With the Rugby World Cup 2023 and the Paris 2024 Olympic Games just around the corner, sport is a daily feature in the media, in political and economy columns, and in conversations with family and friends. Everyone agrees on the importance of promoting sport for all and on the benefits of sport for young people, particularly in terms of improving health, developing autonomy, improving employability, and teaching values. But what do we know about what the younger generation think of it? After all, they are the ones who are going to be discovering it and participating in it (or not). This is a complex subject, as sport is so multidimensional and multifaceted. In this context, and in keeping with the general aims of SKEMA Publika, we wished to conduct a comprehensive study focusing on sport, so as to identify, based on the expectations expressed by the young people of a number of countries, the major evolutions which are likely but also necessary over a ten-year period, while taking into account the national and international policies currently in place, then put forward some recommendations for national and international policy-makers. To do this, we listened to online discussions on Twitter and analysed 7.6 million tweets posted by 670,000 young people aged 18 to 24. We also conducted interviews and surveys with 100 students of 18 different nationalities, with different sports levels.
Contributions on this subject
by Jean-Baptiste Guegan | Why should we buy the rights to the next FIFA World Cup? The Cup will take place from July 20 to August 20 in Australia and New Zealand. A unique opportunity to "bring women’s soccer to the forefront and show that it is just as important as men’s football", as FIFA General Secretary Fatma Samoura recently put it. And yet, not everyone will be able to see it. Even today, some broadcasters are unable or unwilling to finance the rights to broadcast the event, thus depriving millions of spectators of the event. France, Italy, Germany and the United Kingdom, all historic footballing hotspots, are among the absentees.
"The Geopolitical Economy of Sport: Power, Politics, Money and the State" gathers 44 contributors from around the world. With this book, Simon Chadwick aims to define and explore the geopolitical economy of sport, focusing on States and their relation to elite sport.
In this article, Simon Chadwick (SKEMA Business School) & Rauf Mammadov (PwC) aim to explore the prospect of the metaverse platform in the sporting arena, arguing that although the market size of the metaverse is predicted to grow exponentially over the next few years, effective adoption, and utilization of metaverse platforms for sporting events will require addressing unique challenges.
By Simon Chadwick | Global sport is changing. Organised around the Global North since it originated, international sport governance is increasingly influenced by countries of the Global South. Europe, once at its centre, saw its hegemonic position challenged first by North American hyper-commercialisation of sports, and now today, by the strength of the Global South’s geopolitical aspirations. How can European sport overcome these challenges?
Ahead of the 2022 World Cup, Simon Chadwick, professor of Sport and Geopolitical Economy at SKEMA Business School, discusses the reasons why the hosting of global sport events is a question of geopolitical survival for Qatar. He also delves into the preparedness of the country to welcome the estimated 1.5 million visitors and the security threats that could arise during the tournament. Finally, he examines the long-term possible impacts for the Qatari population, notably in terms of national identity building and social cohesion.
by Simon Chadwick | The report examines the background to Qatar’s hosting of the men’s World Cup, the country’s preparedness to host the tournament, the event’s management, and the legacies. To conclude, the report highlights areas in which there could be issues for Qatari and FIFA World Cup organisers to contend with, at perhaps one of the biggest, but certainly one of the most controversial, sport mega-events ever staged.
by Simon Chadwick | Football for the Russian government and its allies is merely the means to geopolitical ends, rather than an end in itself. Scoring goals is only of secondary importance to the power and influence that investing football can bring.
Indonesia is due to host next year’s FIFA men’s Under-23 World Cup and is in the running to host the 2023 AFC Asian Cup. Losing the right to stage one tournament and failing to gain the right to host another would damage its reputation.
The last 30 years have been characterised by unprecedented changes, amongst them globalisation and digitalisation. In sports, this means that international competitions are increasingly held in countries that hitherto haven’t played hosts, which brings unfamiliar values, norms, and conventions to their staging. In these circumstances, seemingly innocent symbols and signs can become ideologically, politically and socio-culturally charged, challenging many of us either to confront what offends us or to modify our views of what we think is acceptable.