Sport Policy

In 2012, the national sports policy paper was presented to the Sri Lankan parliament to mitigate mismanagement in sports and direct the sports sector to long term progress. However, the Sri Lankan policy framework has not been evaluated. Thus, the purpose of the research was to evaluate and identify the mitigating factors of achieving targets of the strategic goals in the Sri Lankan sport policy framework. The advocacy coalition framework (Sabatier, 1999) and quantitative approach were used to analyses and investigate the sport policy framework. The indention of developing national policy framework have been taken as deep core beliefs and the government’s normative commitments were taken as the policy core (Houlihan, 2005). Issues in resource allocation, problems in political involvement and organisations structural issues have been identified as secondary policy core beliefs. A questionnaire (N=120) was utilised to gather the data from public regardless of their involvement in sport to evaluate the level of achievement of the strategic goals. Then interviews (N=05) were conducted selecting administrative persons of the policy delivery organisations during in August 2016 to identify the barriers of achieving targets of the strategic goals. The questionnaire consisted of three parts; the first part covered the bio data of the participants; the second part was consisted with evaluation questions of the present situation of the strategic goals and in the third part questions identified people’s suggestions for achieving strategic goals efficiently. The second part of the questionnaire consisted of 32 items which were divided into eight major parts of the national policy themes. These questions were in five scale Likert Scale rating. Respondents were requested to evaluate and rate the questions in which their opinion may be favourable and unfavourable. If there is a problem with achieving the strategic goals of the national policy framework, possible solutions were identified by final stage questions. The questionnaire was analysed using simple descriptive statistical tools in SPSS. The interviews were transcribed and made into coding sheet. The coding was done manually with a base of pre-determined board categories before identifying new concepts and codes within the pre-determined codes. In findings, although, the Ministry of Sport has invested a considerable amount of money on development of sports, the goals of the policy framework have not yet been achieved. In particular, the present neo-liberal government involvement has been questioned by several policy delivery organisations. The goal of ‘providing sport education knowledge to everyone’ is the most successfully achieved goal of the policy framework. The Department of Sport Development (DSD) and National Institute of Sport Science (NISS) have introduced several educational, infrastructure development and career development programs to fulfil the goals of the national policy framework. The role of NISS and government universities have helped to achieve the target of ‘providing knowledge to everyone’. The attitude of the of the policy delivery individuals and the attitude of the target groups are main barriers for the implementation and achievement of the targets. The research suggested that the research findings of Green’s (2006) negative attitudes of policy delivery individuals and targets groups will negatively affect policy outcomes. Due to negative attitudes, coaches’ and athletes’ participation in sport education programmes have declined. Further, children's participation in sport considerably low level due to parents’ and teachers’ attitudes towards sport. Lack of resources is another barrier to the implementation of the national sport policy framework around the country. There are no sport development officers in some divisional secretariat areas. Most of the divisional secretaries have not received sufficient monetary support to develop sports and to identify talented athletes. On the other hand, most of the resources are centralised into urban area. Policy delivery organisations such as the NISS and the DSD do not have sufficient staff to deliver the policy. Most of the people in the National Sport Federations do not have appropriate managerial knowledge to deliver the national policy. The research suggested a central sport authority including all the independent institutions such as the NISS and the Institute of Sport Medicine. Weak interconnections between the Ministry of Sport and the Ministry of Education has negatively affected the policy delivery process. A pyramid-style organisational structure (Houlihan & Green, 2007) would help to implement a sport policy framework effectively. The government should provide more resources for policy delivery organisations and try to develop a program to change the attitude of the target groups in the policy delivery institutions. Furthermore, there should be a cooperation between Ministry of Sport and Ministry of Education at the policy process. Finally, this research will construct a dialectical sport policy discourse in Sri Lanka and more generally the research will contribute to understand the constraints of sport policy implementation.

