Shetland as a National and International Sporting Polity, 1929–2005

This article examines Shetland's place within the domestic and international world of sport: as a named polity, entity, bureaucracy, or ‘nation’. Shetland sport's relationship with athletes (and governments) outside of Scotland has existed at least since 1929. In the years before the Second World War, Shetland and the Faroe Islands held regular sporting exchanges (particularly within men's football), ostensibly to celebrate the historic relationship of Shetland and Faroese cultures, but also to solidify commercial fishing relationships. Long envious of Faroese powers and amenities, the outset of the oil industry in Shetland during the 1970s, and the creation of Shetland Islands Council (SIC) and the Shetland Charitable Trust saw the construction of state-of-the-art sporting facilities and the co-option of private sporting clubs into the state sector. Meanwhile, Shetland's hosting of the 2005 Island Games, largely considered to be successful, nevertheless reflected tensions around centralised ‘branding’, devolution, and the perceived need to stress a unique identity apart from Scotland.