Cycling Diplomacy. Undemocratic Regimes and Professional Road Cycling Teams Sponsorship

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F49777513%3A23330%2F21%3A43962350" target="_blank" >RIV/49777513:23330/21:43962350 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.3726/b18759" target="_blank" >http://dx.doi.org/10.3726/b18759</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.3726/b18759" target="_blank" >10.3726/b18759</a>

Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Cycling Diplomacy. Undemocratic Regimes and Professional Road Cycling Teams Sponsorship

Original language description

The book Cycling Diplomacy. Undemocratic Regimes and Professional Road Cycling Teams Sponsorship focuses on a specific example of the tool of sports diplomacy that some governments of undemocratic regimes use. In general, there are many publications interested in sports diplomacy (especially in the hosting of mega-events like the Olympic Games), but only a few authors like Natalie Koch, John Krzyzaniak, Adrien Fauve, or Simon Chadwick reflect the sports sponsorship as a part of sports diplomacy or soft power strategy of the countries with “democratic deficit.” However, none of them has prepared a complex study on the professional road cycling team sponsorship and the undemocratic regimes. Due to the financial situation in the professional road peloton, many cycling Teams struggle to find their sponsors. This situation is an opportunity for undemocratic politicians to promote their countries via cycling. Thus, some of them decided to create and support their own cycling teams. Generally, four WorldTour cycling teams supported by undemocratic regimes and their governments have existed in professional cycling history. This book focuses on all of them; it reflects the existence of Kazakh Astana Pro Team, Russian Team Katusha (supported by the Russian government until the end of the 2015 season), Bahrain Victorious (formerly called Bahrain Merida and Bahrain McLaren) or the UAE Team Emirates and the way how they are/ were used as sports diplomacy instruments. In the book, the following questions in the four cases mentioned above are answered: 1) Under what circumstances were the cycling teams formed, and by whom was the formation supported? 2) How do the cycling teams work with symbolism when referring to the states that are their title sponsors? 3) Do the teams themselves, or their representatives and donors, acknowledge that they serve as a tool of sports diplomacy? 4) Do the rhetoric presented by the teams and their representatives refer to the importance of the team for the society of the given undemocratic country? 5) Are there any controversies associated with the teams that could ruin their image and the image of the countries whose political leaders support them? Or do these controversies not occur, and the teams are associated with success at major cycling events? This study is a descriptive case study of the activity of the Kazakh Astana Pro Team, Russian Team Katusha, Bahrain Victorious and the UAE Team Emirates as a part of the sports diplomacy strategy of their “home” undemocratic regimes. It is based on the extensive study of primary sources, information in (social) media; the conclusions are supported by the statements of anonymous respondents – insiders in the world cycling. In the end, the principal aim of the book is to map this activity.

Czech name

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Czech description

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Type

B - Specialist book

CEP classification

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OECD FORD branch

50601 - Political science

Project

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Continuities

I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace

Publication year

2021

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

ISBN

978-3-631-86003-8

Number of pages

156

Publisher name

Peter Lang

Place of publication

Berlin

UT code for WoS book

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