The role and purpose of sports in the context of the development of culture and civilization is still one of the most important issues of essential system analysis. Based on the work of a number of outstanding scientists, L.P. Matveev in the second half of the XX century. completed the creation of a general theory of physical culture and sports, which allows you to understand the essence and purpose of sports activities. However, despite the age-old tradition of the development of the philosophy of physical culture, we still do not have a scientific socio-philosophical theory of sports, which allows us to understand the social essence and basic laws of the emergence and evolution of sports as an ontological phenomenon, as a social institution.