The Decline of the ‘Elite’ Sport Officials and the Dissolution of the Israeli Sport Association

This historical study will examine the rise of a hegemonic group of sports officials in Israel during the period between 1948 and 1996. The formation of this group is a unique phenomenon of the Israeli sport society. The main argument of the study is that officials of rival sport centres, ‘Hapoel’ and ‘Maccabi’, founded a joint elite group as a side effect of the ‘fifty-fifty’ agreement, signed in 1951. The agreement stated that the Israeli Sport Association, the National Olympic Committee and the Israeli Football Association would be mutually led by officials of both organizations. The members of this elite group, who enjoyed access to economic resources and other benefits, adopted a hedonistic lifestyle, in contrast to the social ethos of Israeli society in the first and second decades of the State. Three events dismantled the group in the middle of the 1990s. The first one was the establishment of the Elite Sport Department in 1984. The second was the establishment of independent Federations by Yadin Machnes. The third was the Maliniak Commission Report. These three events led to the collapse of the Israeli Sport Association in 1996 and to the fall of the Israeli hegemonic group.     

For the Good of the Game? The Legacy of the Football Trust,the Football Pools,and the Dangerous Seduction of Political Promise

During the late twentieth century, the United Kingdom’s football infrastructure and spectatorship underwent transformation as successive stadia disasters heightened political and public scrutiny of the game and prompted industry change. Central to this process was the government’s formation of an independent charitable organization to oversee subsequent policy implementation and grant-aid provision to clubs for safety, crowd, and spectator requirements. This entity, which began in 1975 focusing on ground improvement, developed into the Football Trust. The Trust was funded directly by the football pools companies who ran popular low-stakes football betting enterprises. Working in association with the Pools Promoters Association (PPA), and demonstrating their social responsibility towards the game’s constituents, the pools resourced a wide array of Trust activities. Yet irrespective of government mandate, the PPA and Trust were continually confronted by political and economic obstacles that threatened the effectiveness of their arrangements. In this paper the history of the Football Trust is investigated, along with its partnership with the PPA, and its relationship with the government within the context of broader political shifts, stadia catastrophes, official inquiries, and commercial threats. It is contended that while the Trust/PPA partnership had a respectable legacy, their history afforded little protection against adverse contemporary conditions.     

The Origins of Football Debate: The Continuing Demise of the Dominant Paradigm, 1852–1856

This article presents original and compelling new material in ‘the origins of football debate’, this time from the period 1852–1856, using the British Library's digitisation project of nineteenth-century newspapers. In so doing, it addresses the alleged disappearance of football in the wider community in mid-century, a problem that has troubled a number of scholars, not least because of the rapid expansion in the game amongst the working and lower middle classes from the 1870s onwards. In addressing this allegation it outlines a much broader and more stable footballing culture across the country than hitherto thought, based on games played at church, work and school outings, rural fetes and galas, alongside those played at celebrations and as street football or casual games in meadows, fields or greens, arguing that those historians who have simply looked for formal games were looking for the wrong forms of football in the wrong places, based on twentieth-century notions of what constitutes a ‘game’ of football. Overall, the article has added yet more evidence of the cultural continuity of football across the mid-century and contributed to the continuing demise of the so-called ‘dominant paradigm’ in the ‘origins of football’ debate.     

The ‘origins of football debate’ and the early development of the game in Nottinghamshire

This article continues the debate on the origins of football. It contains new data which note early football activity and initial club formation in Nottinghamshire. The authors reach the conclusion that former public schoolboys were prominent in the development of football in that particular area and see this as further confirmation of their hypothesis that many of these individuals should be seen as important in the establishment of football as a modern sport.     

The effect of video‐feedback on the learning of the tennis service by intermediate players

Effects of video‐feedback on improvement of the tennis service were investigated in subjects having at least 2 years of playing experience in tennis. The experiment was carried out in an indoor tennis hall under normal training conditions.

