Is Sport Heading Towards an Arab Spring? – Prof Simon Chadwick
October 22, 2011
This year has seen turbulent times in the Middle East and North Africa, as populations in country after country across these regions have reared their heads to exclaim “no more!” From Tahrir Square in Cairo through to the overthrow and death of Gaddafi, via the postponement of the Formula One Grand Prix in Bahrain, these have been epoch-changing times for this part of the world. And yet the influence of popular, social media inspired, movements in countries such as Algeria has had even more profound consequences, with the ‘Occupy’ movement emerging in the same way to challenge governments and hegemony across the world.
While the macro-global situation has occupied many peoples’ attention, sport has been grappling with a multitude of its own problems. Yet again this year, FIFA has seemed consumed by its own inexorable journey towards self-destruction. At the same time: Bernie Ecclestone has been called before a German court to explain irregularities in his business affairs; athletes from Pakistan to South Korea to Poland have been charged with fixing sporting contests; in spite of the appetite among some to clean-up sport, hard and soft-doping both still remain as serious problems; while football fans have become increasingly tired of the domination of leagues by relatively small numbers of teams, many of which are being underwritten by rich overseas billionaires and faceless investors.
In some ways, it beggars belief that some of those involved in sport so flagrantly disregard the intense scrutiny they are exposed to. Whether it is arrogance, ignorance, stupidity or laziness, sports’ deviants and non-conformists, often seem unwilling to change. That is not to say that fans, customers, and other stakeholders are simply the unwitting victims in a conspiracy of poor governance and inherent corruption. We are all complicit: when we buy our tickets, when we acquire our satellite television subscription, when we fail to voice our disquiet at kick-backs and bribes, when we let our passion for the sport we love blind us to the realities of the unsatisfactory nature of what happens in this sport.
Yet invoking the spirit of the 1960s, one does get a more pervasive sense that ‘the times they are a changing’. So much so, that one has to speculate whether sport is heading for its own ‘Arab Spring’. Before rejecting such a view, consider that if Twitter and a mobilised community can bring down a government, then those in sport should not be so dismissive. For instance, already in football, groups such as ‘Change FIFA’ have begun to mobilise in order to pose a serious threat to the established world order in football. Alongside this, once supportive domestic football associations are increasingly expressing their abhorrence about FIFA’s seemingly corrupt officials. Even corporate loyalists have started to get lose their nerve, concerned that allegations might affect their sponsorship deals and commercial partnerships with FIFA.
Hence, the old world order seems to be under some considerable threat, confronted by the growing threat of dual-action: direct action, and a sense of market-driven morality. Can it be long before we witness ‘Occupy’ campaigns targeted at sport organisations? When will we see mass withdrawals of sponsors and commercial partners, worried about the implications amongst their customers of being associated with sports that have suspect moral standards? Unlikely bedfellows they might appear, but protestors engaged in direct action and corporations concerned by image and the bottom-line will surely begin to force change across the sporting world?
Changing the systemic nature of governance in sport would appear to be the most obvious way of addressing growing unrest among sporting stakeholders across the World. But one senses that in many cases there is probably neither the will nor the way to do this in the short to medium-term. The change in ideology, philosophy would simply be too much for many of the current gatekeepers to countenance. Even in cases where there is some degree of consensus about the need to do things differently, garnering support and implementing successful and effective change programmes would pose significant challenges for managers.
If they are not prepared to change, then sport organisations must prepare for the potential impact of direct action and/or for an era of market-driven morality. In both cases, this suggests that something akin to an Arab Spring could be about to get a grip on sport. Whether this is literal or metaphorical, sport needs to recognise that it is operating in very different times, even compared to just ten years ago. While many in the industry might feel they can ride-out the storm, as leaders across the Middle East and North Africa have found out the 21st century has posed some of the most serious managerial challenges they have encountered. Sport: be warned!
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