“There will be a black Springbok over my dead body.” — Dr Danie Craven, President of the South African Rugby Board, 1969

Just a year after the controversial D’Oliveira affair, the organised disruption of the all-white 1969/70 South African rugby and cricket tours to Britain represented a significant challenge to apartheid politics. Led by future cabinet minister Peter Hain, the ‘Stop the Seventy Tour’ campaign brought about the cancellation of both tours, presaging white South Africa’s expulsion from the Olympics and the end of apartheid sport altogether.

With his brand of attention-grabbing, direct action sports protest, the 19-year-old Hain emerged as a hero to some and enemy to others. Now, reflecting on these experiences with fifty years of hindsight, Lord Hain, together with South Africa’s foremost sports historian and fellow anti-apartheid activist André Odendaal, shows how decades of relentless international and domestic campaigning for equality led to a Springbok team captained by black athlete Siya Kolisi winning the 2019 Rugby World Cup.

Interspersing a wide range of examples with personal testimony, Pitch Battles explores the themes of sport, globalisation and resistance from the deep past to the present day. Published in the same year as the Stop The Tour documentary from acclaimed director Louis Myles, this compelling story of sacrifice, struggle and triumph reveals how sport should never be divorced from politics or society’s values.

'Magnificent . . . Goldblatt is the doyen of sports historians and brings to this account his forensic and telling eye for detail'
Mail on Sunday

The epic exploration of society, politics, and economics in the twenty-first century through the prism of football, by the critically acclaimed author of The Ball is Round.

'David Goldblatt is not merely the best football historian writing today, he is possibly the best there has ever been'
Dominic Sandbrook, Sunday Times

In the twenty-first century football is first. First among sports themselves, but it now commands the allegiance, interest and engagement of more people in more places than any other phenomenon. In the three most populous nations on the earth – China, India and the United States where just twenty years ago football existed on the periphery of society – it has now arrived for good. Nations, peoples and neighbourhoods across the globe imagine and invent themselves through playing and following the game.

In The Age of Football, David Goldblatt charts football’s global cultural ascent, its economic transformation and deep politicisation, taking in prison football in Uganda and amputee football in Angola, the role of football fans in the Arab Spring, the footballing presidencies of Bolivia’s Evo Morales and Turkey’s Recep Erdogan, China’s declared intention to both host and win the World Cup by 2050, and the FIFA corruption scandal.

Following the intersection of the game with money, power and identity, like no previous sports historian, Goldblatt’s sweeping story is remarkable in its scope, breathtaking in its depth of knowledge, and is a brilliantly original perspective of the twenty-first century. It is the account of how football has come to define every facet of our social, economic and cultural lives and at what cost, shaping who we think we are and who we want to be.

This timely Research Handbook examines sport-related research and analysis pertaining to how the sport industry has been impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic. Taking stock of the changes over the course of the pandemic, it also provides key insights into how the sport industry and its stakeholders might move forward in post-pandemic times. Organized into six parts, the first half of the book explores the areas of sport management, sport communication, and sport marketing, while the final three parts analyze sport events, sport stakeholders, and sport and society. Expert international contributors delve into a wide array of topics related to the sport industry including athletes, clubs, leagues, and brand and sport management to illuminate how the pandemic has influenced these aspects of sport. Offering a comprehensive analysis of how Covid-19 has affected the sport industry, this Research Handbook will be a key resource for business and management scholars and advanced students with a particular interest in sport, health, and well-being. Its use of global case studies will also be beneficial for sport managers and practitioners in this field.

Elgar Advanced Introductions are stimulating and thoughtful introductions to major fields in the social sciences, business and law, expertly written by the world's leading scholars. Designed to be accessible yet rigorous, they offer concise and lucid surveys of the substantive and policy issues associated with discrete subject areas. This Advanced Introduction to the Sociology of Sport highlights the relationship between sport and violence, brain injury, social class, sexual minorities, gender, and race. Eric Anderson and Rory Magrath expertly draw on a range of scholarly evidence to outline how these issues intersect with contemporary sports culture. Key features include: close examination of the most salient issues confronting sport scholars and policy makers a focus on how sport contributes to the process of 'othering' a range of recommendations for future improvements to the culture of sport for the 21st Century. This book provides essential reading for scholars and students in sports science, sociology and public policy.

