Pierre Bourdieu published this paper in correlation with France hosting the World Cup in 1998, marking the last of his contributions to sports sociology going back to the 1970s. These texts worked to address social class at the core of sports practice, decided as much by cultural and social capital as financial. The text translated here by Siyasat Arabiya contrasts with Bourdieu's earlier methods in the study of sports, as it deals with the relationship of the state to the economy, detailing the 'commodification' of and the extension of neoliberal logic to sports, to become a 'commercial spectacle' and a medium for advertisement. Sporting events and timings are now controlled by the market. Bourdieu thus laments the creep of neoliberalism into a country with a traditionally centralised state, such as France, permeating sports, and presents his case against neoliberalism through the example of sport.
