M.Comm. / Suid-Afrika was vir baie jare geisoleer van internasionale sportdeelname. Gevolglik het sport en sportorganisasies in Suid-Afrika agter geraak vergeleke met die res van die sportwereld. Hierdie tendens is egter nie uniek betreffende deelname op die veld nie, maar ook van die veld of by die bestuur van sport. Stephen Aris skryf dat sport in die laaste dekade 'n hoogs kommersiele besigheid geword het (1990. p.ix). Sport het ook deel geword van die massavermaaklikheidsbedryf. Die fokus van sportorganisasies ten opsigte van hul produkkonsep het begin verander sedert die besef dat hulle in die vermaaklikheidsbedryf is (Ebissch, 1984. p.32). Ook Sleight (1989. p.14) bevestig dat sport in 'n groot kommersiele bedryf ontwikkel het. Naas Botha (Rapport, 1995. p.25), oudrugbyspeler en gewese bemarkingsbestuurder van die eertydse Noord-Transvaalse Rugby Unie se ook: "Rugby is nie meer 'n spel nie, dis 'n besigheid". Rugby is nou 'n professionele sport en meer druk word op rugbyunies geplaas om hul eie fondse to genereer. "In die verlede is rugby as 'n amateurspel deur amateurs bestuur. Nou is dit 'n beroepspel en dit moet deur professionele bestuurders bestuur word" (Botha, 1996. p.27). Soos reeds genoem, word sport toenemend 'n besigheid en word die persepsie dat dit net 'n rekreasieaktiwiteit is, al meer op die agtergrond geplaas. In die VSA het sport as 'n besigheid so geweldig toegeneem dat dit 'n omset van 63,1 biljoen dollar in 1990 gehad het. Dit het tot gevolg dat dit toe reeds een van die vyf en twintig grootste industries in die VSA was (Comte & Stogel in Parkhouse, 1991. p.3 - 4).

Magister Commercii - MCom / In South Africa today those who lead sport are facing increasing scrutiny which has inevitably resulted in questioning governance practices. The transition of many sports from predominantly volunteer administered organizations anchored in an amateur ethos, to professionally managed entities catering to a more sophisticated market place has created unique challenges for the governance of sport sponsorship. This evolution gives rise to possible conceptual linkage between sport sponsorship and corporate governance or none thereof. This study focuses on the ABSA-Premier Soccer League (PSL) sponsorship transaction as a case study to explore this linkage. The research is aimed at finding the nexus between sport sponsorship and corporate governance principles, namely accountability and transparency in the conclusion of this transaction.The research consists of four phases; literature review which provides a detailed analysis of all primary and secondary material available on this topic. The second phase is a qualitative case study research methodology which comprises of in-depth interviews with targeted stakeholders. The third part presents the research findings and discussion section, and lastly the way forward through reflections and recommendations including highlighting potential future research areas. This work is timely when there has been generally a heightened evolution in sport sponsorship and its focus was to explore the nexus and compliance to the founding principles of the organizations (laws of governance). Factually, good corporate governance aims at ensuring a higher degree of transparency in an organization by encouraging full disclosure of transactions in the company accounts as well as accountability. Academics have been exploring the notion of sports sponsorship and corporate governance with much of the debates grounded on understanding its commercial value.The focus for this study is on the conceptual nexus or non-thereof, between sponsorship and corporate governance. Information was collected through in-depth and experience interviews,documented reviews and analysis (such as the review and analysis of the constitution of the South Africa football Association, PSL, financial/banking sector policy regulations, South African Sports Act, corporate governance reports, annual reports, scholarly journals,academic books, conference papers and Parliamentary Monitoring Group documents etc. to mention but a few.

This thesis is an ethnographic study of fans of FC United of Manchester, a new football club set up by supporters of Manchester United in the wake of the Glazer family takeover at Old Trafford in 2005. It focuses particularly on the importance of ideas of ‘community’ and ‘politics’ to understanding the club. In doing so the thesis sets out supporters’ motivations for supporting FC United and how these have impacted on the form the club takes and supporters’ relationships to FC United. In this thesis I analyse FC United as both a significant development within English football and as an important form of contemporary collective action with wider social significance. I show how FC United was formed within a broader context of political and economic transformation, a ‘neo-liberal turn’, within football and more generally within England, and, indeed, across many parts of the world. My argument is that the formation and continuation of FC United has involved the thinking through, debating of and engagement with particular ideas and notions of ‘community’ and ‘place’ and of ‘politics’ and ‘political activism’ in the light of this shifting wider context. As such the thesis sheds light on contemporary articulations and manifestations of these phenomena and how they may become implicated in collective action within football fandom and beyond. In doing so, it also gives insight into the social implications of the wider political and economic changes in which FC United is enmeshed. Thus, the thesis makes an important contribution to social anthropological knowledge by showing how an ethnographic study of FC United can yield new understandings of how significant recent political and economic changes are both socially understood and contested through collective action. Furthermore, the thesis makes a significant contribution to social scientific understandings of English football fandom by giving a deep ethnographic insight into how some fans have understood and responded to recent changes in the political economy of the game and into the dynamics underpinning an important new form of protest and collective action amongst English supporters. The thesis is structured in three parts. Part One sets out the contextual background of the research, first by discussing the methodological approach adopted and then by analysing the long-term historical context in which FC United emerged. Part Two focuses on the importance of ‘community’ and ‘place’ to understanding FC United’s current form and supporters’ motivations for supporting the club. Here ‘community’ is shown as having multiple meanings and manifestations with the context of FC United, while the significance of ‘place’ to FC United is analysed as lying in supporters symbolic and imaginative understandings of Manchester and what it is to be a Mancunian. Part Three presents an understanding of what is politically at stake for FC United fans beyond the immediate sphere of football fandom before assessing the chance that the club may become part of a larger movement within football aiming to bring about supporter ownership at all clubs.

M.Phil. / In the South African context, sport plays an important role in uniting and uplifting the morale of people. Francois Pienaar, leading the Springboks (Amabokoboko) to victory in the 1995 Rugby World Cup Final at Ellis Park, filled many young talented South-African rugby players with the hope of succeeding at international level. As public figure, the elite rugby player requires many different skills to equip him for circumstances with which he might be confronted in lieu of his professional commitments. The professional sports person has become a commodity product through whom sponsors market their products. The dilemma professional rugby players encounter is that not only do they participate in the sport, but provide an input towards sport production. This involvement in the sports industry becomes important because of the image, which needs to be portrayed by all role players. Therefore it is necessary that research be done to offer guidelines for the holistic development of players. Addressing this problem South African role players need to facilitate sport development, which enables multi-dimensional and optimal personal- and career development of the elite rugby player.

The investigator undertook a study to determine the validity of the Brace Football Achievement Tests as a measure of real playing ability of individual members of the 1948 football squads of the high schools of Quanah and Childress, Texas.

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