The Geopolitical Economy of Sport Power, Politics, Money, and the State

List of Contributors

1. Introduction: Towards a Geopolitical Economy of Sport

Simon Chadwick, Paul Widdop, and Michael M. Goldman

2. Athletes’ Early Responses to the War Against Ukraine

3. Sport Sanctions Against Invasive Russia

4. What Future for Putin’s Sport Power?

5. Governance Dysfunction in World Sport: Issues Raised by the Conflict in Ukraine

6. Public Remembering of Sochi 2014 at a Time of War: The Kremlin’s Soft Disempowerment through Sport

Vitaly Kazakov

7. Transnational Leagues and Their Role in Projecting Soft Power

8. The International Paralympic Committee, Beijing 2022 Winter Paralympic Games, and the Invasion of Ukraine

9. Israel’s Winter Sports Diplomacy and Beijing 2022

10. The Global Sporting Power Elite: Eileen Gu

11. China’s Moves to Influence the Geopolitical Economy of Sports: The Three Axe Strokes

12. Making of (Not Only) a Sports Superpower: The Chinese Dream

13. Chinese Super League: Soft Power, Investment, and Sustainability

14. Doing Sports Business in China: Still a Slam Dunk?

15. Qatar and the 2022 FIFA World Cup: Soft Power, State Branding, or Nation Building?

16. Geopolitics of Sport in the MENA Region

17. Sport and Saudi Arabia: Mimetic Isomorphism, Soft Power, and Disempowerment

18. Sport Washing and the Gulf Region: Myth or Reality?

19 Geopolitics of Cricket in India

PART IV: Africa

20. Africa in the Global Football Business Complex

21. The NBA’s Partnership with Rwanda

22. The Politics of Alternative Football: Curious Friends

23. The Conjunctural Politics of the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup: United 2026

24. The Attempted Reshaping of the Turkish Football Landscape under the AK Party: A Transaction Cost

Economics Explanation

25. Football and the City: A Sports Place Branding Perspective of Barcelona and Manchester

26. The European Super League and Football’s Privatization

27. Sport Governance, Geopolitical Change, and Organizational Resilience: The Case of Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA)

28. The Geopolitics of Money Versus Morals: Location, Location, Location of the Formula 1 Race Calendar

29. The End of Oil?: Formula One’s Changing Face

30. Sport, Geo-Politics, and the Peace Process

31. Sports Diplomacy in the Pacific Region and the Sino-Australian Great Game

32. Sports, Race, and Cosmopolitanism

33. Transgender Sport Bans Come for Elite Sport: Federations’ New Attempt to Define Womanhood

34 What the Cases of Gazprom, the NBA, and Qatar Mean for Sport Industry Decision-Makers

Biography

Simon Chadwick is Professor of Sport and Geopolitical Economy at Skema Business School in Paris, France, where he is also a member of its Publika think tank and Director of its Global Executive MBA in Sport. Chadwick’s work combines his global interests in sport, geography, politics, and economics, meaning that his current research is focused on, for example, ownership and sponsorship in football by state-owned corporations. He has worked extensively in sport with clubs, governing bodies, commercial partners, and governments.

Paul Widdop is Senior Lecturer at the University of Manchester, UK. His research explores social and economic networks around the consumption and production of sport. He has published widely in the areas of sport and culture including articles in the Journal of Consumer Culture, Cultural Sociology, Cultural Trends, Electoral Studies, and the Journal of Political Marketing. Widdop serves on the editorial board of several academic journals and is co-founder of the Football Collective, a learned society of academics researching impacts of football on society.

Michael M. Goldman is Professor with the Sport Management Program at the University of San Francisco, USA, while also working with the Gordon Institute of Business Science in South Africa. He works with students, managers, and clients to enhance their abilities to acquire, grow, and retain profitable customers and fans.

"The Geopolitical Economy of Sport is a timely and sensible publication that offers a collection of essays that discuss this sport-geopolitics nexus in different regions and competitions ... scholars and students whose academic interests lie in regional, international, and sport studies may find this book informative and instructive. I have no doubt that this anthology will further stimulate scholarly debates on the geopolitical economy of sport." - Jung Woo Lee, University of Edinburgh, UK, International Journal of Sport Communication