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Threat to sports: corruption or politics?
By Kaufmann | May 12, 2008 3 Comments »
Corruption in sports has often been big news. Whether related to match-fixing in soccer, involving referees, goalies or other players — be them in Italy, Germany, Kenya, Brazil, China, or elsewhere —, or in cricket, or in other sports. Or buying the votes of some members of the International Olympics Committee (IOC), so to give the award to the the briber’s city. Or judges making backroom deals in figure skating.
While such cases of corruption have taken place, it is not clear that it is a systemic scourge in most sports. It is misleading to generalize and taint all in sports by association. There are many institutions, athletes, soccer and other sports clubs that operate with integrity, promoting positive societal values and providing good role models to the younger generation. At the same time, we need to be mindful of the reply by a famous bank robber, who answered the question of why he robs banks by stating simply ’that is where the money is’. Some professional sports entities are also a huge commercial enterprise. Likewise with some college sports programs in the US, where financial considerations rule. In these lucrative sports settings, the rate of temptation is high…
Thus, some instititutions and individuals in sports are bound to be vulnerable to corruption, and therefore vigilance is in order, with emphasis on integrity in leadership in the main sports institutions, as well as emphasis in deterrence and detection sytems, including the watchful eye of the media. Some movies may also help in raising awareness and instilling good values. However contrived its plot, this weekend’s movie debut of the special effects remake of the old animated Speed Racer may be an example, since in the words of a blogger, ‘corruption is pretty good as a driver for action movies’...
But it is important to look beyond the sensationalistic. Corruption cases involving players or referees, while coveted by the media, are likely to entail an invidualized scandal, involving a few people, and thus not entailing systemic corruption throughout the sport. More serious scrutiny may be needed to the more obscure challenges involving some sports associations, which often operate vast sums of money with little scrutiny and accountability. That is less flashy than finding out about one particular referee who received a bribe to fix a game, but it matters at least as much. Watchdog NGOs such as Play the Game (link here), as well as some authors, have looked into this.
Moreover, a narrow focus on corruption within sports pales in comparison with the larger governance challenge of how sports can be manipulated as a state instrument to serve political aims. This may include a concerted attempt at gaining credibility or prestige through sports by a nation (or institution, or mogul) otherwise lacking in some important dimension of governance, or of political legitimacy. Given their mass appeal (and their being a globalized socio-cultural phenomena), professional soccer and the Olympics in particular may fall in this category of being prone to capture for less-than-pristine political motive.
Illustrating this issue, the Washington Post had an interesting article this weekend (‘Playing with Fire’), focused on the specter of the 1936 Hitler Olympics. Among others, it ties together the embarrassment to Hitler by the running prowess of the american Jesse Owen, the mysterious last minute exclusion by the US team of their jewish runner, and more generally the inability of the US to take a high moral ground back then — with its Jim Crow seggregation laws at home. At times the article also fast forwards to today’s reality in a ‘back-to-the-future’ style.
In sports, corruption may at times take place, and the consequences for the sport — particularly given the attraction for the youth–, are far from negligible. Such corruption needs to be deterred, and when it does take place, exposed and addressed. But some corruption within sports ought not divert focus from broader misgovernance in the form of abuse of some professional sports as a political instrument by powers well above the players and sport leaders themselves.
[PS: That I believe that the popular game of soccer, for instance, can be so much fun and is far from being tainted wholesale, is in evidence by quickly scrolling down in the 'Governance Fun' page in this blog...]
Topics: Corruption, Transparency, Voice and Human Rights | | 3 Comments
July 7th, 2008 at 3:42 am
Mr.Kaufmann is hardly to be conceived as prophet in his own” village”, concerning his recent scrutinies on corruption in sport. But he may wel be percieved as one on the Balkans. Most transtory countries at this side have instrumentalized sport not only as some gobal enterpreneurship. Substantial segments from the new national elite have been recruted from the sport. Sport “boys” have been politically tolerated to capture significant segments from the state and public property ( illegal or institutionally favoured privatisation). Political umbrellas are wide reaching and well linked with geostrategic interests. What is even more disturbing is that anew culture of arrogant abuse of the public sector, that has spoiled the civic climate at this side, “20 years after” the fall of the Berlin wall. Sport boys now run banks, insuranse companies, networks of drugstores, telecommunications, or whatever one may think of. They aquire own representative power and propell some obsessed competitiveness. The latter turns small family business and ordinary taxpayers to obedient “clients” of petty local oligarchs. Anticorruption systems shoud be more efficiently designed to operate in glocal and not only global terms. They have to intervene and not only manifest some rationality to less responsible governments and their coalitions. This is a huge responsibility of the democratic world and applied social research. It has to penetrate deeper into corruptive patterns of patronage that have shaped not so much some “hybrid” types of capitalisms in SE Europe. But morover errode precious values and hopes for better future of millions. As corruption gets even more sophisticated in a complex world, we may need more determined political measures to fight it sucessfully. Reducing of corruption is a condition sine qua non for proper democratic standards to be fosternd in SE Europe. The Balkans need a “second breath” of democracy. Unveiling corruption in sport might be decisive for this.
September 24th, 2010 at 2:02 pm
Youth league sports are corrupted.
October 1st, 2010 at 8:52 am
In Darien CT corruption in the local youth baseball is rampant. Favoritism and reprisals. Truly unbelievable. They even supress the media from reporting the stories.