This article explores the views of 906 football fans (96% of whom selfidentified as White), collected via an online survey from May-June 2019, regarding the impact of the leading equality and inclusion organization, Kick It Out, in delivering initiatives to challenge the multifaceted expressions of racism by some White English football fans. Whilst fans recognize the importance of raising awareness of racial discrimination, nearly three quarters of White fans do not engage with any Kick It Out initiatives. In the face of new challenges, including the largely unregulated space of social media, and a socio-political climate that has facilitated the resurgence of overtly expressed bigoted, colour and cultural-based racisms, the article stresses that the English football authorities must support the work of anti-racism organizations to increase their potency amongst White fans if racial discrimination is to be more effectively challenged in the future.

In September 2014, a historic referendum on the issue of Scottish independence was held, with the potential to dissolve the political union between Scotland and the other constituent nations of the United Kingdom which had survived intact since the 1707 Act of Union.  On a significantly high electoral turnout of 84.6%, the Scottish electorate opted to reject the proposals of the governing party in the devolved Scottish Parliament, the pro-independence Scottish National Party (SNP), to create an independent Scottish state, with 55.3% of the electorate voting ‘No’ to Scottish independence against a 44.7% ‘Yes’ vote.  In the grand scheme of the Scottish independence referendum campaigns, sports policy remained a somewhat peripheral issue within the arguments forwarded by the Yes Scotland and Better Together campaigns.  Nonetheless, developments such as the formation of the 'Sport for Yes' campaign sub-group, the inclusion of sport within the Scottish Government’s White Paper on Scottish independence and the establishment of the Working Group on Scottish Sport demonstrated that the potential implications of independence were still deemed significant enough to merit a degree of policy planning by the Scottish Government (Lafferty, 2014; Scottish Government, 2013; Working Group on Scottish Sport, 2013, 2014).  This paper will critically consider the implications of the 'No' vote in the Scottish independence referendum for the latter of these developments, the policy proposals of the Working Group for Scottish Sport.  Drawing upon the principles of critical discourse analysis, specifically the analytical framework proposed by Fairclough and Fairclough (2012), the content of this group's proposal will be examined in order to critically explore the policy for Scottish sport it envisaged for an independent Scottish state.  The paper will then conclude by reflecting upon the extent to which elements of this political 'imaginary' (Fairclough and Fairclough, 2012) of Scottish sport remain a possibility for future sports policy in Scotland following the eventual 'No' vote in the referendum.
References:
Fairclough, I. and Fairclough, N. (2012) Political Discourse Analysis: A Method for Advanced Students.  London: Routledge.

Lafferty, S. (2014) ‘Stars of sport say Yes to an independent Scotland’, Yes Scotland.  Available at: http://www.yesscotland.net/news/stars-sport-say-yes-independent-scotland.  Accessed on 14/7/2014.

Scottish Government (2013) Scotland’s Future: Your Guide to an Independent Scotland.  Edinburgh: Scottish Government.  Available at: http://www.scotland.
gov.uk/Publications/2013/11/9348/downloads.  Accessed on 14/7/2014.

Working Group on Scottish Sport (2013) Working Group on Scottish Sport Interim Statement.  Edinburgh: Scottish Government.  Available at: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/0043/00437896.pdf.  Accessed on 14/7/2014.

Working Group on Scottish Sport (2014) Working Group on Scottish Sport: The continuing development of Scottish sport – including the impact of independence.  Edinburgh: Scottish Government.  Available at: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/
Resource/0044/00449792.pdf.  Accessed on 14/7/2014.

This article presents a case study of corporate social responsibility in one major European professional football league. An empirical analysis of the German Bundesliga investigates the social and environmental measures that were implemented by the 18 clubs and discusses their impact and the drivers behind them. Common examples for social initiatives are regional operating foundations and school projects. Societal drivers such as re-establishing local roots and serving as a model for society as well as economic motives such as strengthen- ing customer retention and capturing sponsors’ interest were identified. The comprehensive climate protection initiatives such as photovoltaic plants and environmental management systems in German stadiums might be unique in European professional sport. The main reasons are political factors such as a favourable legislative framework for renewable energies and the Green Goal pro- grammes for the Fédération Internationale de Football Association World Cups in 2006 (men) and 2011 (women) in Germany.