In this unique book, Sten Soederman explores the prospect of China reaching its goal of hosting the 2050 World Cup. Soederman takes into consideration China's size, resources, traditions and political system to ask what needs to be done and how. The book assesses football in China today, discussing the main driving forces behind the development of football in China, and offering an analysis of its organizational structure, strengths, regulations, and weaknesses. Taking a comparative approach, Soederman asks if China should simply adopt the European model of football, including values and skills, through imported players and coaches, or if it is better for China to forge its own path by building on its traditions and limiting the possibility of investing in foreign players, coaches and foreign football clubs. Looking to the future, the book outlines new models and tools to analyse the footballization of China. Soederman concludes with the argument that grassroots activity is the most critical factor in the development of football in China. Examining if a strategic management mix will help China win the 2050 World Cup, this book will be a valuable resource for scholars and students of sport management and Asian business studies.

This state-of-the-art Research Handbook provides a challenging and critical examination of the complex issues surrounding sports in contemporary societies. Featuring contributions from world-leading scholars, it focuses upon the impact of their research, together with significant social issues and controversies in sport. International and comprehensive, the Research Handbook is organised around the key themes of governance, economics, events, the athletes and the future. Chapters examine the various theoretical and methodological approaches undertaken by the contributors and outline the current state of knowledge, to demonstrate the social and economic impact of academic research, as well as the constraints on research influence. Written during the global coronavirus pandemic, chapters also reflect on the way in which the public health crisis has exposed social issues and fragilities. The Research Handbook on Sports and Society will be a beneficial read for students of all levels studying sports science, sociology and public policy. The insights offered by established researchers will aid students in further understanding key methodologies, and opportunities and challenges for research. They also include recommendations for future policy and practice grounded in substantial research evidence.

"The Richardson boys ganged up with two other big families in their buildings and, at various ages, had tried out most of the local youth organisations. Bert Richardson with a suitable set of brothers and mates, was in the Scouts, but they got ejected. Later, at thirteen, he joined a boys' club for its boxing and football, and belonged on and off till he was sixteen. Then he suddenly dropped out." Why did Bert drop out? Originally published in 1954, the answer forms the substance of Some Young People, the report of an inquiry into adolescents' reactions to their local youth groups. Besides answering the question "Who joins what?" (and two thirds of these thousand youngsters of 14 to 17 were not members of any youth organisation) the book describes some of the hopes, pleasures and difficulties of such people as Frances, the chocolate packer, who has ambition to marry before long; and John, the carpenter's apprentice, whose passions are autocycling, pigeons and pigs. It also throws light on problems such as those presented by gangs; and suggests the importance of "my friends," the closely-knit set who mean so much to the adolescent.

A New York Times bestseller and a Book of the Year for the Evening Standard and The Times.

Is getting a little less comfortable the key to living a happier, healthier life?

When journalist Scott Carney came across a picture of a man in his fifties sitting on a glacier in just his underwear, he assumed it must be a hoax. Dutch guru Wim Hof claimed he could control his body temperature using his mind and teach others to do the same. Sceptical, Carney signed up to Hof’s one-week course, not realising that it would be the start of a four-year journey to unlock his own evolutionary potential.

From hyperventilating in a Polish farmhouse to underwater weight training in California, and eventually climbing Mt Kilimanjaro wearing just shorts and running shoes, Carney travelled the world testing out unorthodox methods of body transformation and discovering the science behind them.

In What Doesn’t Kill Us he explains how getting a little less comfortable can help us to unlock our lost evolutionary strength.

This book provides a definitive and comprehensive contribution to the expanding body of research related to sport/physical culture and the COVID-19 global pandemic. By examining the generative complexities that simultaneously link and shape sport/physical culture and COVID, the book develops a collection of multi-faceted readings. The anthology is framed by an ontological understanding prefigured on relationality, liminality, and perpetual becoming. The contributions theoretically, methodologically and representationally explore COVID-sport assemblages as a dynamic and diverse "ad hoc grouping"of interpenetrating affecting elements, encompassing material and expressive forms, human and non-human, animate and inanimate matter. The book will be of interest to advanced undergraduate and students and scholars of kinesiology, sociology of sport, critical studies of the body, physical education, sport and social issues, public health, physical cultural studies, sociology, foreign policy studies, and international studies.

