beyondthescorewithrafi

[beyondthescorewithrafi]

The coexistence of sports and politics: the dynamics of soft power in 21st century sports. 

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Sports we all love it, it’s a way to disconnect, forget about all your worries; win, lose you create a real bond with your specific team whether its football, formula 1 or even ping pong these sports make us feel alive; gives us a special feeling that only live sports can give you. What if I told you that sports you love are being used by governments and multi-billion-pound companies to shoehorn their own agendas and ideologies all for their economic benefit. Some may be surprised but this a concept that has been going on since the roman empire. The use of sports to enrich culture and shift public focus away from negative activities. Especially in the 21st century this has been a popular method in commanding power, Machiavelli once said in his book the prince ‘It’s better to be feared than loved’ but in this generation it’s better to be both. This way of commanding power without using the typical strategies of hard power such as military; is usually referred to as soft power.  

Soft power is a theory first discussed by Josef Nye in 1995. Soft power is the opposite to hard power as soft power is defined by the ‘ability to get what you want through attraction rather than coercion or payments.’ (Brannagan, 2018) Knowing this it is clear now why governments and big organisations target mega sport events as it gives ‘opportunities to increase their soft power.’ (Brannagan, 2018) So why would you want to gain soft power? Why is it more important than hard power? Military control in the 21st century is outdated and can cause much more uproar and headache; as seen in many conflicts for power around the globe. This is why soft power is equally or even more important way of commanding power and ‘the hosting of sports mega-events brings with it an unprecedented global media attention.’ (Brannagan, 2014) Which is what governments who want to increase their soft power are looking for; as seen with Qatar for the 2022 world cup but more on that later.  Although in the context of the 21st century soft power has always been prevalent since the dawn of time, and it is important to see how soft power was used in different world context. 

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I want to take you back to soviet China. In alliance with the Soviet Union by the late 60s and early 70s chairman Mao could sense the soviet’s losing power and regarding their relationship as non-beneficial. Mao knew that a relationship with the United States would allow them acceptance into a new modern era; as innovation is a key component motivating China. Even president of the United States Richard Nixon in 1967 wrote ‘We simply cannot afford to leave China forever outside the family of nations.’ (ANDREWS, 2018) And equally chairman Mao believed ‘ties with the Americans might serve as a deterrent against the Russians.’ (ANDREWS, 2018)

 Both China and America opened secret communications ‘but the real breakthrough came courtesy of a public encounter between a pair of ping-pong players.’ (ANDREWS, 2018) Surprising right? During the 1971 table tennis championship held in Nagoya, Japan. And the relationship between China and America started building and it all started with A fresh faced 19-year-old American ping pong player. Glenn Cowan hoped on a shuttle bus carrying loads of red shirt Chinese players. ‘Most of the Chinese eyed the shaggy-haired American with suspicion’ (ANDREWS, 2018) as most of China’s population was taught to hold a prejudice towards the Americans. ‘But Zhuang Zedong, the team’s greatest player, stepped forward to shake Cowan’s hand’. (ANDREWS, 2018) Zedong spoke to Cowan for a while through an interpreter later even presenting the American with a gift: ‘a silk-screen picture of China’s Huangshan mountains.’ (ANDREWS, 2018)  Cowan a ‘self-described hippie’ returned the gesture gifting Zedong a t-shirt ‘emblazoned with a peace symbol and the Beatles’ lyric “Let It Be.” 

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Although at the start of the tournament the Chinese players were told explicitly to not contact any American players but after gaining knowledge on this encounter between cowan and Zedong president Mao saw this as a political opportunity. Stating ‘Zhuang Zedong is not just a good table tennis player, he’s a good diplomat as well.’ (ANDREWS, 2018) The famous trip began on April 10th 1971, with an American team full of diversity ‘including everyone from the hippie Glenn Cowan to a college professor to a Guyanese immigrant to a pair of high school-age girls.’ (ANDREWS, 2018) This team wasn’t inherently ‘good’ they were ranked 24th in the world and had to beg for loans and funding to even make it to the table tennis world championships but without a doubt this team inadvertently became the most important American diplomats in history. 

Through this case study soft power is not just a concept being adapted by 21st century, example like this remind us that sports and politics have always co-existed. China was one of the first to manipulate sports in such a way that it would benefit them politically and economically resulting in politicization of sports which in the present-day other nations and companies are using this as their fore front of gaining soft power. This is evident through Qatar who hosted the 2022 world cup. 

