Tokyo Olympics: when athletes are faced with the impossible

The global pandemic, with the social distancing measures and lockdowns, disrupted many aspects of life, including sport. This chapter demonstrates how the pandemic affected athletes participating in Tokyo Olympics

UrbanDig Project: sport practices and artistic interventions for co-creating urban space

The 'UrbanDig Project' has been created by the non-for-profit organisation Ohi Paizoume, based in Athens, Greece. Behind the project lies the motivation to tackle the need for civic engagement and interaction with the urban space (either open/public spaces or private buildings), while suggesting that this cannot be a sterilized process but an ongoing, continuously unfinished “reporting from the front” of the (un-)measurable, the (in-)visible, the (un-)real. The organisation puts at the heart of its work the creation of site-specific content that forms the foundation of community programs researching the cultural capital of a neighbourhood, bringing people from various ages, backgrounds and disciplines (including arts and sport) together. Although primarily an arts-based practice, sport is among the key methodological tools used in the research and civic engagement process, while there is a strong sports-related component in the site specific performances that take place at the end of each project as a means of celebration of the collective effort and the creation of new/ enhanced narratives for each neighbourhood’s storytelling. In this paper we aim to elaborate how sport and arts can sharply intervene and contribute to co-producing urban space and wellbeing. To illustrate these points, we are using the example of Urban Dig Project, Xouthou Street, an intervention in the urban space of Greece

Dourgouti Island Hotel Project: an urban dig project

Dourgouti Island Hotel Project is an ongoing programme of cultural activities created by a theatre company in the historical but “forgotten” neighbourhood of Athens, Greece, called Dourgouti. These activities offer not only cultural products but also new ways of living and experiencing the city. A model of cooperation focusing on strong assets of a place can be a new model for local economy. The results of the project mentioned in this paper show the impact of culture on local society as well as some economic benefits, showing the way to a new economy, organized from the “bottom-up”

The changing nature of the ideology of Olympism in the modern Olympic era

A Doctoral Thesis Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of Doctor of Philosophy of Loughborough UniversityEThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

‘Trust me I am a Football Agent’. The discursive practices of the players’ agents in (un)professional football

While the public and media attention is largely focused on the corruption scandals of high-ranking officials in international football, FIFA’s decision in April 2015 to deregulate football agents raises further concerns about its ability for self-regulation and governance. FIFA’s introduction (2006) and subsequent updating (2008, 2015) of its regulations and legal frameworks governing the activity of agents in professional football has important implications on the inner workings of international football. In this regard, FIFA’s decision to deregulate the industry is perhaps a reflection of the neoliberal influences surrounding the organisation to let the agents govern themselves and deal with the wrongdoings of the alleged bribery, exploitation and trafficking of young players. However, the deregulation of agents by FIFA can also be seen as the organisation’s inefficiency to maintain the primacy of self-regulation and self-governance in serious matters of the industry, such as agents’ global leadership and regulation of practices. This paper, using qualitative data collected from players, agents and managers from professional football leagues in the UK and Ireland, aims to uncover the unethical, extremely complex and deceptive sides of the agents’ industry. By doing so, it aims to emphasise the need for gold standards of practice and leadership in the regulation of international football, which desperately needs to restore its integrity. Two key issues are unpacked: (i) the alleged (un)ethical behaviour of football agents that provokes so much hostility in the football world; (ii) the power shift(s) from clubs and managers to agents and players and the implications these may have on the ethics of the business practices in football

Playing on common ground: Spaces of sport, education and corporate connectivity, contestation and creativity

In this article we examine connectivities within the ‘messy’ organizational commons of sport, education and corporate partnerships. As scholars forewarn, there are currently key stakeholders within the commons that that have set agendas, occupied ideological and physical terrain, and legitimized a presence and authority. The intertwining of organizations here is an evident function of an increased symbiosis between sport, education and governmental and non-governmental stakeholders to carve out significant sector spaces, and exert authority and power over the creation, implementation and ownership ‘collaborative’ and intersectional work. Drawing on spatial theorists, Henri Lefebvre and Yi Fu Tuan, and examples from FIFA and the IOC, we present a conceptual framework of global stakeholder relations. Focusing of processes of thought, production and action, we offer an intersectional critique of the nuances of Sport–Corporate–Education nexus and consider possibilities and potential for sport education spaces to be reconfigured ane