Author’s preface

Summary

Although the book addresses some of the more negativeaspects of sport, it seems fitting that itsgestation should coincide with two of the world'smajor sporting events – the 2014 World Cup in Brazilhad just finished when I started writing, and the2016 Olympics, also in Brazil, are due to take placearound the time of publication. Like many fans, Ihave gained great pleasure from watching the WorldCup on TV over the years. I enjoyed even more beingin London during the 2012 Olympics, where I watchedlive athletics, hockey, cycling, water polo,basketball, the wheelchair marathon and Paralympicswimming.

My own participation in sport is less spectacular, butit ranges from schoolboy rugby union (continued inlater life with less success) and judo to low-levelathletics (hammer–pole vault–steeplechasecombination – my contribution to the Corinthianpursuit of points for my club in Southern LeagueDivision 7) and occasional back-of-the-packtriathlons. Nowadays I still manage regularfive-kilometre parkruns and the odd 10-kilometrerace, but I ran my best marathon (in London, inthree hours, one minute and 43 seconds) 30 yearsago. I am not taking a standpoint epistemologicalview and insisting that readers should heed mebecause I have done, and therefore ‘know’, sport,but I occasionally mention my sport activities whererelevant. I also draw on relevant experiences frommy doctoral fieldwork and work for the HomeOffice.

I like watching, but prefer doing, sport. The pleasureis not unalloyed. Playing rugby as an adult Ienjoyed the game but not the sexism, racism,homophobia and public school masculinity associatedwith it. I have found athletics more egalitarianand, as I age, find myself running increasingly withwomen - who often beat me – although, given mydemographic, it is still a largely middle-class,straight, white activity. There are Marxistcritiques of sport (Brohm, 1987 and Perelman, 2012),Foucauldian takes on sport as bio-power (Miller,2009) and feminist critiques of sport and maleviolence (Nelson, 1995), but I don't mention them tosportspeople or running partners, at least, not inthose terms.

Like any other participant, I am aware that therules/laws of sport are often observed sporadicallyand that the rules of substantive behaviour onfield/pitch often stand at odds with the formalones; so far, so sociological.