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The regulation of sport is usually done by a
sport governing body A sports governing body is a sports organization that has a regulatory or sanctioning function. Sports governing bodies come in various forms and have a variety of regulatory functions. Examples of this can include disciplinary action for rul ...
for each
sport Sport pertains to any form of competitive physical activity or game that aims to use, maintain, or improve physical ability and skills while providing enjoyment to participants and, in some cases, entertainment to spectators. Sports can, ...
, resulting in a core of relatively invariant, agreed rules. People responsible for leisure activities often seek recognition and respectability as sports by joining sports federations such as the
International Olympic Committee The International Olympic Committee (IOC; french: link=no, Comité international olympique, ''CIO'') is a non-governmental sports organisation based in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is constituted in the form of an association under the Swis ...
, or by forming their own regulatory body. In this way sports evolve from leisure activity to more formal sports: relatively recent newcomers are BMX cycling,
snowboarding Snowboarding is a recreational and competitive activity that involves descending a snow-covered surface while standing on a snowboard that is almost always attached to a rider's feet. It features in the Winter Olympic Games and Winter Paralympi ...
, wrestling, etc. Some of these activities have been popular but uncodified pursuits for different lengths of time. Indeed, the formal regulation of sport is a relatively modern and increasing development. This method promotes a sport globally, in a very successful way. It also promotes the universality of each sport, by ensuring that the same gameplay rules are being practiced worldwide, using a standardized/homogenous international gameplay rule system (sanctioned by the respective international sports governing bodies) that is applied uniformly on all member associations and recognized leagues. Examples are
FIFA FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' (French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was founde ...
in association football and FIBA in basketball, which have regulated international gameplay rules that are even practiced within US sports leagues today, despite not practicing them historically (which therefore meant that many US sports leagues weren't recognized by international governing bodies in the past, until they began to adopt international rules). In the sport of basketball the defender/defense cannot call foul. Formula One motor racing is an example of strict and changing regulation, where the regulating body appears to control rather than to simply define the sport. There have been major changes in the rules of F1 recently, almost on an annual basis, and more are planned. Sometimes this is done for safety reasons, sometimes to make the racing more interesting as a spectator sport, and sometimes to promote
competition Competition is a rivalry where two or more parties strive for a common goal which cannot be shared: where one's gain is the other's loss (an example of which is a zero-sum game). Competition can arise between entities such as organisms, ind ...
through involvement of smaller teams. Some changes make overtaking more probable for example or reduce the probability of an overwhelming
technical Technical may refer to: * Technical (vehicle), an improvised fighting vehicle * Technical analysis, a discipline for forecasting the future direction of prices through the study of past market data * Technical drawing, showing how something is co ...
advantage by any one team. Although heavily regulated, most people agree that the sport has thereby greatly benefitted, not least through dramatic leaps in safety. The degree of organisation can vary from national or worldwide competitions for the sport, or it can occur in a purely ''ad hoc'', spontaneous way. A sport may be played individually (e.g. time trialling in cycling) or in a team, or just for recreation and well being (e.g. swimming). Some challenging situations have had to be dealt with when there is an overlap of the regulation of the sport with other forms of regulation, e.g. safety (There have been serious losses of life in football audiences, through stand collapses or poor crowd management), or simple laws of the land (Some inadvertent or otherwise physical interchanges occur between participants: when is it acceptable for the sport regulating authority alone to investigate and if necessary punish these? Can there be economic or public relations pressures affecting these issues?) The broadcasting of sports events is also highly regulated, with contracts limiting who can show footage.


See also

* Outline of sports


References

{{Sport Sports rules and regulations Politics and sports
Sport Sport pertains to any form of competitive physical activity or game that aims to use, maintain, or improve physical ability and skills while providing enjoyment to participants and, in some cases, entertainment to spectators. Sports can, ...