Sports exchanges between Europe and Latin America: flows, migrations and indifferences

Abstract

Sports relationships between Europe and Latin America are old as sports themselves: the foundation of such practices is the result of the European influence in the subcontinent since the mid-19th century, and even in the few cases where the influence of the United States is more powerful, the European presence turns out to be decisive. However, after one and a half century of such relationships, they have become one-directional: originally based on foundational migration, they reverted since the 1920s to migration of Latin American athletes to Europe, and in an organisation of the flow that is fully governed by the different specific markets, disregarding in general public interventions or orientations that privilege other principles than the production of economic gain – even in the less profitable sports or those that are not professional. This study proposes to develop such description, both in historical and contemporary terms, highlighting some of the possibilities to revert and re-discuss such flow, through organisations and possibilities that exist or have to be developed.