There Can Be No Normal Sport in an Abnormal World

By Hassen Lorgat

War is not only about the killing of innocent young men but it is also big business. From this tragedy, we can begin to relearn the essential values of what it means to be human. The invasion of Ukraine by Russia has resulted in the unprecedented social, cultural, political and sporting isolation of Russia. I hope this article will be a sporting one or received as such.

The political establishment, Vladimir Putin and his close circle – including the oligarchs – have been under attack. The oligarchs for years have stolen wealth enjoyed in Europe and America: why action only now?

I grew up under apartheid and was highly influenced by the antiracist activism of Hassan Howa, who coined the phrase ‘there can be no normal sports in an abnormal society’. He was a leader of the South African Council on Sports (SACOS) and this slogan, I believe, best explains what is happening in the sporting world today. Sport-washing is the order of the day as the sporting community – corralled by the elites – has ditched their lofty principles of Olympism. The values of excellence, friendship and respect have fallen for blatant chauvinism in favor of narrow nationalism, thereby ditching internationalism.

However, the absence of excellence is primarily intellectual as I will explain by using some examples of how media has helped to condition its readers into followers.

Some Examples from the Right Flank

No love? The world’s No. 1 tennis player, Russian Daniil Medvedev, has been pressured by the British Tory Government and the establishment to publicly denounce Russian President Vladimir Putin in regards to the invasion of Ukraine. He has repeatedly said that he wants to “promote peace” but this does not seem to be enough for the marshals of democracy if he wants to play in Wimbledon.

This prompted many critics but I quote one that is likely to stir emotions: George Galloway says that this is a crime as no one has been asked to publicly condemn their own government. In contrast, he pointed out that this was not demanded of American and British entertainers and sportspersons whose governments, in total violation of international law, invaded Iraq and “killed millions of Iraqis”.

There are other examples in other sports which reveal the duplicity and hypocrisy of the elites who blatantly have been corralling “their citizens” to fall behind “the war effort”.

I have no doubt that there has been “spontaneous” support for the war from ordinary folk, not necessarily mobilized by the elites, but I view the role of UEFA and its affiliates particularly the EPL and Spanish la Liga who remain unashamedly hypocritical to how they respond to war and suffering.

The Real Madrid El Clásico match at the Bernabeu (watching on our TV screens) carried the slogan STOP INVASION. Yet these teams seemed to have no qualms playing in Saudi Arabia just this January in the Spanish Super Cub, earning megabucks whilst turning a blind eye to the deaths of hundreds of thousands and the untold destruction of Yemenis at the hands of the Saudi-USA led coalition. The president of Amnesty International Spain Esteban Beltrán, called out this collaboration between the Spanish FA and the regime as ‘whitewashing’ the image of Saudi authorities. But UEFA, FIFA and political leaders were silent. But now they have found their voice as Ukrainians are more deserving victims of war than others. And they acted swiftly.

The dastardly invasion of Ukraine came a month later (24 February) and, within record time, Russian athletes were expelled from almost all sports (some of which I never knew even existed). The highlight was Putin, a judo practitioner, being stripped of his honorary status whilst Surfing Swimming withdrew the FINA Order award granted to Putin by the International Swimming Federation (FINA). But the bans hurt ordinary players too. The International Tennis Federation (ITF) released a statement on March 1 announcing “the immediate suspension of the Russian Tennis Federation (RTF)” whilst Russia was banned from the FIH Hockey Women’s Junior World Cup scheduled from April 1 to 12 in Potchefstroom, South Africa.

Other sports that excluded Russians include Archery, Badminton, Baseball, Softball, Taekwondo, Triathlon and Volleyball. FIFA was equally diligent by stopping Gazprom funding to UEFA for the Champions League and other critical events. Europeans, however, continue to obtain gas and petroleum from Russia. Notwithstanding this realpolitik, Russian footballers were not so lucky: they were ruled offside and thus would not be able to participate in the playoff against Poland that was scheduled for March 24, stopping its players and the country’s hope of going to Qatar later in the year. The swiftness clearly suggests that these actions were coming largely, not solely, from the top. The powerful media houses, the state and private ideological state apparatuses were fully at work.