Subjects were randomly divided into three groups: a video‐feedback training (VFT) group, a traditional training (TT) group and a control group, each consisting of 22 subjects. While the subjects of the control group received no training at all, subjects in both the VFT and TT groups were trained twice weekly during 5 consecutive weeks. Each training session lasted 40 min, of which 30 min was spent on actual practice in training of the service. The remaining 10 min was spent on watching, analysing and discussing video recordings of either their own service performed during the training session (VFT group), or ground strokes and volleys of top level players (TT group). Both the VFT and TT group showed significantly greater improvements in both achievement scores and form (technique) scores than did the control group. No differences, however, could be demonstrated between the VFT and TT group, indicating that the subjects of the former group did not benefit from the video‐feedback they received.

While form scores correlated significantly (P < 0.001) with the velocity of the served ball, no such relation between form scores and spatial accuracy was apparent.     

The geometric curvature of the spine during the sirshasana,the yoga’s headstand

This study analysed the behaviour of the geometric curvature of the spine during sirshasana. The position of dorsal retroreflective markers was computed via stereophotogrammetric analysis in six males and five females (29.4 ± 8.8 years, 63.0 ± 11.4 kg, 1.66 ± 0.08 m [average ± standard deviation]). The spinal points were projected onto the sagittal and frontal planes of the trunk, a polynomial was fitted to the data and the two-dimensional geometric curvature was quantified. The inferior lumbar lordosis decreased compared to the orthostatic position and gait, which may favour the posterior protrusion of the lumbar spinal nucleus pulposus in people with posterior herniation. The lateral deviation at the middle of the thoracic spine increases during sirshasana, which may reflect increased difficulties for postural control and spinal loads. It could be useful for promoting positive spinal structural and functional chronic adaptations for healthy participants, if the yoga programme is carefully planned and the spinal alignment is carefully monitored during a headstand. However, it may aggravate some spinal diseases, especially scoliosis.     

The Psychometric Properties of the Short and Long Versions of the Coach–Athlete Relationship Questionnaire

The Coach–Athlete Relationship Questionnaire was developed to effectively measure affective, cognitive, and behavioral aspects, represented by the interpersonal constructs of closeness, commitment, and complementarity, of the quality of the relationship within the context of sport coaching. The current study sought to determine the internal reliability and factorial validity of the long (the 29-item Long Version Coach–Athlete Relationship Questionnaire) and short (11-item Coach–Athlete Relationship Questionnaire and 13-item Greek Coach–Athlete Relationship Questionnaire) versions of the Coach–Athlete Relationship Questionnaire with a sample of 800 Chinese coaches and athletes. Results supported the internal reliability across all Coach–Athlete Relationship Questionnaire versions examined, while confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) only supported the factorial validity of the three-factor first-order model of the 11-item Coach–Athlete Relationship Questionnaire. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for theory, research, and practice.     

‘The Best Football Team,The Best Platoon’: The Role of Football in the Proletarianization of the British Expeditionary Force, 1914–1918

This article examines the role of football, alongside other working-class pastimes, in engendering the proletarianization of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) during the Great War. The article details how the nature and longevity of the Great War, allied to the associated need to raise a predominantly working-class ‘civilian army’, stimulated new approaches to sustaining morale which embraced working-class-derived values and customs. The raison d’être of the BEF's combat motivation (why a soldier should fight) increasingly depended upon workplace-centred notions of solidarity and mutuality. In military terms, these proletarian set of motivational influences became known as ‘loyalty to the primary group’, and the proletarian sport of football became one of the major vehicles for their diffusion. Concurrently, troop entertainments and recreations became dominated by some of the temporary escapes of proletarian culture – most notably organized football tournaments, but also music hall, cinema, fairs and trips to the seaside. By 1918 the BEF was decidedly proletarian, not just in its composition but also in its values and customs.     

