‘We wouldn’t have missed it for the world’: hosting a polycentric sporting mega event in pandemic times
Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: This paper examines the polycentric hosting of a Sporting Mega Event (SME) in pandemic times. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 13 stakeholders in senior management positions who were involved in the planning, organisation, and delivery of the UEFA EURO 2020 football tournament in a sample of host cities. Three themes were developed that describe the varied perspectives of UEFA and host city representatives on how they responded to the challenge of hosting a SME during a pandemic. The first theme ‘Reorienting pre-pandemic plans’ presents an alternative model of tournament planning as a system of spontaneous order (Polanyi [1953] 1998), involving a large number of host cities mutually adjusting to COVID-19 policies and guidance. The second theme ‘Dialogue and managing conflict’ demonstrates how the usual overarching system of rules proved difficult for UEFA to standardise. The third theme ‘Putting COVID-19 policies into practice (or not)’ revealed that pandemic rules were not seen as useful to some fans and stadium staff, making their enforcement more difficult to implement. It remains to be seen whether the polycentric hosting of EURO 2020 will have lasting implications on UEFA’s governance over SMEs.
Institutions: University of Stirling, Loughborough University
Language: English
Topic: Sport and Mega-Event Impacts
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Funder: UK Research and Innovation
OpenAlex ID: W4404185940