Media Plays Their Role

It is almost a cliche that sports and the business of media are joined on the heap, and one, increasingly in the modern era, cannot survive without the other. Sport has become a marketing vehicle to sell the products of the sponsor and the people. It is critical, they believe, to maintain their dominance over “consumers” so that we can be hooked into this iniquitous relationship.

The prevailing convention prior to Ukraine was for sports to stay away from politics and causes that would fragment the beauty of making money. Today it is not uncommon to see major international broadcasters, print and electronic media underscoring the right of resistance to injustice by the Ukrainians.

Of Funding resistance, Molotov Cocktails and Shooting Practice

The BBC and CNN amongst others have been really behind the war effort and amidst the sharing of information about how to make Molotov cocktails. CNN for instance carried the impassioned plea of Ukrainian Tennis star Elina Svitolina who told the world on air that “all prize money I win at Monterrey Open will go to the Ukrainian army.”

The South African media, generally so low in the media food chain, has simply repeated these sentiments, influencing their readers, listeners and viewers.

My beloved SAfm sports news, seeking to inform our public after a heated debate on the Ukraine-Russia conflict, ran an audio insert that obfuscated more than it informed. It was about the former Ukrainian tennis player Alexandr Dolgopolov joining the army to stop the Russian invasion.

He was quoted as saying that he took his family to safety first and wanted to learn how to shoot. “By that time I had already started practicing shooting, and I was very lucky that an ex-professional soldier taught me for 5-7 days. They were really happy to help, once they heard my goal, big thanks to our friends from Turkey,” Dolgopolov wrote in a message posted on his Instagram. “I’m not Rambo in a week, but quite comfortable with the weapons, and can hit the head three out of five times, from 25 meters in a calm, practice environment.” After learning to shoot, he returned to Ukraine…

I was not complaining, as the presenter thought I had, about his failure to provide a health warning about the violent nature of the item.  As I said on-air, I endorsed the right to resist by all means as articulated by the athlete. I pondered, however, if this right was only afforded to Ukrainians. Would it be offered to Palestinians, without some listeners not resorting to bombarding the station with complaints?

The Second Half

Most professional sports matches are games of two halves. Earlier I presented the pace to isolate Russia from world sports. I have hinted at hypocrisy and double standards amongst the rulers of the sports administration and world games. In this half, I hope to present dissenting voices that have been struggling to be heard.

Even Turkey, the Muslim nation that is a NATO member, has also laid on support for Ukrainian victims of war. However, former international player Aykut Demir, the captain and center back of Erzurumspor, declined to wear a shirt denouncing the war on Ukraine. His reasons were simple: the lack of attention the world was paying to the struggles in the Middle East, in particular the civil war in Yemen, where a United Nations Report published late last year projected 377,000 people would have died from the war by the end of 2021 with millions displaced.

Of those dying, most were women and children. He said: “Thousands of people die every day in the Middle East,” said Demir. “I feel sad too. I share the pain of innocent people. Those who ignore the persecution there are doing these things… when it comes to Europe. I did not like to wear the T-shirt because it was not made for those countries.”

Action on Oligarchs?

Earlier I bemoaned the delayed actions against the big money oligarchs that have stolen the beautiful game. Here I will explain it further and wonder if this action is too little too late or wonder if it is happening at all? Back in 2019, Forbes reported that  Roman Abramovich’s net worth was approximately $12.9 billion, making him the 11th richest person in Russia. A mere six years earlier, in 2003, he took ownership of  Chelsea FC.

Since he became boss, the club has won 18 trophies, including two Champions League titles, five Premier League championships, and most recently the 2022 Club World Cup. Like all these sheikh ownerships of clubs, whilst it has resulted in victories, the peoples’ ownership of the clubs and or the influence of fans has declined immensely with a rumored $2 billion club debt being owed to Abramovich, according to many reports.

But Abramovich is a different kettle of fish. Many groups out there are lobbying for “his” wealth to remain untouched, suggesting as Franklin Roosevelt is believed to have said about one or two backyard anticommunist dictators: “may be a son-of-a-bitch, but he’s our son-of-a-bitch.”

