The struggle for status within sport is a microcosm of the struggle for rights, freedom and recognition within society. Injustices within sport often reflect larger injustices in society as a whole. In South Africa, for example, sport has been crucial in advancing the rights and liberty of oppressed groups. The geographical and chronological range of the essays in Ethnicity, Sport, Identity reveal the global role of sport in this advance. The collection examines cases of discrimination directed at individuals or groups, resulting in their exclusion from full participation in sport and their consequent struggle for inclusion. It shows how ethnic and national identity are sources of social cohesion and political assertion within sport, and it illustrates the manner in which sport has served to project ethnicity in various, often contradictory ways. It depicts sport as an agent of conservatism and radicalism, superiority and subordination, confidence and lack of confidence, and as a source of disenfranchisement and enfranchisement. That sport has been, and continues to be, a potent means of both ethnic restriction and release can no longer be ignored.

Soccer, the most popular mass spectator sport in the world, has always remained a marker of identities of various sorts. Behind the façade of its obvious entertainment aspect, it has proved to be a perpetuating reflector of nationalism, ethnicity, community or communal identity, and cultural specificity. Naturally therefore, the game is a complex representative of minorities’ status especially in countries where minorities play a crucial role in political, social, cultural or economic life. The question is also important since in many nations success in sports like soccer has been used as an instrument for assimilation or to promote an alternative brand of nationalism. Thus, Jewish teams in pre-Second World War Europe were set up to promote the idea of a muscular Jewish identity. Similarly, in apartheid South Africa, soccer became the game of the black majority since it was excluded from the two principal games of the country – rugby and cricket. In India, on the other hand, the Muslim minorities under colonial rule appropriated soccer to assert their community-identity. The book examines why in certain countries, minorities chose to take up the sport while in others they backed away from participating in the game or, alternatively, set up their own leagues and practised self-exclusion. The book examines European countries like the Netherlands, England and France, the USA, Africa, Australia and the larger countries of Asia – particularly India. This book was previously published as a special issue of Soccer and Society.

Examines a range of cultural issues related to: nationalism, gender, race, ethnicity, indigenous culture, sexuality, (dis)ability and even religiosity. This volume explores the dimensions of cultural diversity that relate to many of the aforementioned dimensions as they are located within the context of sport.

Athletes are on the move. In some sports this involves labour, movement from one country to another within or between continents. In other sports, athletes assume an almost nomadic migratory lifestyle, constantly on the move from one sport festival to another. In addition, it appears that sport migration is gaining momentum and that it is closely interwoven with the broader process of global sport development taking place in the late twentieth century.

A collection of texts providing a useful resource for students in the field of sports studies. Subject headings include approaches to the study of sport, the development and structure of modern sport, sport and power relations, and major issues in contemporary sport.

For over a century, Chicago has played soccer. This work explains the early history of the game in the Second City, beginning with the 1887 formation of the Chicago Football Association, and concluding with the 1939 season and Chicago Sparta’s National Open Cup win, which brought the trophy to the city for the first time. This study chronicles the early British immigrants who first transported and organized the game in Chicago. It documents the myriad ethnic groups and native born players that kicked in the city’s many leagues, and examines the many championship tournaments, teams, and players that made Chicago one of the nation’s early soccer powers.