This is the first detailed study of the politics of sport policy at the local authority level of governance. In focusing on the local level, the book recognises that the extent to which we benefit from public policy is a result of where we live. Taking the city of Liverpool as its core case study, the author investigates the changing contours of sport policy from the inception of the service area in the 1970s through the economic and political turbulence of the 1980s to the year of European Capital of Culture 2008. Sport Policy and Governance: Local Perspectives is essential reading for anyone who is studying or teaching sport-related degree programmes, researching public policy, or who is a practitioner or policy-maker in the sport sector.