A model for the multi-centered regulation of world sport

Abstract

This article presents a framework for the regulation of international sport. It is based on an analysis of each sport’s global ecosystem, conducted to identify the actors involved, as well as their respective weights, objectives (for-profit/non-profit), relationships, and roles. The underlying thesis is that actors within or outside the ecosystem activate four areas of regulation (social, economic, legal, political) and mobilise appropriate competencies to create, strengthen, or destabilise specific regulation modes or configurations. Applying this analysis framework revealed five configurations of sport regulation: regulation by a dominant IF; regulation coordinated by an IF; parallel regulation; commercial regulation supplanting an IF; commercial regulation with no IF. These categories explain the relative power of the actors involved and the way they use their social, economic, legal, and political regulation competencies, which depend on their circumstances, to further their interests.