Politics and Politicization of Sports Events
The host of sports events is like a strong magnet, attracting various issues and interests. Sports events become a space for contestation of politics and the arena of politicization has a very large impact on the host.
What can we do about it? Regarding the polemic of the participation of the Israeli team at the U-20 2023 World Cup in Indonesia, we cannot say sports are not related to politics.
World sports performances, such as the Olympics and the World Cup, always get spotlighted from various sides, one of which is politics. Sports events become a space for contestation of politics and the arena of politicization has a very large impact on the host.
The host of sports events is like a strong magnet, powerfully attracting various issues and interests.
We can see all large sports activities raise political problems. This paper reflects the phenomenon, namely the politicization and politics of sports events. The goal is that we realize a sports event has a significant meaning in both areas.
Olympiad as a political arena
The Olympic event is never separate from politicization or politics in its every implementation. There is always room for political expressions in accordance with the context.
In the frame of international news, in almost every host of the Olympics organizer there must be an issue or event that is closely related to politics and receives the media spotlight.
The most epic was a photo when sprinters from the United States, Tommie Smith and John Carlos, climbed into the podium without using footwear and lifted one hand with a black sarong while bowing his head and singing the national anthem of the US.
Also read:
> FIFA Strips Indonesia of Hosting Rights
They protested discriminatory treatment of black citizens in the US, which was still a very big problem at that time. This clear portrait became iconic of Olympic sports politics.
The Olympic event that received the biggest media spotlight was when Israeli athletes were held hostage in Munich, Germany, in 1972. A photo of one of the hostages with headgear was caught on camera from the hotel balcony, which later became the front cover of the international media at that time.
The hostage was carried out by a terrorist group that asked for the release of 200 Palestinian prisoners. During that incident, nine Israeli hostages were killed, as well as five terrorists and one police officer. Then-president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Avery Arundage made the decision to continue the Olympics after its being postponed for several hours.
Tokyo 2020 Olympics logo
During the 1980s, the Olympics was also linked to political issues, related to the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the US. This was proven in the 1980 Moscow Olympics; Los Angeles, California, the US, 1984; and Seoul 1988, which showed that issues related to the war of the two superpowers got spotlighted brightly in the media, especially the boycott among the countries involved.
The 1992 Barcelona Olympics may have been the sports event most successful in attracting all the mass media lines, taking place after the collapse of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War. Barcelona, Spain, became a party for the mass media, whose coverage was lively and entertaining.
Also read:
> Do Not Mix Sports and Politics
The presence of the Dream Team basketball team consisting of the best NBA players, such as Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson and Charles Barkley, became iconic for the mass media. The Dream Team was like an entertaining answer to the entire world community, namely that the Cold War was over.
After Barcelona, the Olympics were still very strong in political nuances, connected to the various problems of the times. However, it is interesting to see that in the last few decades, as in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the 2012 London Olympics and the 2016 Brazilian Olympics, issues were connected to internal political problems. For example, human rights (HAM) issues in Beijing; workers' wages in London; and the existence of participants from the refugee countries in São Paulo, Brazil, were all linked to the problem.
World Cup and political tools
The world soccer party also did not escape politics, such as in the implementation in 1934, 1978, 2018 and 2022. The 1934 World Cup in Italy became a political tool for Mussolini, the Italian fascist dictator, who made this event his political propaganda.
The 1978 World Cup in Argentina became a political tool for military coup leader Jorge Rafael Videla to rebuild his image after the coup d'etat. However, resistance also took place outside the stadium, with a protest that continued to occur because Videla was considered to have been kidnapping and imprisoning many democratic activists and this had been highlighted by the international media.
The 2018 World Cup in Russia also had a very deep political nuance. Russia's intention to take advantage of the World Cup as a way of building its reputation and image in the international world also found a very strong reply and reaction from Western countries.
Finally, in the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, pollical human rights’ issues developed, such as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual and queer (LGBTQ) issues; drinking alcohol; and migrant workers, which grew stronger throughout the event. Qatar, in the Middle East region, famous for its culture and strong religious values, had a very strong challenge in facing the problem.
Even so, Lionel Messi managed to entertain and stop the political issues that developed throughout the tournament from happening. The World Cup is the most important part of the contested championship, where different and opposite interpretations wrestle with each other to achieve influence and power. The World Cup has a more serious political dimension than almost all other sports activities.
Political stage
Given the various events above, we should not say sports events have nothing to do with politics. In fact, indirectly, sports events are part of politics because consequences will always occur, controversy must exist and nations influence each other to become dynamics in sports events.
The process of hosting the celebration of multi-sports events, such as the World Cup and the Olympics, requires political lobbies, both to OIC and FIFA. Remember the era of Bung Karno, when he held Ganefo? His rejection of Israel and Taiwan at the 1962 Asian Games disappointed IOC and it had political consequences afterwards.
Also read:
> Israeli Team puts Indonesia’s Image at Risk
It can be concluded that sports events coexist with political ones in various ways; the two are inseparable. Making a sports event into a political stage has occurred at every big event, such as the Olympics and the World Cup. The facts have proven that.
Sports are full of actors, institutions and groups that are interconnected through various forms. The writer remembered the phrase of Dave Zirin (2013): "The problem is that everyone tries to separate these two worlds [politics and sports] because they turn out to be trading myths."
Mesitra Budiasa
Meistra Budiasa, Director of Bung Karno University Sports Communication Studies, Communication Science Lecturer at Bung Karno University, Central Jakarta
This article was translated by Hyginus Hardoyo.