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The Qatar world cup was surrounded by controversy from the moment it was announced. From the 2015 FIFA scandal where it was discovered former president Seb Blatter had taken bribes and ‘donations’ from both Russia who hosted in 2018 and Qatar who hosted in 2022. To other concerns around human rights, weather and infastructure. So already off the jump Qatari officials were hoping for a much better image of Qatar to be portrayed, so that’s why they looked towards sports. ‘Saudi Arabia sports minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Turki Al Faisal told BBC Sport recently that its unprecedented investment in sport - estimated at £5bn’ (Roan, 2023) he stated for such reasons such as: ‘boost tourism,’ ‘create jobs’ and ’provide sports federations with growth potential.’ (Roan, 2023)

But there’s more to meets the eye with the Qatar 2022 world cup. Qatar and the middle east in general have a poor reputation from a western perspective. Many people know it for its ‘woeful record on human right’ (Kyle Fruh, 2022) and as well as ‘women’s and LGBTQ rights.’ (Kyle Fruh, 2022) So how does a country and region make themselves more appealing to the west? By hosting the most coveted football tournament of all time the World Cup. ‘Global sport is one of the most effective mechanisms for promoting better understandings of Arab and Eastern cultures’ (Brannagan, 2018) for a person who may have prejudice towards Arab countries and culture it forces them to take part and acknowledge it. Due to the football being hosted;  it brings that middle ground inviting loads of different people around the world to tune and take part in the culture and traditions. Its fair to say that ‘Qatar, World Cup 2022 was as much a societal project as a sporting event’ (Næss, 2023) testing the waters to see what the people take in, all in the aim of gaining soft power.  Qatar have been on this relentless path to gain soft power due to ‘its military influence being very limited’ (Brannagan, 2018) when lacking hard power, you must gain some power in another way, and this was Qatar’s attempt of gaining soft power. 

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Although Qatar took all the right steps in gaining soft power, we can argue that it backfired more than helping the countries reputation. Qatar’s main pursuit for soft power was to ‘strengthen its reputation and attractiveness across international society,’ (Brannagan, 2018) and although it showcased the middle eastern culture you can argue due to the mass media attention it did not strengthen their reputation positively it further damaged it. Especially in the media where sensationalism and negativity sells; as more and more time passed, we kept on uncovering negative and poor acts committed by Qatar. One we specifically highlight is the treatment of migrant workers. It was often described that the ‘working conditions of the labour force in the construction industry – often compared to a slave’ (Brannagan, 2014) which further supported the point that middle eastern countries are human rights violators. Ultimately yes, the Qatar world cup bought many eyes to the country, but it did not do successful job changing the reputation and view of middle eastern culture in the west.  With academic such as Næss, H.E stating ‘FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022TM as an example to demonstrate why history, relation and scale enrich the understanding of how states use major sporting events for soft power purposes.’ 21st century sports have taken loads from soft power, but it still has a far way to go to perfecting that pursuit, especially in the slippery slopes of the digital media age. 

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Sportswashing is a term you have heard of before. The term has come to light in recent years especially during the build-up to the 2022 world cup. But what does it mean? ‘Sportswashing is a complex phenomenon, which is tightly related to many different phenomena, such as concept of soft power and other forms of “washing”, such as green- and pinkwashing’ sportswashing specifically ‘refers to a strategic effort by states, corporations, or other entities to leverage the positive associations and global appeal of sports to cleanse their tarnished reputations’. (Miettinen, 2024)  Yes, you can make the argument that the 2022 world cup was a sportswashing scandal but we want to take a specific look into another pollution infecting our sports and that is fossil fuel companies. 

Fossil fuel companies have been in attempt to clean their reputation since the dawn of the time this is often referred to as greenwashing. However, in recent times fossil fuel companies have adapted sports in to their strategy to clean their reputation. It is stated how companies have started to invest around £4bn "in an attempt to divert attention from their role in fuelling the climate crisis and harming human health”. (Roan, 2024)  It was found ‘that football had the most partnerships with the energy and petrochemical industry (58), followed by motorsports (39), rugby union (17), and golf (15).’ (Roan, 2024) These aren’t inherently small owned business either’ a lot of it ‘is coming from massive state-owned fossil fuel sponsors’. (Roan, 2024)  Saudi Arabian oil giant Aramco ‘was the biggest fossil fuel sponsor of sport.’ (Roan, 2024)

In age where we a conscious about looking after our environment how does these big oil companies get away with openly destroying our planet? We can see money is the main component of this but also the sports. ‘When sports provide a useful function, they are usually ‘co- opted by politics’ (Murray, 2013) and this can be clearly seen with vast amount of investment these fossil fuels companies have poured into various sports in the attempt to clean their reputation. Inherently this strategy does work; as the average sports fan show no interest in where the money for their sport is coming from, they are simply there to indulge and enjoy their chosen sport. If their sport is still being invested in and funding is still available, they are happy and are highly unlikely to question the source of the funding. This could be explicitly shown by the recent take-over of Newcastle United where 93.8% of Newcastle United Supporters Trust members supported the club's takeover by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF) as they saw the financial power and backing to be more important than the source of where the investment is coming from, and this can be easily relatable to ‘winning hearts and minds.

