As the largest, most viewed and attended sporting event on the planet, the FIFA World Cup unfolded bringing drama, excitement and many late nights, the International Cricket Council (ICC) quietly confirmed that one of the biggest changes in International Cricket history was about to unfold. The ICC had decided to reduce the number of competing nations in the Cricket World Cup down from fourteen to ten, a cut which resulted in test nations Ireland and Zimbabwe, as well as up-and-comers Scotland and the UAE, to fail to qualify for the tournament. Paradoxically, but no less controversially, FIFA (The Governing board for International Football) had decided that their tournament would increase in size by fifty percent in 2026 to 48 nations, a move which would require, bizarrely, teams to compete across 16 groups of three. It’s not just cricket and football that are changing, other major sports such as hockey, rugby union and basketball all either are enacting or pondering changes to the size of their greatest international competitions. Now I know, reader, what you’re thinking. Why do I care about the size of international sporting tournaments? Why do I care about sports administration? Yes, it’s true that sports administration, much like most forms of administration, most of the time is really boring. But it’s also really important. It’s important on an individual level for individual teams and fans: as a larger FIFA World Cup means Australia now has 3 spots to aim for to qualify, making our run to the tournament easier, for instance. But it’s more important on a macro level because of how it defines the narratives and stories we tell about sport itself.
Joseph Campbell theorized in his magnum opus, A Hero With a Thousand Faces, that all stories are the same. Your protagonist may look different but the journey they go on and the internal struggles they have is basically the same as any other plot. There is some adversity which is overcome. And while this is largely applicable to literature, it’s arguably even more so to sport. Sport is basically just the same narratives, stories and values applied across different contexts and in different games. How many times have you heard of the following? •
The young up and comer with a point to prove.
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The disadvantaged underdog overcoming the complacent top-dog.
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The one person who carries the rest of their team on their shoulders.
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A Superb team that embodies excellence and hard-work.
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The hard-worker overcoming tremendous adversity.
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The brash, arrogant player who wows us with brilliance on the field, but we can’t stand off it.
And therefore how we manage and conduct major tournaments matters. Because before a ball is thrown, or kicked, or bowled we have already have constrained the narratives that could occur purely by how the sport is structured. Our ability to see the underdog beat the odds is contingent on the underdog being in the tournament in the first place. This thus, becomes the tradeoff of how we structure our sport. Do we want more teams in the competition, at the cost of integrity, quality and brevity or do we want less teams at the cost of diversity, development and opportunity?
The changing face of International Sport: WINNERS ARE DECIDED AS MUCH OFF THE FIELD AS ON IT.
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