One of the groups campaigning for him is the country’s chief Ashkenazi Rabbi David Lau and Sheba Medical Center Director Yitshak Kreiss, part of  Yad Vashem – Israel’s official Holocaust memorial. They urged Washington not to sanction Abramovich, who is a major donor to Zionist causes.

David Klion, writer and editor of Jewish Currents, commented in his piece entitled “Our oligarch” that this amounted to over half a billion dollars to various Jewish organizations and causes. Abramovich took out Israeli citizenship and soon became the second richest man in Israel. Klion ends his piece by quoting a 2020 BBC Arabic investigation, which revealed that “Abramovich has used front companies registered in the British Virgin Islands to donate more than $100 million to a right-wing Israeli organization called the Ir David Foundation, commonly known as Elad.

This organization has worked since the 1980s to move Jewish settlers into occupied East Jerusalem. They also control “an archeological park and major tourist site called City of David, which it has leveraged in its efforts to “Judaize” the area, including by seizing Palestinian homes in the surrounding neighborhood of Silwan and digging under some to make them uninhabitable”.

For Klion, the blame lies with Abramovich who he claims was responsible for nearly “half the donations Elad received between 2005 and 2018, the last year for which records are available, making him by far its largest funder. (Elad did not respond to requests for comment.)”

Whilst all this was brewing, the House of Saudi was quietly and under the radar hanging 81 of its own citizens for what was reported as various crimes. Not many took issue with the killings and the Saudi Arabia (backed) ownership of premier league side Newcastle United. Newcastle was bought by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund in October and, although both the club and the Premier League have insisted that the Saudi state isn’t involved in the running of the club, many fans are not convinced.

The Sun newspaper reported that the coach “Eddie Howe has revealed he is ‘well aware’ of the mass executions taking place in Saudi Arabia.” The Sun continued by saying that it was“ the largest mass execution in the country’s history” and yet no action was taken against the team. The coach said he wanted to win matches, that was all! It is sad that day real fans’ actions for solidarity have been sanctioned repeatedly by UEFA, like Celtic Football Club for its solidarity stand with Palestine.

Fans organized and paid the last fine in 2016; that is fan power, when local teams can speak an unpopular and unsanctioned truth to power. So when UEFA removed Spartak Moscow from the Europa League in response to Russian aggression and moved the final of the Champions League, they were not playing ball but the politics of double standards.

Extra Time?

Something must be said about the Egyptian street which, in sharp contrast to their repressive rulers, remains vibrant. We recall how the former captain of the Egyptian National Football team Mohammed Aboutrika was given a yellow card in 2009 for displaying on his jersey “Sympathize with Gaza” in Arabic and English.

The referee was simply abiding by the CAF and FIFA rules, which prohibit religious and political slogans during the games, although this was a call for human solidarity.

In contrast, CAF – FIFA did nothing to Ghanian footballer John Paintsil, who went unpunished for waving the Israeli flag in celebration of a goal scored by a teammate in a match against the Czech Republic in the 2006 World Cup. This was blatant propaganda as Israel was not playing and did not qualify for the tournament.

That was then, when solidarity was out of fashion. Now, with us all rediscovering our higher values, it was left to the world squash champion Ali Farag, an Egyptian and African, to use his squash racket to smash racism. Even as champion, he was not spared censorship as his words have been excised from the official record. This is what he said:

“Nobody should ever accept any killings in the world, any oppression. But we’ve never been allowed to speak about politics in sports, but all of a sudden now it’s allowed. So, now that we’re allowed, I hope that people also look at the oppression everywhere in the world.

I mean, the Palestinians have been going through that for the past 74 years and, well, I guess because it doesn’t fit the narrative of the media of the west, we couldn’t talk about it. But now that we can talk about Ukraine, we can talk about Palestinians. So please keep that in mind.”

Through his actions, Farag joins hundreds of top sportsmen and women who have stood up for injustices when it was not fashionable or easy.

– Hassen Lorgat has worked in trade union movement, civic associations, and anti apartheid sports movement led by the South African Council on Sports (SACOS) as well as NGOs for the past while. He is active with the SA BDS Coalition. He is currently the manager of Policy and Advocacy for the Bench Marks Foundation. He contributed this poem to The Palestine Chronicle.