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 p