In this fifth book on sport and the nature of reputation, editors Lisa Doris Alexander and Joel Nathan Rosen have tasked their contributors with examining reputation from the perspective of celebrity and spectacle, which in some cases can be better defined as scandal. The subjects chronicled in this volume have all proven themselves to exist somewhere on the spectacular spectrum-the spotlight seemed always to gravitate toward them. All have displayed phenomenal feats of athletic prowess and artistry, and all have faced a controversy or been thrust into a situation that grows from age-old notions of the spectacle. Some handled the hoopla like the champions they are, or were, while others struggled and even faded amid the hustle and flow of their runaway celebrity. While their individual narratives are engrossing, these stories collectively paint a portrait of sport and spectacle that offers context and clarity. Written by a range of scholarly contributors from multiple disciplines, The Circus Is in Town: Sport, Celebrity, and Spectacle contains careful analysis of such megastars as LeBron James, Tonya Harding, David Beckham, Shaquille O'Neal, Maria Sharapova, and Colin Kaepernick. This final volume of a project that has spanned the first three decades of the twenty-first century looks to sharpen questions regarding how it is that reputations of celebrity athletes are forged, maintained, transformed, repurposed, destroyed, and at times rehabilitated. The subjects in this collection have been driven by this notion of the spectacle in ways that offer interesting and entertaining inquiry into the arc of athletic reputations. Contributions by Lisa Doris Alexander, Matthew H. Barton, Andrew C. Billings, Carlton Brick, Ted M. Butryn, Brian Carroll, Arthur T. Challis, Roxane Coche, Curtis M. Harris, Jay Johnson, Melvin Lewis, Jack Lule, Rory Magrath, Matthew A. Masucci, Andrew McIntosh, Jorge E. Moraga, Leigh M. Moscowitz, David C. Ogden, Joel Nathan Rosen, Kevin A. Stein, and Henry Yu.

The most famous long-distance hiking trail in North America, the 2,181-mile Appalachian Trail - the longest hiking-only footpath in the world - runs along the Appalachian mountain range from Georgia to Maine. Every year about 2,000 individuals attempt to ""thru-hike"" the entire trail, a feat equivalent to hiking Mount Everest sixteen times. In Walking on the Wild Side, sociologist Kristi M. Fondren traces the stories of forty-six men and women who, for their own personal reasons, set out to conquer America's most well known, and arguably most social, long-distance hiking trail. In this fascinating in-depth study, Fondren shows how, once out on the trail, this unique subculture of hikers lives mostly in isolation, with their own way of acting, talking, and thinking; their own vocabulary; their own activities and interests; and their own conception of what is significant in life. They tend to be self-disciplined, have an unwavering trust in complete strangers, embrace a life of poverty, and reject modern-day institutions. The volume illuminates the intense social intimacy and bonding that forms among long-distance hikers as they collectively construct a long-distance hiker identity. Fondren describes how long-distance hikers develop a trail persona, underscoring how important a sense of place can be to our identity, and to our sense of who we are. Indeed, the author adds a new dimension to our understanding of the nature of identity in general. Anyone who has hiked - or has ever dreamed of hiking - the Appalachian Trail will find this volume fascinating. Walking on the Wild Side captures a community for whom the trail is a sacred place, a place to which they have become attached, socially, emotionally, and spiritually.

This edited collection examines how fantasy sports play has established a prominent and promising foothold in the larger sports ecology. Often considered an isolated activity for the hardcore sports fan, fantasy sports play have since been incorporated into sports broadcasting and editorial coverage, sports marketing and promotions, and even into the very sports themselves with athletes and teams using the activities to draw fans further into the sports experience. This edited collection invites leading scholars and sports professionals from several different fields to share historical and emerging perspectives on the importance of fantasy sports as an artifact of theoretical and empirical importance to larger issues of sport and society. \

This book examines the changing nature of opposition to bidding for and hosting the Olympic Games in contemporary American cities. It explores and critiques the process by which cities bid for the Olympics in the current context of the International Olympic Committee's changing bid requirements and from the social justice perspectives of Olympics opponents. Using detailed case studies of the Olympic bids in Chicago, Boston, and Los Angeles, it shows how opposition to bidding for and hosting the Olympics has changed dramatically in American cities.

