As the FIFA World Cup kicks off this week in Russia, it is worth noting that global sport has now grown into a $600 billion industry.  And, according to multiple studies from global consultancies such as A.T. Kearny, KPMG, Deloitte and PWC, the phenomenon of global sport is growing faster all over the world than the economies of the nations that host it. While major events like the Olympic Games and World Cup are a small part of that overall market, their influence on the development of international competition and, therefore, national sports passions, is undeniable.  In 2006, Harvard University Press published Barbara Keys’ Globalizing Sport, an excellent book about the explosive growth of international sport from the key decade of the 1930s forward.  The Olympic Games were already 36 years old in 1930, but FIFA’s World Cup was just getting underway.  On page 29, Keys noted that Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the man who started the Olympics, “… is perhaps the single most influential individual in the history of modern international sport.”  I think you could easily delete the word perhaps and remain completely truthful.  The impact of Coubertin’s life and work is still unfolding and still growing on the glorious stage of international competition.