The Leicester Tigers rugby teams proposed tour of apartheid South Africa a few years age caused a disagreement between the local authorities and rugby officials over whether or not the tour was morally right because of apartheid South Africa’s history of human rights abuse. ‘But it is only sport,’ was the cry of those in favour of maintaining sporting contracts, but as John Williams writing for the Leicester Mercury (2003) points out, “sport does not constitute and entirely different realm, separated from some of the crucial, basic issues which face us all.” He also argues that the very shape and nature of sport actually depends upon political decisions and political cultures. For example, the differing opportunities for women to play sport in different countries, the long-time racial segregation of sportsmen and women in South Africa, and various national differences in approaches to the provision and organisation of sport, are all political questions that cannot simply be contained by sport. “Thus a common sense idea of politics and a broad view of history suggest that there exists a considerable and necessary politics of sport.” (Allison, 1983, P.17)
So why the frequent assertion by many sportsmen and politicians that sport is quite separate from politics and does not raise political issues. Allison suggests that one possible reason for this is; ‘it depends on what you mean by politics,’ but as we shall see, once formal consideration is given to the definition of politics, “it becomes immediately apparent that sport and politics cannot be mutually isolated.” (Allison, 1983, P.29)
The first of three interrelated conceptions of politics is the idea that “politics is simply a term for the matters involving government” (Allison, 1983, P30), i.e. a matter becomes political when the state gets involved, and regardless of the wishes of government, they are in some ways involved in sport. For instance, the economic dimension of sport requires decisions to be made by government about various aspects of this, for example, whether they represent commercial entities or charities has tax implications. And although they sometimes seek special treatment, sports are normally subject to the wider laws of the land, as Everton’s Duncan Ferguson found out when he was given a jail sentence for head-butting another player on the pitch a few years ago. The Olympics is an example of sportsmen gaining special treatment, as the state hosting the games is required by the International Olympic Committee to grant entry to all competitors even if wider laws might not allow it.
There are occasions when governments positively get involved with sport. For example the growing problem of football hooliganism and how to deal with it regularly draws attention from the Prime Minister. But the biggest cause of government involvement in sport in money, governments provide money for sport and directly and indirectly, sport provides money for government. 1986 estimates showed that VAT, betting duties, and other sports related revenues were bringing central government £2.4 billion annually.
“A second related view of politics is that it involves matters of power, of control and of influence over people’s behaviour.” (Allison, 1983, P.30) The view of ‘politics as power’ reminds us that sport often has its own internal ‘political’ struggles. Because most sport is controlled by a hierarchy of international and national ruling bodies, which have power and authority in that sport to determine the rules and the structure and rewards of competition etc, there will inevitably be some degree of conflict between groups at different levels of the hierarchy as well as some sort of struggle to gain key places in the sports administration for the reasons stated above. And relating to matters of influence over peoples behaviour; normally governments are the most influential agencies in a state, so this view of politics covers much the same ground as the first.
The third interrelated conception of politics “is that it is not bought into being by government or buy the existence of power relationships as such but by disputes. Politics then concerns the processes by which clashes of values, interests and strategies are resolved or eased.” (Allison, 1983, P.30). In this sense, modern sport generates an enormous amount of politics. For example, in South Africa there has been a great deal of conflict over who should control South African sports, the multi-racial sports bodies or the white-dominated sports bodies, which the government has more regularly sided with. Numerous changes happening the world simultaneously have had a big effect on sport. A greater amount of international sport has been made possible by the ease of jet transport, as has the demand for certain sports like soccer, cricket and athletics, by the improvement in television and satellite communications. Hence, if this third, or any other conception of politics is used, it is clear that sport encounters the political.
In this next part of the essay I will look at various examples of ways that politics and sport impinge on each other as well as discussing whether or not politics should have an association with sport. In doing so I will focus much of my attention on the recent cricket world cup held in Zimbabwe, which because of player protests and England pulling out of their opening match there, caused great amounts of controversy.
Many people would argue that sport helps ‘bring people together’ and helps overcome divisions of race, nationality, class and religion. The Soviets drew upon this ideal in 1984 when they called the Moscow games, the ‘friendship games.’ As well as ‘bringing people together,’ sport can just as easily raise political consciousness and force people apart. The collective passion for Barcelona F.C is interlocked with politics, as is the connection between sport and nationalism in Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. Supporting this view, George Orwell comments on the visit of the Moscow Dynamo Football team to Britain in 1945, “…sport is an unfailing cause of ill-will and…if such a visit has had any affect on Anglo-Soviet relations, it could only be to make them slightly worse than before.” (Atyeo, 1979, P.372)
Governments have been known to use major sporting events to try and divert the attention of the masses away from certain political and social problems that country might be encountering as well as trying to improve their national image. For example, in the nine months leading up to the Moscow Olympics, drunks, hooligans and dissidents were rounded up and headed out of Moscow to try to prevent any sort of dissent, which could mar their public relations.
