Governments aren't always good at giving bread, so they give us circuses. If we need sport to give us national pride—a dubious virtue at the best of times—we are in dire straits. Certainly we aren't encouraged to think of more meaningful activity by an Australian Minister of Science. Sure, sport makes money, but so does opium. Come to think of it, sport is the opium of the people.

Well spoken Asclepius, so utterly & sadly true. Just watching the news in Australia is 90% sport. Sad, sad, sad indeed.

The author concludes: "To conclude, sport is now politically important: it brings countries together, it increases national pride, it reinvents politics and it makes money. This is a lot better than waging war."

There is no evidence that sport brings countries together.

Increasing national pride makes war more likely.

Politics becomes more concerned with national pride than national needs.

It makes money for developers, sporting establishment figures, corrupt government officials, and team owners. It deprives the bulk of people of funds for education, housing, health and transport infrastructure. That is what the Brazilian protests against the World Cup are about.

When Australians win in sport all is good but look out when they lose. Holy crap, the excuses & blame start rolling in thick & fast. Labor is like that too. So, yes sport is a part of politics now.
The ALP lost the last match & now look how they carry on !

We have wars because the Banking, Military,Industrial Complex wants to make money, steal energy and have more power.

Keith there is not enough money in sport for them to do this. Govts now have little power over decisions since the BMIC now has the power and makes the decisions for our Govts.

Sport is just the distraction that keeps the masses ignorant.

Let's not forget that sport, like war, is mostly about the glorification of the cult of masculinity. Sport conditions women and men in every generation, the world over, to worship the muscly prowess of young men in the prime of life.

When we talk about international sport, we really mean men's international sport. Apart from an occasional female tennis player or swimmer, and beach volleyball bikini'd spunkettes at Olympics time, women's sport is largely invisible.