Since Greco-Roman antiquity, the convergence of sports and politics has been a constitutive feature of political cultures. More recently, the blending of sports and politics has been revived with racist understanding by twentieth century totalitarian regimes and has remained a central promotion tool for far-right movements across the world. Due to the multiple fractures that have erupted in Ukrainian society since the Maidan Revolution and the war in Donbas, sport has become instrumental for Ukrainian ultranationalist movements. Through their direct involvement in youth sports education, Azov's National Corps Party and the Sokil movement seek to foster a mythified Ukrainian national revival exalting physical virtue and patriotic spirit. This article discusses how sport is used by the Ukrainian far right as a Gramscist strategy to channel dialogue with authorities, to indoctrinate youth with militaristic nationalism, and to spread a fascist-minded cult of the masculine body.

We often hear claims made about sport’s special status as a meritocratic ‘level playing field’, where sporting success is seen to be directly related to talent, and where discrimination and social inequalities can be dissolved through the cohesive power of sport. This is perhaps particularly relevant when it comes to ideas of ‘race’  and racism (Long 2000, St Louis 2004), where sport is often regarded as having some ‘inherent property that makes it a possible instrument of integration’ (Jarvie and Reid 1997: 211). These types of egalitarian ideologies that are embedded in sporting structures and cultures - in the UK at least – might suggest sport organisations would warmly embrace the principles of race equality. Indeed, high-profile and well supported anti-racism campaigns such as ‘Kick It Out’ in English Football point to something of a general consensus within British sport around the need to challenge racism and tackle inequalities associated with ideas of ‘race’ – both in sport itself (in terms of the diversity of its participants and representatives), and in wider society through sport (in contributing to wider community development, social inclusion and cohesion). There are a number of reasons why we should treat this anti-racist ‘consensus’ in sport sceptically, not least because the evidence around ethnic minority participation in sport in the UK and beyond indicate that ideas of ‘race’ have both a long-standing and on-going mediating influence on people’s involvement in sport – not only in terms of actual participation, but representation in the whole raft of positions in sport; be it officials, coaches, managers, volunteers, board members or administrators (see Long et al 2009). While there are obvious examples of ethnic minority achievement in sports across the world, the broader trends indicate the continued presence of racialised inequalities in sport. In this chapter I want try to address some of the reasons why race equality policies in UK sport seem to have limited impact since their formation. Elsewhere (Lusted 2009, Lusted & O’Gorman 2010, Lusted 2011) I have focused particularly on the structural and cultural conditions of English grass-roots football governance organisations that, I have suggested, do not lend themselves easily to embracing what are relatively ‘new’ race equality policies. I will take a slightly different approach here by exploring the ways in which these policies have been ‘sold’ to sports organisations – particularly national and local governing bodies. What factors have encouraged the formation of such policies at this particular moment? Why do sport organisations feel it necessary to engage with race equality when, for the majority of their histories, there is little evidence of any formal commitment to such ideals? It is important to understand the various mechanisms that have caused the rather sudden uptake of race equality policies among sport organisations because they can help indicate the underlying motivation behind such policy formation. As I will show, the mechanisms behind the adoption of race equality policies can differ quite considerably and are likely to help us predict the extent to which organisations will meaningfully engage with such policy aims and embed their principles into sport. Moreover, the chapter should be of interest to sport managers who are increasingly tasked with implementing race equality policies and initiatives – often with a range of targets associated with future funding contracts. A better understanding of the underlying motivation of an organisation in adopting race equality policies might help sport managers to implement changes that go further than the very basic  rhetorical commitment to race equality that characterises many sport organisations in the UK.