Sports are inspiring and uplifting. They can also bring out some of the worst characteristics in human nature: narcissism, prejudice, greed. This book looks at the major sports scandals in modern American history, from the Black Sox fix of 1919 to the current concussion crisis in the NFL. With today's digital media and the tremendous amount of money involved in sports, scandals are becoming more frequent and more damaging. How should a sports league respond to a scandal, act to protect the integrity of their organization, and address their many audiences-the fans, the media, and other players-when things go wrong? This book covers the big three sports-football, baseball, and basketball-to illuminate some of the biggest scandals in the history of American sports, using case studies to explain the scandals and the organizations' responses to crises. The work examines the major sports scandals in the 20th and 21st centuries, including the Black Sox fix of 1919, the institutional racism faced by Jackie Robinson in the late 1940s, the point-shaving scheme in 1950s-era college basketball, and unresolved crises that continue to damage sports today. Author Edward J. Lordan describes the historic conditions surrounding the scandals and administrators' responses to identifying, addressing and, when possible, resolving these crises. Presents detailed, definitive descriptions of famous sports crises, allowing readers to recognize the inaccuracies in the rumors surrounding these events in order to fully understand what happened Covers scandals and controversial situations that arose in professional and collegiate athletics Highlights how some of the smartest administrators in the public sphere have responded to an unexpected crisis Presents information of interest not only to sports fans and sports administrators but also to organizational communications professionals, crisis management professionals, public relations specialists, and general communication studies students

This book presents a kaleidoscopic view of the multidisciplinary field of research developed within Brazilian social sciences to study football as a major cultural and social phenomenon in the country. As a contributed volume, it brings together chapters authored by researchers from different disciplines, such as sociology, anthropology, political science, history, geography, economy, communication studies and physical education, who contributed to make Brazilian football a multifaceted object of study for the human and social sciences. The book is divided in four parts. The first two parts are dedicated to the "classic" areas, in which the best known research lines are concentrated: part one focuses on politics and history, while part two is dedicated to sociology and anthropology. The third part brings together studies from other four different areas: communication studies, geography, economy and physical education. The fourth part is organized not by disciplines, but around transversal themes, such as gender, violence, fans and racism. The varied approaches and different interpretations brought together in this book seek to provide an overview of the fertile academic debate that has stimulated the renewal of scientific research on football in Brazil, which makes Football and Social Sciences in Brazil a useful resource for researchers from different disciplines within the human and social sciences interested in the study of football as major cultural and social phenomenon all over the world.

"The extraordinary story of how Coach Paul "Bear" Bryant and Joe Namath, his star quarterback at the University of Alabama, led the Crimson Tide to victory and transformed football into a truly national pastime."
During the bloodiest years of the civil rights movement, Bear Bryant and Joe Namath-two of the most iconic and controversial figures in American sports-changed the game of college football forever. Brilliantly and urgently drawn, this is the gripping account of how these two very different men-Bryant a legendary coach in the South who was facing a pair of ethics scandals that threatened his career, and Namath a cocky Northerner from a steel mill town in Pennsylvania-led the Crimson Tide to a national championship.
To Bryant and Namath, the game was everything. But no one could ignore the changes sweeping the nation between 1961 and 1965-from the Freedom Rides to the integration of colleges across the South and the assassination of President Kennedy. Against this explosive backdrop, Bryant and Namath changed the meaning of football. Their final contest together, the 1965 Orange Bowl, was the first football game broadcast nationally, in color, during prime time, signaling a new era for the sport and the nation.
Award-winning biographer Randy Roberts and sports historian Ed Krzemienski showcase the moment when two thoroughly American traditions-football and Dixie-collided. A compelling story of race and politics, honor and the will to win, RISING TIDE captures a singular time in America. More than a history of college football, this is the story of the struggle and triumph of a nation in transition and the legacy of two of the greatest heroes the sport has ever seen.