SPORT DEVELOPMENT

Sport development and sport politics

Sport Development

Introduction

In this paper we would be discussing the sport policy and the involvement of government of sports. Sports has evolved remarkably sophisticated, and therefore, they have become a means of attracting the attention of millions of viewers who wanted to watch the activities of multinational and enjoy with all competitors from different creative skills. Sports have also become one of the most important activities that give businesses a great interest and allocated large amounts of funds to promote their products as one of the most important areas to receive marketing of unprecedented public demand.

Sport policy in UK

UK has given birth to a range of various sports activities which include Association of rugby, football, golf, badminton, hockey, snooker, boxing, squash, tennis and billiards etc. It has also played a major role in the development of various sports such as Formula One and Sailing. The infancy of many sports such as Wales, England and Ireland were formed as separate bodies and national teams for domestic competitions (Trimble, 2010). In UK, sports are a devoted political responsibility. Since, in England there is no such parliament of its own, the UK Department of Media, Sports and Culture is responsible for the development of sports. It is headed by the Cabinet Minister who leads the policies for the development of government. The funding for sports in UK is commercially generated but it is concentrated on certain level of sports. In UK, as elsewhere, connections between sport and politics are expressed in a variety of areas including government policy, relations between and within government and sport organizations, struggles around national identity, and the informal politics of everyday life as experienced through social relations such as gender, ethnicity, race, ability and disability, and sexuality (Nils, Barrie, Per, 2007,).

After the abolishment of The Department of Tourism and Recreation much of the federal funding for sport was withdrawn. Nevertheless, the organizational capacities and social and political networks developed during the period of the past government meant that sport did not entirely disappear from the policy agenda. In addition, the dismal performance of the UK team at the 1976 Olympic Games in Canada prompted a rethink on the part of the government about funding and sport promotion strategies.

The next stage in development of government relations with sport and the organization of sport was the establishment of the UK Institute of Sport. The 1990s saw these organizational and policy trends continue. Governments around UK became formally involved in sport through several interrelated organizations. The UK Institute of Sport is now part of the Arts and Sports Program of the Department of Communication, Information Technology and Arts, and is responsible to the federal Minister for Arts and Sport (Hargreaves, 1986). The department in turn provides policy advice to the ASC both on general sport and anti-doping issues. The ASC has two units: the UK Institute of Sport and the Sport Development Group. Continuing its original purpose, a central goal of the AIS is to develop ...