Politics in sport: The games people play

Since time immemorial, politics and sport have had a cliched relationship, perpetuated by politicians using sports to propagandise their power, influence, and ambitions, for as Barack Obama, former US president, once remarked, “Politics is a contact sport!” Autonomy in sport disappeared 2,500 years ago in Greece, when top athletes were lauded and sponsored, and 500 years later, Roman gladiators were very well paid for their ‘dog-eat-dog’ bloodletting, created to distract and appease restless citizens, making it a politically inspired art form. It’s fair to say that the same politics apply today, though the restless are more likely to find themselves disappointed, even offended, and rarely sated.

Examples from the last century range from Adolf Hitler promoting his ‘Aryan superiority’ ethos at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, which came unstuck when Jesse Owens won his four gold medals, to tragically, the 1972 Munich Olympics, where Palestinian Black September terrorists killed eleven athletes in the aftermath of a hostage drama that simultaneously captivated and horrified the world.

Geopolitically, the Olympics were first boycotted at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, where Egypt, Lebanon and Iraq withdrew over the Suez crisis; the Netherlands, Spain and Switzerland also stayed away over Soviet action against Hungary. Twenty-eight African nations gave Montreal a miss in 1976 because of South Africa’s racial policies. In 1980, the USA led a 65-nation boycott of the Moscow Olympics in protest at the Russian war of Afghanistan, and in a tit-for-tat response, Russia and 14 Eastern Bloc allies boycotted the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984. The 1988 Seoul Olympics saw North Korea, Cuba, Ethiopia and Nicaragua all stay away, while in 2022 the USA ‘boycotted’ the Beijing Winter Olympics, against “human rights abuses,” and that’s just a few.

The football World Cup has not escaped political nuance either, as the 1930 Uruguayan Cup saw few countries attend due to the difficulties of transatlantic travel at the time. Uruguay boycotted the following event in 1934 in retaliation, and, with Argentina, missed the 1938 version because of the Spanish Civil War. Germany and Japan ‘weren’t allowed’ to play in 1950, over their WWII activities, while more recently, in 2022, Russia was excluded over its actions against Ukraine.

One unique politically volatile event occurred during the 1978 Cup, taking place in Argentina, where the decision by West Germany and Austria, in Spain, 1982, to play out a 1-0 result, which saw Algeria eliminated, when any other result would have seen one of the European teams exit, infuriated African nations, while the Europeans chose to justify their pragmatism. The political perspective? Well, all white Europeans are racist, aren’t they? In December 2010, Qatar was awarded the hosting of the 2022 World Cup over the USA, and the headlines were merciless... “Death in the Desert,” and “Players will Perish,” read the early headlines, as genuine issues of player welfare emerged in the heat of the Middle East. Then, a week later, “FIFA Sells Its Soul,” and “FIFA Red Card!” hinted clearly that FIFA had been bought with petrodollars. But that couldn’t happen, could it? Maybe once, but not today... there’s too much politics around today.

So, to 2026, hosted by Canada, Mexico and the USA, the most unlikely of bedfellows. It has already been tarred with political bias and opportunism, as President Trump continues his unique crusade towards... ‘IDK,’ but his fingerprints are all over refusing entry to Somalian referee Omar Artan, over “suspected terror links,” preventing entry to Iranian and Iraqi officials, imposing ‘visa bonds’ of $5000 to $50,000 on international fans, and immigration enforcement by ICE, which is expected to become “more vigorous.” Given there are 48 teams instead of 32 this time around, this 2026 World Cup will exceed all earlier profits, so the money will flow, and... In sport, with money comes fame, with fame, power, with power, corruption, and where you find money, fame, power and corruption in sport, you’ll surely find politics and politicians.

To think sport and politics are not intertwined, is, according to Olympian Filbert Bayi, “... unrealistic. When I am running, I am an ambassador for my country.”