World sporting events have become a daily part of billions of people around the world. Through TV, online streaming, or more directly on site, enthusiasts and occasional viewers can experience a variety of sports played at the highest level. And although not all of these events receive media coverage, the biggest and most prominent sporting events in the world such as the FIFA World Cup or the Olympics reach a large part of the world’s population. These high-profile events feature athletes who participate as representatives of their home countries. Therefore, not only individual athletes or sports teams compete, but also independent nations. World sporting events capture the global imagination in a very special way. They suggest that the world is made up of competing nations that inevitably compete with each other – but on the basis of the same rules.
Because world sporting events reach the whole world and because they project a certain image of the world, they are important beyond sports. More specifically, we argue that they play an important role in the maintenance of international order (as a kind of world order) and the reproduction of international society (that is, the community of states). Before we elaborate on this claim, let us show how this view fits with other analyzes of sport and (international) society.
Sports have recently received more attention in the IR community. For example, Franke and Koch provided an analysis of the press statements of the IOC and FIFA regarding the current controversies. Weiss and Daßler used sports and sports metaphors to discuss policy positions. Chadwick has even called for a new field of research focusing on the economics of sport (see also this interview with him). This new interest found in the relationship between sports and politics adds to the literature on the following issues: mafia practices and corruption scandals in sports, what it means to host world sports events for the sovereignty of the ruling countries, the lack of balance between the legitimacy of the state and the role of the host, the use of political instruments of sports events and the washing of sports, or the preservation in security for sporting events.
Although there is growing scholarly interest in sport, the role played by world sporting events in sustaining international order and reproducing international society has received little attention. Building on our piece that was published on International TheoryWe suggest that global sporting events are more than just entertainment, a business opportunity, or a spectacle to serve the political power of individual states. Rather, they function as mass public discourse (or propaganda) on behalf of the international community. In particular, they celebrate the idea that the world legitimately consists of states and promote the idea that this is a happy and inclusive world. From this point of view, the international community is more desirable than other world orders such as the world empire or the world community of individuals.
In our article, we substantiate the claim that world sporting events influence international order through theorizing world sporting events and empirical analysis of international football. Regarding the former, we draw on the English School, ritual studies, and ludology (the study of game and play) to show how world sporting events can be thought of as an institution of international society.
In particular, world sports events are the main center based on the main center of places and festivals. This institutional setting caters to the holiday and playful side of the international community. Moreover, it relies on focal moments (festivals) and spaces (sites) to represent and celebrate the international community in a nutshell. Finally, it is particularly open to the participation of non-sate actors (or the world community) which explains not only the mobilization of private individuals around the world but also why non-governmental organizations such as FIFA can act as secondary institutions of the international community in this context.
Our perspective on world sporting events helps to explain and understand a wider range of events beyond the usual contribution of world sporting events to international order. Our take, which shows the role of national nations, eg also explains why countries like Qatar cannot act as host countries despite their human rights record. In the international community, human rights are not yet as important as the important institutions of sovereignty, territory and nationality.
At the same time, our approach means that world sporting events also reflect important boundaries for acceptable national behaviour. The three key institutions of the international community just mentioned were seriously damaged by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. As a result, Russia became an ineligible participant in world sports events such as the FIFA Men’s World Cup 2022, the FIFA Women’s World Cup. 2023, and the Summer Olympics 2024. If we consider that world sports events are part of the center of the international community, then such exclusion of Russia can be interpreted as “a clear response to the Russian aggression” and evidence of the concern of the international community “peace, coexistence and cooperation as small goals” , as we have discussed elsewhere.
Although our main concern is related to the connection between world sports events and the international order, our approach also helps to reconstruct a concept based on the efforts of other states to use sports as a means of self-promotion and status politics. World sporting events shape the world in a certain way and as in other practices, there is always the promise that a person can shape this performance of the international community in a way that suits his role in that community. At the very least, participation in world sporting events communicates membership in the international community. But it is also possible for individual states to use world sporting events to convey the message that they have an important position. In other words, while world sporting events are a stage for playing, internationalization in short can have an impact on the international community itself.
This observation points to the symbiotic relationship in which world sporting events and the international community find themselves. World sporting events would probably not draw crowds on such a scale if it weren’t for the claim that essentially “the whole world” (meaning every nation) would be represented. On the other hand, the international community benefits from legitimacy as discussed above: the international order becomes more natural and desirable than other world orders. We can argue that it is because of this symbiotic relationship that international sports organizations escape all kinds of scandals. They are needed as secondary institutions of the international community. However, this also poses a danger to the international community. Especially in democracies with demands for public accountability, corruption and other scandals in world sports can backfire on the international community.
What the international community needs is world sporting events that inspire and convey a positive message. If world sporting events can be peaceful and make people happy, there is hope for the country in which they play. This way of thinking was evident in some of the speeches at this year’s Summer Olympics in Paris. The guardfor example, it reported: “Paris bid farewell to its Olympics with a message about the importance of protecting the spirit of the games in an uncertain and conflict-ridden world.”
According to the Olympics, the international order can be stable as the fundamental goals of the international community can be protected: violence will be avoided and both individual members and the international community itself will be preserved. The Olympics even suggest that the international community is about cooperation and not just coexistence. Our teaching approach shows why world sporting events are uniquely suited to convey such messages of hope through the existing world order that comes in the form of international order. Although exciting, world sporting events are also very serious sports.
Further Studies in E-International Relations
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