This study focuses on the issue of social exclusion in British tennis. It commences with a critique of current LTA policy, presenting exclusion as static, ahistorical and underpinned by false dichotomies of age and social class. Aspects of Norbert Elias’s theoretical approach are employed throughout as an analytical framework. Initially, the roots of exclusion in British tennis are sought through historical analysis. Aspects of the Civilising Process help direct attention towards wider social processes to explain the prevalence of exclusion, particularly in tennis clubs. Cost was a crucial factor in determining early access, but as tennis became more accessible to lower classes, codes of behavioural etiquette helped demarcate members along status lines. Into the mid-20th century, the globalisation, professionalisation and commercialisation of tennis pushed the LTA to adopt a more performance-oriented outlook, but this has come to oppose the more relaxed culture of tennis clubs. Thus, a power struggle emerged between these two institutions, and, underpinned by thirty interviews with leading figures in British tennis as well as extensive documentary analysis, the third section documents these developments from the 1980s. Crucially, tennis clubs remain largely amateur and voluntary-run organisations, yet are important locations for the implementation of the LTA’s demanding talent development objectives. These recent developments are understood with the help of Elias’s Game Models theory. The fourth section presents findings from a ten-month ethnographic study of social exclusion in a tennis club; a micro-analysis of club member relations underpinned by Elias’s Established-Outsider Relations theory. Overall findings suggest that social exclusion in British tennis is far more complex, multi-faceted and historically-rooted than what current LTA discourse presents. Differences in age and class are less central, and instead preconceived notions of social status based on longevity of membership, adherence to behavioural norms and playing standard are powerful determinants of inclusion.

Das Bundesministerium des Innern, für Bau und Heimat erarbeitet gemeinsam mit dem Deutschen Olympischen Sportbund eine Strategie für Sportgroßveranstaltungen in Deutschland. Dabei werden durch die Einbindung einer Vielzahl an Expertinnen und Experten viele Perspektiven und Interessenslagen berücksichtigt.
Welche Bedingungen stellen die internationalen Verbände, deren Wettbewerbe man veranstalten will? Welche Auswirkung hätte eine erfolgreiche Bewerbung auf die Förderung des nationalen Spitzensports? Was bedeutet schließlich eine Ausrichtung für die entsprechende Region, die Stadtentwicklung und Umwelt? Welche grundsätzliche Kritik gilt es zu bedenken bzw. welches Interesse haben Bevölkerung und Wirtschaft in diesem Kontext? Und schließlich, um den Kreis zu schließen, welche Möglichkeiten haben deutsche Interessensgruppen, die Rahmenbedingungen der internationalen Verbände so zu beeinflussen, dass „ihre“ Veranstaltungen den Bürgerinnen und Bürgern vor Ort eine langfristige Verbesserung ihres Lebensstandards ermöglichen – denn das ist schließlich das Ziel verantwortungsvoller Politik.
Um diesen vielschichtigen Fragen Rechnung zu tragen, hat das Bundesinstitut für Sportwissenschaft einen zweibändigen Überblick zusammengestellt, für den die in Deutschland führenden Wissenschaftlerinnen und Wissenschaftler sowie einige Protagonisten aus Politik, Sport und Wirtschaft für Kurzbeiträge gewonnen wurden. Ziel war es, die Chancen und Risiken für die Ausrichtung entsprechender Veranstaltungen aus den Perspektiven der Gesellschaft, Wirtschaft, Politik und des Sports zu skizzieren. Im hier vorliegenden zweiten Band werden vor allem langfristige Entwicklungen und deren grundsätzliche Voraussetzungen in den Blick genommen. Zentral klingt dabei in vielen Beiträgen die ökonomische, ökologische und soziale Nachhaltigkeit an. Dabei werden Lehren aus den Olympischen Spielen von London 2012 gezogen und das Vergabeprozedere internationaler Sportgroßveranstaltungen analysiert. Zur Behandlung des diagnostizierten Mega-Event Syndroms werden ebenso Vorschläge unterbreitet wie zum (finanziellen) „Fluch des Gewinners“, damit dieser nicht auch künftige deutsche Bewerbungen ereilt. Darüber hinaus gehören Nachhaltigkeitskonzepte für Sportstätten und die mögliche Vorbildfunktion deutscher Spitzensportler und Spitzensportlerinnen zu den hier präsentierten Themenfeldern. Auch wenn vor dem Hintergrund der grassierenden Pandemie Sportgroßveranstaltungen in Zukunft ein anderes Gesicht haben werden, so werden sie ganz sicher auch weiterhin bewegende Momente schaffen, die eine nachhaltige Bewegung fördern.