The Legacy of the Games of the New Emerging Forces and Indonesia’s Relationship with the International Olympic Committee

Abstract

The Games of the New Emerging Forces (GANEFO) often serve as an example of the entanglement of sport, Cold War politics and the Non-Aligned Movement in the 1960s. Indonesia as the initiator plays a salient role in the research on this challenge for the International Olympic Committee (IOC). The legacy of GANEFO and Indonesia’s further relationship with the IOC, however, has not yet drawn proper academic attention. This paper analyzes Indonesia’s interactions with the IOC until the present time, with a focus on the country’s involvement in sporting events under the patronage of the IOC (such as the Asian and Southeast Asian Games). In addition, two case studies demonstrate the variable relationship between the two actors. First, Indonesia only narrowly escaped sanctions over a dispute on the use of the Olympic logo in 2015. Yet, the country is named as host of the 2018 Asian Games, hence showing high ambitions to re-enter the international sports arena. These incidents illustrate the significance of conformity of local agencies towards the IOC with regard to political positions and power structures. The study opens the field to local – Asian – perspectives on interactions with the IOC.     

The Hand of God,the Hand of the Devil: a sociological interpretation of Maradona’s hand goal

Based on the moral problem of Maradona’s goal, known as the ‘Hand of God’, this essay presents a theoretical discussion using the perspective of figurational sociology of how game rules and moral rules are related. It does not aim to solve the moral dispute occasioned by actions like the ‘Hand of God’, but concentrates on a much more limited discussion (appealing to far fewer people) in which we strive to reach a proper sociological understanding. Indeed, we believe that the ‘Hand of God’ is a paradigmatic event for sociological reasoning. This is not to claim that sociology can give any final answers, but to suggest the opposite, namely that an understanding of the value of ‘hand goals’ can be very important for understanding the limits of sociological reason.     

The emergence of a new logic? The theorizing of a new practice in the highly institutionalized context of Swedish voluntary sport

The purpose of this article is to contribute to the understanding of the emergence and change in institutional logics by analyzing the theorization (e.g., Greenwood, Suddaby, & Hinings, 2002) of a new and distinctly “different” practice in Swedish voluntary sport: drive-in sport. The article builds on data from 29 interviews with key actors involved in the organizing of drive-in sport in four municipalities. The findings show that two problems were constructed to legitimize drive-in sport: norm-breaking behavior displayed by youth during weekend nights, and organized sport's failure to live up to a sport-for-all ideal. The findings also show that it is perceived that in order for drive-in sport to be the solution to both these problems, the activities need to be arranged in a particular way. The findings are discussed in relation to recent developments in Swedish organized sport as an institutional context. Additionally, the discussion puts forth the value of the theorization concept in terms of furthering our understanding of the social-constructionist interpretive processes that underpin the broader processes of change documented in previous sport-related studies of change in institutional logics.     

The role of the athletes’ entourage on attitudes to doping

ABSTRACT

The present study investigated athletes’ and coaches’ beliefs about the role of athletes’ entourage in deterring or promoting doping. Competitive athletes and coaches in Greece and Australia took part in semi-structured interviews. Our analysis of the interviews produced five main themes: coach influence, peer influence, doping stance, doping stigma, and entourage’s culture. Overall, coaches and peers having a close and trusty relationship with the athletes were considered most influential with respect to doping-related decisions. The majority of the athletes held a strong anti-doping stance but could not articulate why they held this position. This inability could be ascribed to the stigmatization of doping which led to lack of knowledge and anti-doping education. Finally, an anti-doping culture in the athletes’ environment was considered central to an anti-doping stance. The study findings provide valuable information towards a comprehensive understanding of the role athletes’ entourage can play in shaping athletes’ attitudes and decision for doping.     

The Introduction and Meaning of the Word Sport in the Netherlands, 1647–1910

In contrast with the Netherlands’ status as a sports nation, academic articles on Dutch sports history are scarce. In this paper, we would like to establish a ‘textual’ basis for further research. By means of a large-scale digital analysis, we have been able to depict important phases in the Dutch ‘sportification process’. Sport gradually infiltrated Dutch society: first it was mentioned as an English word in bilingual dictionaries, translated literature and ego documents. Then, English sports were described in recreational education books. Indeed, from 1845 onwards, English teachers at Dutch elite schools played an important role in the actual practising of English sports such as cricket, hockey and football. Together with the founding of sports clubs, specific sports manuals were published. Finally, via the introduction of sports sections in general newspapers, sport (as term) was widely diffused in society. Hence, in 1910, Luitje Van Der Wal was the first to translate the English word sport as ‘sport’ in K. Ten Bruggencate’s Engelsch Woordenboek. To be sure, this sportification process did not please everyone. There were warnings about the negative aspects that the adoption of English sports would create. Nonetheless, even traditional Dutch activities became sportified in a modern way.     