Certain groups use the prominence of sport, which has been increased in recent years thanks to sport becoming a global television spectacle, to make a political point. In most cases, the choice of sport to make the political point is arbitrary, as it is the prominence of the sport in the public eye which is the critical factor. The 1972 Munich Olympics saw the killing of 10 Israeli athletes by eight armed Palestinian gunman, and the 1968 Mexico Olympics saw a protest by the student movement about the cost of hosting the games, which was a huge financial burden on the poor country, result in the army opening fire on the demonstration, killing 260 and injuring 1,000.
Although politics does not only cite sport when dissidents intervene. There are a number of groups and individuals that have used sport and its prominent position in the public eye to raise political consciousness about what may be happening in that country. For example, the 2003 cricket world cup saw the wearing of a black armband by two of Zimbabwe’s players in protest against the Mugabe regime. The two players, Henry Olonga, the first black man to play for his country, and Andy Flower, in most cricket fans opinion, Zimbabwe’s greatest ever player, were almost universally praised for their dignified statement about the human rights abuses in their homeland. Ian Chappell, former captain of Australia’s cricket team and one of the many who applaud Flower and Olonga for their brave stance commented that; “you realise when you go through life that there are occasions when you have a louder voice. If there’s something you’re moved about, that’s the time to speak out for those who do not have a louder voice.”
The World Cup also saw the boycott by England of their opening match in the competition against Zimbabwe, for which they first cited moral, political and security concerns, then changed it to concerns about player safety as the reason for boycotting the game. A decision they might have latter regretted as the points gained for winning that match would have taken them into the super-six stage of the competition and maybe further. They’re many people who believe that England made the right decision in boycotting this match, but there are also people who did not. David Coltart, who believes that “politics has no place in sport,” puts forward some arguments for going ahead with the match. He comments, “paradoxically, holding the matches in Zimbabwe opens up a tiny piece of democratic space for those fighting tyranny.” He also notes “if no further matches take place (in Zimbabwe), there will be no further reason for the regime to behave better.”
Kate Hoey, writing for Sky Sports online, who disagreed with Coltart, argues that the match shouldn’t have been played because “the message that will be sent out worldwide is that Zimbabwe is a normal functioning country, which is patently untrue.” She feels “sport and politics must unite against the Mugabe regime” and thus the England team needed to pull out of the match to raise worldwide awareness about the human rights abuses dictator Mugabe is undergoing. This view coincides with Ian Chappell’s view about the need to speak out for those without a louder voice.
It is not only the players who sometimes feel the need to tackle political issues, “the broad fact is that sports bodies on occasion have to confront inter-state political issues.” (Allison, 1983, P.33) This was no more evident when the International Olympic Committee (IOC) excluded South Africa from the Olympic movement, not because of governmental pressure, but because the social and economic system in South Africa does not allow sport to be practiced there in accordance with the IOC’s own rules as laid down in the Olympic Charter. The Welsh Hockey association’s decision to not send a team to Argentina in 1985 because of the ill feeling that could still have been left over after the Falklands War is another example of a sporting body taking into account political situations before making a decision.
There are so many examples of sport being influenced by politics over the years and so much theoretical evidence linking the two to say sport can remain uninfluenced by politics and politicians. Whether or not sport should remain uninfluenced by politics is of much wider debate. Events in Zimbabwe have highlighted many peoples opinions that sport and everyone involved in it has a responsibility to make sure important political issues such as the Mugabe regime are not ignored and that something is done to try and resolve them. But whatever view you may have on whether it is right for sport to get involved with politics, it becomes apparent that “sport and politics cannot be mutually isolated” (Allison. 1983, P.29) however much the sports enthusiast would wish them to be.
Bibliography
Books
Allison,L. The Politics of Sport, (Manchester University Press, 1983)
Whannel, G. Blowing the Whistle: The Politics of Sport, (Pluto, 1986)
Houlihan, B. The Government and Politics of Sport, ( Routledge, 1991)
Lapchick, R, E. The Politics and Race of International Sport, (Greenwood Press, 1975)
Voy, R. Drugs, Sport and Politics, (Leisure Press, 1991)
Atyeo, D. Blood, Guts and Violence, (Paddington Press, 1979)
Articles
Bhogle, H, Sport can never distance itself from politics, Sportstar Magazine, Vol. 24, No. 52, Jan 19th 2002
Coltart, D, Politics has no place in sport – so boycott the world cup, The Telegraph, Dec 31st 2002
Williams, J, Why politics and sport are linked, The Leicester Mercury, April 4th 2003
Stephens, T, It’s not just cricket, The black armband protest in Zimbabwe has shown that few, if any, sports can now be kept separate from politics, , Feb 15th 2003
Hoey, K, Sport and politics must unite against the Mugabe regime, Sky Sports Online, Dec 28th 2002
Websites
Matthew Flint
Candidate number - 013220707
MN – 2008 Management of Sport Essay
Dr. Patrick Murphy
08th April 2003
Word count = 2489