This paper examines online sports betting in Germany and the USA, two countries that differ from the global trend that has been moving toward the legalization and liberalization of the sector. The following research questions are asked: Which joint factors led to the prohibition of online sports wagering in Germany and the USA? In what ways do the cases differ? After explaining the methodology of this research and conducting the case studies, the paper discusses the similarities and differences between the two countries, such as the official and unofficial reasons behind the bans, the administrative responsibilities of the issue, different policy instruments for implementing the bans, exceptions to the prohibition, the important role of courts in the debate, external pressure to change the respective national regulations, and the powerful role of sports governing associations that offer, in both cases, the main reasons for recent policy-making decisions.

Resumen: La organización y expansión del deporte internacional durante el siglo xx se ancló principalmente a la implicación político-económica de los Estados, motivada por su representación en las competiciones deportivas por intermediación de las Federaciones Deportivas Nacionales y Comités Olímpicos Nacionales. Sin embargo, la conflictividad político-deportiva de la Guerra Fría, el cuestionamiento del papel hegemónico del Estado como centro de las Relaciones Internacionales y la propia crisis de los actos deportivos magnos ha propiciado que en la actualidad se esté socavando la centralidad del Estado en el deporte internacional.

Abstract: The organization and expansion of international sport during the 20th century was anchored mainly in the political and economic involvement of nation states, motivated by their representation in sports competitions through the intermediation of the National Sports Federations and National Olympic Committees. However, the political and sports-based conflict of the Cold War, the questioning of the hegemonic role of the state as the center of International Relations, as well as the crisis faced by major sports events, has led to the current undermining of the centrality of the role of the state in international sport.

En los estudios realizados por instituciones político-deportivas vascas que abordan la posibilidad de que el deporte vasco obtenga una representación de carácter internacional, no se valora suficientemente la implementación de una estatalidad deportiva internacional que impide o establece enormes trabas para que las naciones sin Estado puedan competir internacionalmente. Partiendo de esa estatalidad deportiva internacional, la presente ponencia expondrá los límites y las posibilidades existentes para que el deporte vasco obtenga una mayor representación oficial de carácter internacional.

Para ello, en primer lugar se analizará la configuración de esa estatalidad deportiva internacional a lo largo del tiempo. En segundo lugar se contextualizarán históricamente algunos precedentes de las naciones sin Estado en el deporte internacional. En tercer lugar se analizarán los pasos dados por el deporte vasco en aras de buscar un reconocimiento y participación oficial en el deporte internacional teniendo en cuenta tanto los límites externos existentes así como los internos. Finalmente, se elaborarán unas conclusiones valorando lo realizado hasta ahora por el deporte vasco, sugiriendo acciones a realizar para visibilizarse internacionalmente.

This article investigates why the small Middle Eastern country Qatar is investing so heavily in the sport sector. The country is hosting prestigious sporting events such as the Asian Games, the handball and the football World Cup, promotes elite sport success by local and naturalized athletes and invests in famous sport clubs abroad. The article analyses how sport is used as a domestic policy tool, for example to develop a healthy society and to attract white-collar expats from abroad. Sport is also used as a foreign policy tool to build relations with as many countries and people in the world as possible to gain soft power and for national security reasons.

The bibliography is intended to illustrate the state of research on different types of video games (e-sports and serious games) in connection with sport culture. For this purpose, scientific publications from sport-specific databases but also from databse portals of economics and education were put together when they appeared there in connection with "sports" or "e-sports". The data sets stem from the sport information portal SURF, SportDiscus, FIS Education and EconBiz. Due to multiple assignments, the majority of the 369 references included in this collection are "serious games" (192 entries), followed by "E-Sport" (161) and the chapter "Definitions and Influences" (59). In Germany, in 2018 there was a broad public discussion on e-sports and its relation to organized sport. Thus this development is described in more detail in the introduction than the area of serious games. It is intended to provide a brief insight into the scene and the social context with regard to organized sport. For this purpose, the genres of games are outlined and the public debate in the media, politics and organized sports presented.

