Sport, the 2014 Commonwealth Games and the Scottish Referendum

The existence of a close relationship between sport, nations and nationalism was clearly illustrated before and during the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland, revealing how sport was used to both promote and challenge Scotland’s status as a nation within the United Kingdom (UK) and its potential status as an independent nation-state. The involvement of sport in the 2014 Scottish referendum campaign was essentially limited to four broad areas (i) endorsements from sports people for both the yes and the no camps; (ii) the production of a series of documents and in particular the Scottish Government’s White Paper on Scotland’s Future and The McLeish Report into sport in an independent Scotland; (iii) the hosting of and participating in major sporting events in the belief that they would influence the outcome of the referendum; and finally (iv) answers to an extremely limited number of survey questions about sport in Scotland.