Monday, August 11, 2008
Globalization of Sports
Never before have the forces of globalization been so evident in our daily lives. An estimated 2 billion people witness Live Earth, a series of concerts held in 11 locations around the world to raise environmental awareness. Chinese manufacturers decorate toys with paint containing lead, and children around the world have to give up their Batmans and Barbie dolls. Mortgage lenders in the United States face a liquidity crunch, and global stock markets go berserk. Sports metaphors and images are powerful rhetorical tools in the globalization of the world in local culture. Just like professional basketball, globalization is a U.S. – centered, media-driven, capitalist enterprise that destroys local culture. In the premise of globalization that is the National Basketball Association (NBA) in this case, the story of Air Jordan, Yao Ming and Emanuel Ginobili, among others, that foreign influence on a U.S. game and the American domination abroad highlights the globalization of a Global Game which reaches out to a massive crowd. But is basketball really the global game and therefore a valid metaphor for understanding globalization? The truly global spectator sports, some would argue, are Formula One auto racing and soccer, or football as most of the world calls the game.
“If you wanna save the planet, jump up and down!” urged Madonna at the London Live Earth concert on 07,07,07.What could be more global than soccer? The world’s leading professional players and owners pay no mind to national borders, with major teams banking revenues in every currency available and billions of fans cheering for their champions in too many languages to count. With deft intellectual footwork, author and soccer aficionado Franklin Foer draws on the beautiful game to illustrate both globalization’s possibilities and limits. “[m]ore than basketball or even the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund,” writes Foer, “soccer is the most globalized institution on the planet.” But, as Foer shows, injecting foreign capitalist efficiency into Brazilian soccer clubs has been about as easy as, well, getting English players to abandon their gritty, raw playing style for something more suavely continental. In just about every facet of the game, globalization impedes local customs, rivalries, and heritages.
Air Jordan - Michael Jordan won the NBA Slam Dunk Contest in 1987 and 1988.For example, during the 2002 World Cup, the English midfielder David Beckham, famed bender of the ball, styled his hair in a mohawk. Almost instantly, Japanese adolescents appeared with tread marks on their shorn heads; professional women, according to the Japanese newsmagazine Shukan Jitsuwa, even trimmed their pubic hair in homage. A bit further west, in Bangkok, Thailand, the monks of the Pariwas Buddhist temple placed a Beckham statuette in a spot reserved for figures of minor deities.
David Beckham, the former England captain, is reknowned for his right-footed free kicks and his trend-setting mohawk.It should surprise no one that this Londoner has replaced basketball icon Michael Jordan as the world’s most inspirational (or rather, influential) celebrity athlete. After all, more than basketball or even the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, soccer is the most globalized institution on the planet.
Soccer began to outgrow its national borders early in the post-World War II era. As a common European market and governance was yet to become finalized at this point in time, European soccer clubs already moved toward union. The most successful clubs started competing against one another in regular transnational tournaments, such as the events now known as Champions League and the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) Cup. These tournaments were a fan’s dream: the chance to see Juventus of Turin play Bayern Munich one week and FC Barcelona the next. But more significantly, they were an owner’s dream: money-making fixtures that brought unprecedented gate receipts and an enormous infusion of television revenue. This transnational idea was such a good one that Latin America, Africa, and Asia quickly created their own ‘imitations’.
Following the ‘globalization’ of competitions, the hunt for ‘labour resources’ quickly followed. Club owners scoured the planet for superstars that they could buy on the cheap. Spanish teams shopped. Companies also jumped on board.
In the recent 100 Top Global Brands which BusinessWeek and Interbrand team up to rate the best brands, many ingredients into account when ranking the value of the Best Global Brands. Even to qualify for the list, each brand must derive at least a third of its earnings outside its home country, be recognizable outside of its base of customers, and have publicly available marketing and financial data. This shows the global influence of the brand on world culture. Through the use of the media and advertising, some of these brands have proven to reap the benefits of extensive media coverage, including the sponsorship of regular sporting tournaments, especially soccer.
AIG ranked 48 on the Top 100 Global Brands.As seen on shirts of soccer players in the famous Manchester United club, the insurer AIG is pushing harder to make its name in the international scene, or at least in the screens of millions of fans throughout Asia and Europe. Similarly, a German company, Allianz fostered goodwill by plastering its name on a World Cup soccer stadium while sponsoring events such as the 2006 India-Pakistan Cricket Test Series. The brand known for batteries, Duracell made use of World Cup and festival sponsorships to build traction with consumers. Not to mention Nike and Adidas which are sporting brands which ride on the fame of sporting events to promote its brand, both ranking 30th and 69th respectively.
Allianz ranked 80 on the Top 100 Global Brands.
Duracell ranked 89 on the Top 100 Global Brands.In a nutshell, I have arrived at a conclusion that globalization has a massive following with locals which may or may not be sports fans and this affects local cultures as generations will embrace the looks or ultimately, cultures of their sport icons in which companies have also benefitted from as they achieve global brand names for themselves, with the aid of media coverage by these sporting events which will reach out to millions of fans across the globe.
This is the globalization of sports culture.
Done By:
Ashley Chew:]
Labels: Culture, Globalization, Sports
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