sne Posted January 5, 2019 Share Posted January 5, 2019 The word "Sportswashing" has made it into the Oxford dictionary. That's how common it is now. Quote How repressive states and governments use ‘sportswashing’ to remove stains on their reputation Following the conclusion of the 2018 World Cup with France crowned champions, the tournament as a topic and Russia as the host nation are fading from view. Given the widespread misgivings prior to the tournament about the threat of orchestrated hooligan violence, ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and Syria, an appalling domestic rights record borne out by attacks against both political and LGBT activists, and accusations of conducting targeted murders in other countries, this might seem surprising. The fact that these fairly major issues disappeared from the majority of news outlets during the four weeks of the World Cup demonstrates the power of such events to reset the news agenda. A telling example comes from Britain, where the government admitted that had England reached the finals it would have considered sending a delegation – despite tensions with the Russian government over the Skripal poisonings, among other things. The coverage of Russia 2018 confirmed a pattern already observed in previous sports events: stories of controversy or lack of preparation fill time and space in the media before the event, but as soon as the competition begins, a “sphere of consensus” prevails. The rise of ‘sportswashing’ This has happened before. In the run up to the 1978 World Cup in Argentina, the media reported that some national teams considered withdrawing from the tournament to protest the military dictatorship governing the host country. However, after the first match, the coverage focused mostly on what happened on the pitch. In other words, concerns, controversies and accusations are left aside and sports takes centre stage. With very few exceptions, nobody wants to be the party pooper. Many have argued that major sporting events operate as a form of soft power, allowing host nations to promote themselves on a global stage. “Soft power” was a term coined by the US political scientist Joseph Nye, broadly defined as a way of reaching objectives through the power of attraction rather than military and economic force. Sources of soft power can be movies, music, world-renowned universities and, of course, sports. Indeed, this concept has been applied to major sporting events, arguing that the Olympic Games or football World Cup represent ideal opportunities for countries to try and attract inward investment and promote their tourist industries. We’d argue for an alternative effect, that such events can actually close down, temporarily, critical views of a government. Such sporting mega-events operate as a means to launder a national government’s global image and reputation – even to the extent that adversarial countries will be prepared to engage with them. The effect is similar to greenwashing, whereby organisations use PR and marketing to claim their environmentally-friendly credentials in order to boost their reputations. Politically avoiding the political The supposedly apolitical character of sports events, as promoted by both FIFA and the International Olympic Committee, makes them particularly attractive for states in which there is little or no free political debate. The opportunity to harness these events is improved by the fact that, at least in more democratic societies, protests surrounding sporting mega events have grown over time, and cities and countries are increasingly reluctant to take part in the bidding processes for these competitions. Soon enough, the eyes of the world will turn to Qatar and the 2022 World Cup. The host country has already promised to surpass the event in Russia and, in order to boost global prestige, it will attempt to use the World Cup to bring attention to its political stability, military collaboration with the US, redistribution and aid policies, and the prestige of its Al Jazeera news channel, among other aims. But there are growing concerns about the first World Cup to be played in the Middle East, including the deaths of construction workers building new stadiums, human rights records, high temperatures, and a lack of existing football culture in the host country. And yet these issues will very likely be out of the spotlight just as soon as the first match kicks off. Should we be concerned about the ability of some pretty odious regimes to rinse their reputations through their involvement in sporting events that generate pleasure for so many worldwide? The prevailing – and somewhat naïve - attitude of most participants and fans is that sports are politically neutral. Once they start, so the view goes, global competitions like the Olympic Games or the World Cup should not be tarnished by these sorts of political considerations. By taking this line are we as sports fans not also complicit in this sportswashing? And if so, what can players, observers and the media do to ensure that sporting tournaments aren’t used to absolve states of their responsibilities to their own people and to the wider international order? Let’s hope that in the four years before the beginning of the Qatar 2022 World Cup and the four weeks of the competition’s duration, these questions are in the forefront of our minds, so that future sporting mega events will be not only enjoyable, but more ethically, morally and politically