Suchergebnisse

Using the example of the 2019 inaugural UAE Tour, this study demonstrates how cycling stars indirectly promote countries hosting globally watched sporting events through their Twitter accounts. This study presents a qualitative and quantitative content analysis of the Twitter activity of selected cycling stars. However, this promotion is only a secondary result of their activity on social media; professional athletes use their Twitter accounts as a platform for self-presentation and to show their daily lives to fans. If the athletes are active on social media, it is almost impossible for them to avoid speaking about the host countries, indirectly evaluate them, and provide information about them to their followers. While sports celebrities' social media profiles are a limited space for the promotion of host countries, they can also help improve the image of the countries and present them in a positive light. Of course, political leaders use countless public or sports diplomacy tools to promote their countries abroad, and online platforms are not necessarily a key element in the promotion of their international image.

Abstract
Sport is a complex phenomenon that academics across many social sciences are focusing on. The interest in sports has been observable for a long time by historians, anthropologists and sociologists. Scientists in the field of international relations are no exception. A typical way sport is studied in international relations is by paying attention to sports diplomacy. The study of sports diplomacy has become a pretty popular part of the research since the second decade of the 21st century and it is possible to observe the dominance of the authors from the American and British universities in sports diplomacy research. Based on the Web of Science dataset, at first sight, the study of sports diplomacy is not seen as a popular field of research in the Central European countries. On the other hand, this statistical measure does not describe a complex situation of what the sports diplomacy research looks like, how it is formed or how it reflects the thinking of the politicians on national public/sports diplomacy. Thus, the article aims to map sports diplomacy research in the Central European states, specifically in Poland, Czechia and Slovakia.

Sport is a complex phenomenon that academics across many social sciences are focusing on. The interest in sports has been observable for a long time by historians, anthropologists and sociologists. Scientists in the field of international relations are no exception. A typical way sport is studied in international relations is by paying attention to sports diplomacy. The study of sports diplomacy has become a pretty popular part of the research since the second decade of the 21st century and it is possible to observe the dominance of the authors from the American and British universities in sports diplomacy research. Based on the Web of Science dataset, at first sight, the study of sports diplomacy is not seen as a popular field of research in the Central European countries. On the other hand, this statistical measure does not describe a complex situation of what the sports diplomacy research looks like, how it is formed or how it reflects the thinking of the politicians on national public/sports diplomacy. Thus, the article aims to map sports diplomacy research in the Central European states, specifically in Poland, Czechia and Slovakia.

This article investigates the role of national teams on social media and how they shape international perceptions of Qatar during the 2022 FIFA World Cup. This tournament was an essential element of Qatar's sports diplomacy that faced criticism because of corruption allegations, organisational skills, labour conditions and human rights issues, including the treatment of the LGBTQIA+ community. This study is based on a conceptual content analysis of the Twitter (now called X) and Instagram accounts of the footballers and coaches of the eight Ibero-American national teams participating in the 2022 FIFA World Cup. The aim is to identify how they communicated about the State of Qatar in their social media posts. Accordingly, this article studies the posting frequency, how they address Qatar's image, and their engagement with the aforementioned criticism of the host country. The findings show that from 2173 posts collected, a total of 275 posts mentioned Qatar. Neutral messages were dominant with 268 posts, while there were only seven positive posts. In conclusion, the Ibero-American players and coaches have contributed to the normalisation of the event through sharing content and images of Qatar in a neutral, informative tone.