Whatever happened to the principle of keeping politics out of sport? Indeed, has such a principle ever existed? This entirely fallacious construct has always been a diversion from reality but, as sport and politics increasingly become the shared currencies by which a country portrays it’s competitiveness and flair, the linkage is moving from one of association to one of spectacularisation and corruption.
From Hitler’s marketing of his political agenda during the 1936 Olympics to Maradona, Morales and Chávez (the absence of Fidel Castro preventing a modern day Gang Of Four) sitting side by side for the opening ceremony of yesterday’s Copa América , political leaders have always sought to be linked to sporting celebrations. But linkage is no longer enough as winning has become everything.
Athletics, cycling, wrestling, rugby and football (to name but a few) are inexorably associated with the abuse of Performance Enhancing Substances (PESs). Without selecting any one particular occurrence, the general pattern is one whereby the powerful are able to employ teams of doctors and scientists to both create the PESs and to develop the masking substances that prevent detection. The sporting authorities have generally played along with this charade – it is a fact of outrageous statistical probability that the only player that I can remember (off the top of my head) being banned for doping in the World Cup is the best player to have ever graced a football pitch, Diego Maradona. On the numerous occasions where the European Big 4 (England, Italy, Germany and Spain) have been dabbling in a little illegal advantage, the authorities merely turn a blind eye to the corruption and focus on counting their profits.
The Primera Liga in Spain is typical of the laissez faire attitude demonstrated by the regulators historically. Erythropoitin (EPO) usage is rife in Spain and the drug may only be detected via blood tests which is presumably the reasoning why the Spanish authorities imposed futile urine tests in a rampant piece of corruption a couple of years back.
Consequently, this week’s announcement by Michel Platini that UEFA will be testing blood samples for the first time ever at next summer’s Euro 2008 competition is long overdue and is to be applauded.
But drug abuse is only a fraction of modern day contortionism within sport. The powerful nations have always enjoyed an advantage on the field of play and with the huge global television audiences for football, one might accept such a bias. However, recent high profile events have taken on a more holistically manipulated form. In one of the first posts on Football Is Fixed, we detailed the manner in which FIFA robbed Uzbekistan of a deserved potential place in the last World Cup via a Machiavellian piece of manoeuvring. To prompt your memory, the Uzbeks beat Bahrain 1-0 in the 1st Leg of the match which would determine who would meet Jack Warner’s oil rich Trinidad and Tobago in the play off for a place in the finals. During the match, the Japanese official incorrectly cancelled a penalty which would have given the Uzbeks a two goal advantage. FIFA’s ruling was, incredibly, that the match should be replayed entirely and, with Graham Poll in charge of the 2nd Leg, Bahrain unmeritocratically moved on. The fact that Uzbekistan has a far left administration obviously had absolutely no impact on this decision… FIFA's tilting in favour of Ukraine, Angola and Switzerland was similarly politicized.
The opening day of Copa América provided indications that, in the eyes of some of the competitor nations, it is no longer a case of supposedly keeping politics out of sport but rather of relegating sport to a secondary status so that the political operators may further their agendas. Following hot on the heels of a highly manipulated Gold Cup, it seems incredible that the issues highlighted below all occurred on the first day of the tournament.
• The CONMEBOL computer system was allegedly hacked into and, consequently, was offline for most of the twenty four hours leading up to the tournament start. Recent viral attacks have targeted European bookmakers and the entire country of Estonia was plunged into cybernetic misery when Russia decided to flex it’s bot muscles.
• The two main TV stations in the US showing the Copa América (GolTV and Telefutura) censored the inauguration ceremony making the heroically bold assessment that the mere sight of Comrade Hugo might pervert the minds of their sheltered citizens.
• The commentary on the US channels was also entertaining and was completely out of synch with the game by up to thirty seconds! The game had re-kicked off before the stations acknowledged that Peru had taken a 1-0 lead, for example. Were the TV companies writing the words for their commentators?
• In contrast, I watched the games from my hotel and was forced to miss the final Peru goal as television coverage flicked over to San Cristóbal so that we might all enjoy the publicity stunts that appear to underpin Chávez’s version of 21st Century Socialism.
* Whoever one speaks to refers to urban myths regarding the targeting of the tournament by US authorities. If it weren't for events four years ago, you would call it collective paranoia but...
• To my ears, cries of “incautado” (to place under worker’s control) appeared to be dubbed into the crowd volume to emphasise the glory of the Bolívarian revolution but Dizrhythmia was setting in and I might have imagined this one!
Now don’t get me wrong, there are aspects of this “revolution” that are admirable and it is a positive advancement that the majority of South American countries have shaken off the yoke of US imperialism whether administered militarily (eg Venezuela) or economically (eg Argentina). But there are many aspects of this whole process that are more akin to the establishment of a cult of personality rather than to the creation of a people’s Socialist society. Chávez focuses on the big gestures but not the minutiae (which is also something that may be labelled against the tournament's organisation as a large percentage of purchased tickets are yet to reach their recipients including me!).
Wow, and this is only the first day! Here's hoping that the USA meet Venezuela later in the competition...
Where are we going to be by the end of this competition? Another coup attempt perhaps?
© Football Is Fixed/Dietrological