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In the terms of soft power Fossil fuel companies have succeeded well in gaining it. the fact the biggest oil investment comes out of Saudi Arabia and has an estimated £4bn invested in the most successful and watched sports within west, shows how much leverage and soft power they have gained; all in the name of sports. They have single handily made deals in the west to boost their economical climate and built relationships with well-known companies; building relationships across the pond which puts them in a situation where they are controlling these western sports and using them for their benefit. Slowly building a monopoly of various football teams, Formula 1 teams and many more. 

In conclusion, soft power may be a political theory however we believe that sports have done well to adapt it to its specific context. With China using sports for diplomacy back in the 70s; this was the first case of how powerful sports really is in influencing international politics. Those ‘Chinese and American ping-pong players paved the way for the restoration of China’s seat on the United Nations Security Council’ (Murray, 2013) which during the Soviet Union would have never been though of but sports made it possible. That was the original blueprint, and we saw it be translated with many other 

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mega sporting events such as the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the 2018 world cup and the 2022 world cup. In the case of Qatar, we think that they were unsuccessful and unlucky in their pursuit of soft power as their reputation did not improve while hosting the world cup; you could pinpoint this on the social media and digital era. Finally, with the use of sports/green washing reflected by the large investment into sport industry by fossil fuel companies; has done well learning from soft power. Saudi oil companies have been successful in using sports to clean their reputation; still going on to make gigantic profits while laying down important international relations within the west. As they are massive stakeholders in major sports such as many football leagues across the world and in the major motorsport federation in the world; formula 1. Throughout the dawn of time governments have endorsed ‘international sporting competition as a testing ground for the nation or for a political ‘system.’ German Nazis, Italian Fascists, Soviet and Cuban Communists, Chinese Maoists, western capitalist democrats, Latin American juntas – all have played the game and believed in it.’ (Murray, 2013)

furthermore, you could argue that the sporting institution has learnt to much from soft power. Traditionally adopted by governments in a way to control their reputation however sporting federations such as FIFA, UEFA, the FIA have found the use of co-opting and manipulating soft power all in the name of making profit. Selling mega sport events to the highest bidders, no matter how unethical and how strange it could be. For example, the world cup is a summer tournament and has always been hosted during the summer months since its creation. However, it was decided that it should be changed to be played in the winter due to the harsh summers in Qatar making it unbearable for players to even run around for even 5 minutes. This shows there was no actual thought about the traditions of the world cup and there was no thought about players or fans. Sports hugely benefits from nations pursuit for soft power as it’s a way to skyrocket their profits.

Bibliography

ANDREWS, E., 2018. How Ping‑Pong Diplomacy Thawed the Cold War. [Online]  Available at: https://www.history.com/news/ping-pong-diplomacy [Accessed 2024].

Brannagan, P. a. G. J., 2014. The FIFA World Cup 2022. Qatar’s soft power gamble.

Brannagan, P. a. G. R., 2018. Qatar, global sport and football’s 2022 World Cup finals. In Leveraging Mega-Event Legacies. Soft power and soft disempowerment: , pp. 89-105.

Kyle Fruh, A. A. a. J. W., 2022. Complicity and Corruption. Sportswashing: , pp. 101-118.

Miettinen, H., 2024. Sportswashing effects on nation brand. 

Murray, S., 2013. ports diplomacy in the modern diplomatic environment.. Moving beyond the ping-pong table, Volume 9, pp. 11-16.

Næss, H., 2023. A figurational approach to soft power and sport events. The case of the FIFA Worl. 

Roan, D., 2023. Why is Saudi Arabia spending so much on sport?. [Online]  Available at: https://www.bbc.com/sport/67713269

Roan, D., 2024. Fossil fuel firms 'spent £4bn on sportswashing' says report. [Online]  Available at: https://www.bbc.com/sport/articles/cvgxe2n05v3o