The School Sport Co-ordinator Programme: Changing the Role of the Physical Education Teacher?

Over the last decade or so, young people have increasingly become a focus of UK sport policy. Fuelled in part by concerns such as the increasing levels of childhood inactivity and obesity, and the lack of international success in sport, a plethora of policy initiatives aimed at young people have been developed. In April 2000, the government published its sport strategy document, A Sporting Future for All, pulling together all the threads of recent policies, and in it, restating its commitment to youth sport, sport in education, excellence and sport in the community. One such policy initiative, the School Sport Co-ordinator programme, is the focus of this paper. The School Sport Co-ordinator programme, currently being introduced into schools in England, is an initiative that involves two government departments (sport and education) and a number of other agencies, reflecting the government's current agenda to ensure 'joined up policy' thinking. It aims to develop opportunities for youth sport through co-ordinated links between PE and sport in schools, both within and outside of the formal curriculum, with those in local community sports settings. The essence of the School Sport Co-ordinator programme is to free up nominated teachers in schools from teaching to allow them time for development activities, specifically to encourage schools and community sports providers to work in partnership. This paper draws on data from an ongoing research project examining the implementation of one School Sport Co-ordinator partnership, 'Northbridge'. Drawing on in-depth interviews, it explores the perceptions of the newly established School Sport Co-ordinators of their changing role. The paper highlights some of the initial tensions and challenges for them in their task of working across different educational and sporting contexts.     

‘Carry On’: The Response of the Victorian Football League to the Challenges of World War II

The Victorian Football League (VFL) was formed following an acrimonious split with the Victorian Football Association at the end of the 1896 season. Despite being based around clubs located only in Melbourne and Geelong, the VFL soon became Australia's premier football competition. Although much has been written about League players who served in the armed forces during the two world wars, less attention has been given to identifying the issues and challenges that football competitions, and the VFL in particular, had to address if they were to continue to function during times of military conflict. Trials faced by organisers of the code were logistical, political and moral. Player and administrator shortages and a restricted number of venues to play at, were the most obvious challenges. The Australian government assumed control of manpower and resources in January 1942 and placed many restrictions on discretional activities of the population. In this context, a general feeling was that there was little room for organised major sporting competitions because they could detract from the war focus. The way society reacted to the constraints shaped football's direction, and the VFL had to interpret government policy and read the mood of the public before deciding whether to continue playing. In the end, the League, despite criticism from some quarters for continuing its competition, sided with the prevailing view that the public needed a diversion to allow them some relaxation from the pressure of war. This article discusses how the VFL responded to a number of key issues during the critical period between 1942 and 1944.     

The suitability of Sanders’ model for calculation of the propulsive force generated by the hands during sculling motion

This study examined whether Sanders’ model is suitable for estimating accurately the propulsive force generated by the hands’ motion in swimming comparing the calculated force obtained using the model and the measured force during an actual propulsive action. The measured and calculated forces were obtained from 13 swimmers who, while tethered, performed a sculling motion in a prone position for the purpose of displacing the body by moving it forward. Kinematic analyses were conducted to obtain the calculated force, while the measured force was obtained via the use of a load cell. The calculated force was lower than the measured force and accounted for only a small part of the variation in the measured force. The forces could not be used interchangeably, and there were fixed and proportional differences between them. Consequently, this study indicates that Sanders’ model is not suitable for estimating accurately the propulsive force generated by the swimmer’s hands during sculling motion. However, research that integrates analyses from different approaches could result in improvements to the model that would render it applicable for estimating the propulsive forces during movements that are characterised by directional changes of the hands.     

Winifred:An Excessively Rational Woman in the Trap---an Interpretation of the wife in The Door of the Trap from the Perspective of Althusser’s Ideological State Apparatus

Anderson' s works pose a great challenge to critics due to his revolt against the literary tradition and the difficulty of the classification of his works. His language is tainted with obscurity and va...