Sport and citizenship – thinking about contemporary trends and problems

This article is a reflection on what citizenship means today, how it can be generally characterized, and how it manifests itself in sport. It does not attempt to provide an exhaustive overview of the topic based on a systematic review, but focuses on aspects that, according to the author, must be considered essential. Supranational organizations (the United Nations, the European Union) and states today talk about different forms of citizenship (global, active, national), but the literature points to possible controversies associated with the concept of citizenship in today’s globalized and complex world where there is large-scale mobility of people between countries. For most authors, the core of citizenship lies in belonging, or a sense of belonging. This article discusses the main components of belonging and their potentiality for human life, and for sport, too. Citizenship is also viewed as multifaceted, and so its dimensions are distinguished (legal/political, social, cultural, and economic) and explained. Sport represents a specific area in understanding citizenship. Not all features of belonging or dimensions of citizenship play the same important role here. Elite sport and the sport of the ordinary population must be distinguished. In elite sport, the legal ties of athletes to society/the state dominate, while in community sport, other aspects of belonging play a role.