This article presents the responses of 4,113 sports fans (55% of whom self-identified as female), collected via an online survey from April 2019 to June 2019, about their views on trans women competing in women’s sports. In presenting the data we draw on two recurring themes – gender identity and fairness – to explain the contrasting views surrounding the traditional gendered organization of sports. The overall findings are that just over half of our male and female participants are against the inclusion of trans women, with non-binary participants more supportive and those who preferred not to disclose their gender identity less supportive. The article concludes by suggesting that whilst there is evidence of progressive attitudes amongst our participants, there is also strong resistance to trans women competing in women’s sports that is primarily related to the perceived retention of an unfair biological advantage by being assigned male at birth.

Background: The development of appropriate and comprehensive sports for all levels of society is essential in every regional development step in sports. Various approaches have been made to study the development of sports, but the primary system is sport development and development through sport. At the same time, both systems relate to facilitating sport participation. Methods: The method used was a systematic literature review (SLR). The literature search was limited to articles published from 2012-2019 in the research database, including in Elsevier and Taylor and France online. Result: This review provides a comprehensive and systematic view of sport for all and sport development from previous research to assess community participation through several sport programs to create a healthy active lifestyle. Conclusion: This review shows a shift in the concept paradigm from sport development to Sport for Development. Sport is not only to create a healthy active lifestyle, but also a medium for maintaining and enhancing social relationships and stimulating and increasing sensitivity to mental, emotional, and character building aspects.

Over the last 20 years or so there has been a proliferation of anti-racist organisations, campaigns and interventions across football at all levels, allied to broader social, cultural and political shifts in late modern digital societies. Indeed, relying on certain statistical data, which reports a decline in racist incidents in stadia, might lead many anti-racist policy-makers to champion liberal doctrines and to proclaim football fan cultures as quantitatively 'less racist'. However, in this article, using Critical Race Theory as a guiding theoretical framework, throughout, we foreground the qualitative experiences and stories of BAME football fans to understand why football fandom and spectatorship remain predominantly 'White' activities. Using semi-tructured interviews and observational techniques, we explore critically the continued significance of 'race' as a mediating actor in football fandom, how BAME football fans negotiate-resist belonging in football fandom cultures and the implications for BAME fans' testimonies for policymakers. We conclude by arguing for an increase in intersectional research across football/football fan studies, to understand better the racialised aspects of football fandom, and we also urge scholars and policymakers, alike, to place greater emphasis on 'trust building' innovations, as opposed to 'diversity', given the latter has taken on a commercial value of late.

Contact Dr Neil Ravenscroft, Chelsea School Research Centre, University of Brighton, Trevin Towers, Gaudick Road, Eastbourne BN20 7SP [email protected] tel 07801 282 180. ... • There has been a proliferation of new sporting forms over the two decades that ...

Considerable attention has been paid to the experiences of pain and injury in the sociology of sport literature. In this vein, this paper probes the experience of pain and injury as it pertains to masculinities. This paper documents the specific ways that, on the one hand, athletes conform to masculine ideals through attempts to assume ideal states of embodiment and withstanding pain associated with participation in sport, while on the other hand, through debilitating bodily injury, athletes actually fail to materialise masculine ideals associated with participation in sport. Drawing from an ethnography of mixed martial arts (MMA), this article documents the embodied experiences of pain and injury among MMA fighters. Based on 45 interviews with professional and amateur MMA fighters as well as field notes, this article elucidates the ways fighters interpret their bodily injuries, how this impacts upon masculine identities, and how injuries affect their conformance to the normative masculinity of MMA. This paper focuses on the narratives of despair and loss as it pertains to particular moments in the careers of MMA fighters.

