SPORT ORGANISATIONS IN TOTALITARIANISM

FOOTBAL FEDERATIONS IN GERMANY, SPAIN AND INDEPENDENT STATE OF CROATIA

Abstract

The autonomy of sports organisations in relation to the state authorities is something that is commonplace today. This principle is contained, inter alia, in the documents of the European Union, International Olympic Committee, FIFA, UEFA and national sports federations. During the period when totalitarian or authoritarian
regimes predominated in Europe, i.e. in the 1930s and 1940s, this principle (even though it already existed at that point) was not adhered to in countries governed by regimes that strived towards total control of all social aspects of life. In these regimes, sports organisations were directly managed by state or party authorities. This paper situates the status and structure of sports organisations in totalitarianism within their historical and political context, and then analyses them on the example of three case studies: Nazi Germany, Francoist Spain and the Ustasha-governed Independent State
of Croatia. The results showed that, in spite of certain differences, all three regimes identified sports with the state/governing political party, imposed rules and personnel selections on it, and used it for propaganda purposes. The sources used for creating this paper included state and party regulations pertaining to the organisation of sports, the regulations of state umbrella sports organisations from the analysed period, and relevant literature on the history of sports.