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Coaches have long been recognized as key contributors to youth sport (DCMS, 2000; Smoll & Smith, 1980). Coaches are singled out in ‘A Sporting Future for All’ (DCMS, 2000) as playing a central role in the development of sport at every level and improving the accessibility of coach education and the quality and quantity of coaches in all sports is deemed important. In the last decade in Britain, the demand for coaches has increased because organized sport experiences have become commonplace for children as young as six years of age (English Sports Council, 1997).

Sports betting has become more prevalent, visible and socially accepted in Western liberal societies than ever before. This normalisation of gambling on sports has been fuelled by deregulation, the omnipresence of advertising and the growing dependency of elite sports on sponsorship revenue streams from the gambling industry. That said, much remains to be uncovered about the mechanisms through which this normalisation of gambling occurs in sports. This chapter focuses on the role of sports clubs in Belgium and the Netherlands, drawing on empirical insights from two related studies that examine the oft-neglected salience of integrity as a key factor shaping gambling-related policy and practice at the organisational level. This sets the stage for a critical research agenda that can support the denormalisation of gambling, and the deconstruction of dominant discourses that frame sports betting as a fun, risk-free social practice.

Sports clubs are one of the most important elements in the sports systems of today’s societies. In the field of sport, a sports club aims, among other things, to make the sport more affordable and accessible to all, showing the organizational characteristics of companies, but with a much broader social mission. The aim of this chapter is to characterise sports clubs as potentially favorable environments for sports entrepreneurship, making questions about their nature and purposes. Aspects such as the hybridization of organizations, the progressive professionalisation of their members, the use of the entrepreneurial spirit as an instrument to facilitate the achievement of the organisation’s objectives or the need to seek alternative sources of funding to traditional public aid are discussed in the context of increasingly hostile and competitive environments, where social organizations must seek out resources in a similar way to companies.

Purpose – The aim of the chapter is to understand why, in a country that has such strict government alcohol policies, sport is allowed – and allows itself – to be associated with, and source income from, alcohol consumption.

Design/methodology/approach – The analysis builds on previous research on the government–sport relationship in Sweden, and on documents produced by the government and sport.

Findings – The chapter shows how a close and long-standing relationship between the government and sport has created a ‘drinking problem’ for sport, and that this is nurtured by the government through its actions vis-à-vis sport in matters related to alcohol. These actions are at odds with the overall aim of Swedish alcohol policy, and distinctive from the government's actions vis-à-vis actors outside the realm of sport but aligned with government sport policy and the long-standing government–sport relationship. In that sense, the association between sport and alcohol has less to do with alcohol than with the mutual dependence between the government and sport, and with both parties' interest in maintaining common agreements and good faith. In addition to providing these tentative explanations, it is suggested that ‘the politics of forwarding’ is one of the systemic effects that follow from the particularities of the Swedish government-sport-alcohol nexus.

Research limitations/implications – Research from other contexts is needed as the chapter is only a first tentative step in uncovering the government's role in the sport–alcohol link in countries with sport systems that are characterized by a combination of extensive public support to sport and an autonomous member-based sport system.