Introduction

What is ‘sport’ and why has the urge to run or jump, to wrestle, or master a moving ball individually, or in a team, been part of human culture for so long? The ‘Introduction’ explains that sport has a socio-cultural presence resulting from its daily performance on the pitch, the television screen, in print and online, and has also been reimagined in literary and artistic form throughout history. Sport is currently a predominantly male world of million-dollar salaries and endorsement packages. It is a business that struggles to balance its core historical and philosophical messages, the spirit of fair play, and the heroism of athletic endeavour, with underlying violence, cheating, and corruption.

Conclusion

Sport is a physical activity still enjoyed as a natural expression of athleticism and energy, in many different forms and settings, by millions of people around the globe. At the elite level, sport is a multi-billion dollar global business. The Conclusion shows that the 19th-century idea of fair play and sportsmanship still shapes the way in which sport is thought about. But at the core, much of the practice and business of sport is rotten, and does not conform to the ethical and moral ideals that it was founded on. It also concludes that sport, despite all its rules, is not an equal competition.

2. Modern

The late 19th century was a period of huge innovation and social change across a range of areas. Sport was a by-product of the industrial, transport, and urbanizing revolutions of the period. ‘Modern’ explains that once codified, rationalized, and organized, sports were dispersed on the lines of travel that linked cities with towns, colonies with the home nation, and marketplaces with the suppliers of raw materials. Games such as soccer, rugby, cricket, and baseball were commercialized and professionalized, but in all the changes and transformations as sport modernized and spread, key foundation ethics remained at the heart of what was meant and embodied by playing sport.

6. Dark side

Sport is not simply about who wins or loses the game. While events on the field of play may constitute the limits of the actual physical sporting experience, the impact of sport is felt far wider. Drug taking, gender twisting, match fixing, playing to the referee, all of these issues have plagued modern sport for a century and a half, and none of them have gone away no matter how the purists objected and the rule book adapted. ‘Dark side’ considers the key issues that continue to affect sport: gender equality; sex and sexuality; institutional racism; cheating, including doping to enhance performance; technological advances; and how sport reflects local culture.

4. International

The first recorded international sporting fixture was a cricket match between the United States and Canada in New York in 1844. ‘International’ shows that once sporting organizations, the media, and even politicians began to realize the value of international competition it spread quickly from sport to sport. Groups of national federations came together to form international federations that governed their particular sport, and arranged and sanctioned international competitions. Such organizations included the International Rugby Board (founded 1886), International Olympic Committee (1894), and Fédération Internationale de Football Association (1904). The history of the IOC, the Olympic Games, and their political and financial aspects are described, including the boycotts of the 1970s and 1980s.

3. Amateurs and professionals

The vast majority of people who play sport are amateurs who take part for a variety of reasons relating to their social lives, health, and for the pure pleasure of it. ‘Amateurs and professionals’ describes the difference between amateurism and professionalism in sport that emerged in the 19th century. The amateur was someone who stood for a clearly outlined set of values and money was seen as a corrupting force. Sports such as horse racing, cricket, golf, and boxing, which had organized themselves in the 18th century, became professionalized and commercialized rapidly. Others fought professionalism for much longer—rugby union only abandoned its amateur-only rule in 1995.

5. Business

‘Business’ describes the commercialization of sport that began in the late 19th century and, with the advent of television, became even greater in the second half of the 20th century. Sport is regularly cited as the third biggest business in the world. The sports business speaks to two separate markets: the players who consume goods and services such as equipment, specialist diets, sports medicine, and affiliation fees; and the spectators of elite sports who avail themselves of stadium tickets, media packages, sporting memorabilia, and various forms of social media as a means of identifying with their sport or team. The role of sponsorship and the media in sport is also explained.

1. Origins

The Sumerians were some of the first humans to record their sporting activity, as wrestlers, around 3000 bc. Wrestling and other early activities appear recognizable to us as sports or forms of play, but are radically different from what we now understand as modern sport. ‘Origins’ shows that over the centuries sport has progressed from what has been described as a physical form of ritual, to the modern sporting era where tightly ruled contests rely on records and measurement. Sport history is not a simple progression from Ancient Greece to the stadia of contemporary sport, but rather a complex narrative of non-lineal changes that were constantly fractured by time and place.