Nearly all current sporting debates contain allusions to the process of "professionalisation" as opposed to the progressive abandon of amateurism. However, the stakes covered by this sort of controversy may seem difficult to perceive since the terms professional and amateur refer to perceptive classification emanating from the sporting movement and as a result no longer requiring an explanation of this indigenous code. In order to better understand these stakes it is therefore necessary to replace this apparently internal opposition by the revalry between the sporting and economic fields. The question of amateurism and professionalism thus becomes an investigation into the relationship existing between the sporting order and the economic order. The sporting order is represented by the directors who impose specifically non-commercial rules whilst the second, through sponsors, financial groups, etc., brings a new competitive economic logic into the sporting sphere.