Significant economic development has been experienced by Brazilian society in the past 10 years, leading to important changes in the social structures found in this country. Parallel to the economic improvements, Brazil has also been successful in attracting sport mega-events, with media increasingly portraying this to be the “sport decade” for Brazilian society. This paper intends to contribute to the understanding of the changes happening in Brazilian society within the context of mass investments in sport mega-events. In particular, we discuss how the Brazilian Government has been delivering sport and physical activity opportunities for low socio-economic groups in Brazil, and how people living in a marginalised community have benefited (or not) from the current scenario of massive sport investments. In order to do this, we analysed sport and physical activity projects and programmes supported by the Brazilian Federal Government in the community of Cidade de Deus. Cidade de Deus is one of the most populated favelas in Rio de Janeiro and is in close proximity to the 2016 Olympic Park, which will host the Olympic Village, Media Village and most of the competitions of the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games. It is therefore a community that will likely be impacted significantly, positively or negatively, by the hosting of the event. The results of the investigation provide insights into the developments that have occurred in the provision of sport and physical activity opportunities to this marginalised community and the role public policies play in facilitating access to sport and physical activity.

It  can  not  be  overlooked  that  sports,  in  its  journey  in  the  last  century,  exhibits an  important  institutionalism  in  the  creation  of  country's  image  and  the  state  of  life. Sport  as  a  social  phenomenon,  is  effective  in  shaping  the  socio-cultural  structure rather  than  being  evaluated  as  an  individual  phenomenon.  In  this  sense,  in  many  of  the modern  societies,  in  this  period,  the  sports  institutions  were  aimed  to  be  able  to  benefitfrom  state  policy.  Undoubtedly,  within  this  period,  the  sociological  meaning  assigned to  sports  in  Soviet  societies  has  an  importance  that  cannot  be  ignored  in  the  name  of change. In  the  study;  the  meaning  assigned  to  sports  has  been  examined  in  three  stages both  in  the  collective  development  of  sports  culture  and  its  existence  in  the international  arena  in  Soviet  society;  in  addition,  Spartakiada  and  Moscow  Olympics have  been  analyzed  socio-politically.

Since Greco-Roman antiquity, the convergence of sports and politics has been a constitutive feature of political cultures. More recently, the blending of sports and politics has been revived with racist understanding by twentieth century totalitarian regimes and has remained a central promotion tool for far-right movements across the world. Due to the multiple fractures that have erupted in Ukrainian society since the Maidan Revolution and the war in Donbas, sport has become instrumental for Ukrainian ultranationalist movements. Through their direct involvement in youth sports education, Azov’s National Corps Party and the Sokil movement seek to foster a mythified Ukrainian national revival exalting physical virtue and patriotic spirit. This article discusses how sport is used by the Ukrainian far right as a Gramscist strategy to channel dialogue with authorities, to indoctrinate youth with militaristic nationalism, and to spread a fascist-minded cult of the masculine body.

Purpose of this paper: This paper examines current momentum in the sport policy arena congruent with the sustainable development agenda. It presents two consensus frameworks endorsed by the UN that provide mechanism for coherent action to 2030. With a human rights backdrop it outlines the role of organisations operating in the domains of physical education, physical activity and sport (PEPAS), promoting multidisciplinary partnerships and aligning to global agendas that enhance health and wellbeing for all. 

Design/methodology/approach: This position paper is a narrative literature review reporting on the status of sports policy frameworks in the UN system of relevance to the sport sector generally. It relates these to research evidence on the interlinkage between sport, human rights, health and well-being based on critical literature.

Findings: The advent of the Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development, the Kazan Action Plan, the WHO Global Plan on Physical Activity 2018 -2030 and allied developments across the sports movement provides an opportunity for revisiting and realigning the definitions and policy objectives of sport and health.

Research limitations/ implications: The author's bias as a UNESCO chair towards UN frameworks is acknowledged as is leniency toward physical education, physical activity and sport.

Practical implications: Multilateral agencies, health and sport authorities and sport organisations are encouraged to review and leverage their resources and engage with the call for action of global agendas to improve public health.

What is original/value of paper: This paper presents the global policy backdrop for action and investment in inclusive sport, physical education and physical activity. It presents a fresh new health and well-being perspective aligned to wider interdisciplinary agendas, on which sport organisations can make a significant contribution.