces are very important environments for the interests of FWC sponsors, and that the media has a pivotal role in conveying messages about desirable conduct in such environments. In these respects, stakeholder organisations are concerned about safeguarding core event spaces, and with promoting positive messages about the FWC via the media. The paper therefore investigates the interests of key stakeholders at the 2010 FWC: the event owner Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the FWC sponsors and the host city (Cape Town). It is concerned with identifying various surveillance strategies to manage public spaces at the FWC, albeit with a particular emphasis on protecting the interests of sponsors and their brand integrity. It is also concerned with strategies to manage the media at the FWC, with a particular emphasis on how FIFA stymies dissent and forces compliance among reporters and news outlets that undermine critical surveillance into these practices of spatial management. Taken together, these hyper-protectionist approaches demonstrate what we have described as the FIFA-isation of the FWC, where commercial risk is outsourced to the event host, while the commercial benefits flow back to the event owner. Concomitantly, FIFA makes enormous surveillance demands on the event hosts and those residing in the country and city where it is to be held, and upon the media that broadcast and report on the world’s biggest sport mega events.

scholarly journals Sustainable Strategies in Sports Mega-Events: An Analysis of Soccer World Cups

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Host Country ◽  
The Other ◽  
Sporting Events ◽  
Host Countries ◽  
World Cup ◽  
Fifa World Cup ◽  
Mega Events ◽  
Documentary Analysis ◽  
Two Measures

The present study aimed to analyze the sustainable strategies in the areas of energy and garbage and waste management adopted by the host countries of the FIFA World Cups in 2006 (Germany), 2010 (South Africa), and 2014 (Brazil). Therefore, in addition to a documentary analysis of the sustainability projects (also known as Green Goal), a search was performed for scientific studies that approached the topic of sustainable development/sustainability in mega sporting events. To perform the searches at Scholar Google and Scielo, the keywords “sustentabilidade”, “Copa do Mundo”, “Copa do Mundo de Futebol”, “Green Goal” “sustainability”, e “FIFA World Cup” was used. As a result, it was found that each host country had at least two measures in common with the others for the management of waste, with a difference only in the form of application. Also, an important common project for all countries was the use of recyclable cups, which incidentally, was the main measure adopted by Germany during the 2006 FIFA World Cup, and repeated in the subsequent cups. The other measures adopted by each host country, despite having similarities, differed in plan and execution.

scholarly journals ANYONE FOR A GAME OF MONOPOLY™?* A CRITICAL EVALUATION OF THE EVERINCREASING COMMERCIALIZATION OF MAJOR SPORTING EVENTS PART 2: EXAMINING THE LEGITIMACY OF THE CREATION AND MAINTENANCE OF COMMERCIALLY-DRIVEN MONOPOLIES IN SPORTS EVENTS

Obiter ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Andre M Louw
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Critical Evaluation ◽  
Sporting Events ◽  
World Cup ◽  
Fifa World Cup ◽  
Mega Events ◽  
Rights Protection ◽  
Sports Events ◽  
Ambush Marketing ◽  
Prime Source

This is the second part of an article published in three parts that critically examines the commercial monopolisation of sporting mega-events such as the FIFA football World Cup, and of commercial rights protection of such events. The first part of this article contained mainly a descriptive overview of ambush marketing and of the legal and other measures available to event organisers and sponsors to combat such practices. This second (and the forthcoming third) part of the article will continue to critically evaluate the legitimacy of a prime source of protection for these commercial actors, namely anti-ambush marketing legislation, with a specific focus on the SouthAfrican jurisdiction and the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document