Polidemos 18

Abstract. Diego Armando Maradona is unanimously considered the  best player of all time, alongside Pelé. However, while the Brazilian has  always represented the establishment, Maradona positioned himself as  the critical consciousness of world football, fiercely criticising the most  important football institutions. Many aspects of Maradona’s life have  been extensively explored, both journalistically and academically. There …

Abstract. This chapter aims to reflect on racial discourses in Brazil that  contextualize the emergence of Edson Arantes do Nascimento, known  as Pelé, one of the greatest football players of all time. The study con siders Brazilian racial theories at the turn of the 19th century and un derstands how these influenced Pelé’s emergence in…

Abstract. This chapter investigates the evolving nexus between Olym pism and the liberal international order through a comparative analysis  of the Sochi 2014 and Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games, situating  their legacies within the context of the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics  and the deepening fragmentation of the liberal international order  (LIO). Building on the idea…

Abstract. This chapter analyses FIFA’s involvement in the Israeli-Pales tinian issue, with particular reference to the International Football Fed eration’s stance on Israel’s assault on Gaza. It argues that international  sports organisations like FIFA, far from being ‘neutral’, are themselves  full-fledged actors in the international arena. Institutional aims, in par ticular promoting and protecting football…

Abstract. This chapter argues that international sport functions as a sec ondary institution of the international system whose norms are contin gent on systemic politics. Focusing on the case of the Russia-Ukraine  war from Beijing 2022 to Paris 2024, it traces how the International  Olympic Committee (IOC) deployed two norms (that is, political neu trality…

Abstract. Modern sport has evolved into an international institution increas ingly and intrinsically intertwined with the dynamics of global politics. This  article traces the historical internationalisation of sport, from the universalist  ambitions of the early Olympic movement to contemporary geopolitical re configurations reflected in the shifting geography of mega-events, showing  how transformations in global power…