Who should be allowed to host sporting mega-events? On the public acceptance of criteria to justify hosting decisions

ABSTRACT Criticism has accompanied some of the most recent decisions of international sports organisations for the staging of Olympic Games or FIFA World Cups. Many hosts – from Russia and China to Qatar – have been heavily criticised in Western countries (e.g. Germany) for political and societal grievances up to and including calls for protests and boycotts. This raises several questions concerning the public acceptance of hosting decisions: What criteria does the public consider to be most important when hosting decisions are made? What role should be given to political vs. sports-related criteria? Which population groups are more likely to prioritise political criteria over sports-related criteria? The paper provides insights into these questions based on a representative survey (N = 1,002) from Germany. Results show that Germans consider political and sustainability criteria as of highest importance for justifying hosting decisions. The findings also reveal a latent conflict between political criteria and sports-related criteria. Support for prioritising political considerations (instead of sporting criteria) when making hosting decisions comes from younger, female, politically engaged and politically left individuals, but much less strongly from the core group of media sports consumers.