When ‘the show’ cannot go on: An investigation into sports mega-events and responses during the pandemic crisis

This article examines the relationship between sports mega-events and the coronavirus disease-2019 pandemic. Focusing primarily on the 2020 Summer Olympics and Union of European Football Associations Euro 2020 in football – representing two mega-events that were postponed due to the pandemic – this article explores the emerging discourses from sport governing bodies, and how these organisations communicated their initial responses to the pandemic between February and May 2020. The article takes a digital qualitative research approach and draws upon frame analysed media sources and public communications. As it proceeds, this article first illuminates how global sports entered a temporary standstill and, second, how sport governing bodies positioned themselves with regard to responding to the global crisis from within the sporting sphere. Subsequently, this article emphasises how the relevant responses, as communicated by sport governing bodies, reflected the broader reactive and adaptive pandemic responses apparent within socio-political fields.