responsible. http://theconversation.com/how-repressive-states-and-governments-use-sportswashing-to-remove-stains-on-their-reputation-100395 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sne Posted January 5, 2019 Share Posted January 5, 2019 And on that theme, here is a nice article by the one good football writer in Sweden. Quote Battle of Bahrain Quiz Time. Who really became the shooter in Euro 2004? Ah, chick Milan Baros rather than Wayne Rooney or Ruud van Nistelrooy - a small mud creeper. But we still go on to the next level of difficulty, and wonder who scored the most goals in the Asian Championships that year. I do not ask you to be able to answer - it sounds like A'ala Hubail from Bahrain - but at least put the name of the memory in the minutes that you read this. 15 years later it has more significance than ever before. Last night I landed in Dubai, came to the United Arab Emirates for the first time in my life. I know that almost every holiday-vacant Swedish football player is wintering here now - that it is soon as popular as Thailand - but it has never been for me. I just didn't feel like it. Now I see for the first time all the breathtaking hyper-buildings with my own eyes, I see the invisible guest workers who build them - and tonight I will try to have a stomach to go to football too. 2018 was the year when the English word "sportswashing" was taken into the Oxford University's English dictionary, simply explained the regime wash through sport. It's powerful because it works. 2018 was also the year when a vote-strong crowd of Manchester City fans around the world - just to take an example - seriously defended the legal system of Abu Dhabi when an innocent English scholar arbitrarily was sentenced to life imprisonment for invented espionage. Sport in this part of the world is inevitably defined by sportswashing. The analysis of its purposes, meaning and goals cannot start or end anywhere else. That is how it is, it is so it will remain - but I still do not belong to those who believe that a journalist's task is to stay home and be quiet rather than be in place and tell. Had it not been for that kind of journalism, I had never known, for example, what really happened to the Bahrain target machine A'ala Hubail, he who became the whole of Asia's shootout in 2004. When the Arab Spring reached Bahrain, he no longer had any benefit from being a famous and educated athlete, on the contrary. He was just one of hundreds of thousands of others who had gone out into the streets to demonstrate against the draconian royal family, but precisely because his name and his face were so well-known, he became one of those who was instituted for example when the regime struck back. A'ala Hubai was imprisoned and tortured, and he was not alone. He was the biggest star and team captain of the best national team Bahrain ever had - semi-finals in the Asian Championships, close to the World Cup twice - but now it was wiped out over a single night. Many national team players had chosen to go out into the streets and tune into the masses' call for change. Half a dozen of them ended up in jail with A'ala Hubai, got their careers and their lives destroyed. Because Bahrain invested heavily in sportswashing - including buying a Formula 1 race and a European Tour competition in golf in Volvo's name - it was like the wrath against the crown's athletes became extra strong. Olympics from a variety of sports were arrested and taken away, a putsch process that was depicted in the ESPN documentary "Athletes of Bahrain" . So seven years later, it almost feels like looking back at some kind of medieval witch hunt - but the fact is that the cries from the dungeons remain nasty loudly just today, the premier day of the Asian Championships 2019. Just over a month ago, the football player Hakeem al-Araibi was arrested in Thailand, when Bahrain issued an international arrest warrant against him. Hakeem al-Araibi doesn't really belong to the same golden generation as the other imprisoned football players from Bahrain. He is a few years younger - was just about to establish himself in the junior national team when the revolution approached - and was arrested only one year after the Arab spring. He also claims to have been tortured by Bahrain's security police, but managed to get to Australia when he was released after three months in prison. There he was given refugee status, and began to rebuild his life and his football. The trip to Thailand was only meant to be a holiday with the girlfriend, but six weeks later Hakeem al-Araibi is still locked in Bangkok and is risking extradition back to the Bahrain of torture. The Australian government has asked him to be released , Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have campaigned for his cause, even though FIFA has endeavored to stand on the side of Hakeem al-Araibi - but the silence of the Asian football confederation AFC has been so good as total . Why? There may be several reasons for this, but a suspicion that is far too close to hand is the one based on the fact that the President of the Asian Federation is called Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa - and belongs to Bahrain's royal family. And these two men are old acquaintances. Really what role Shejk Salman played during the 2011 repression wave is not completely investigated, but initially he was appointed as the leader of a kind of truth commission intended to identify and punish sports dissidents. The fact that he was still close to becoming a FIFA president less than three years ago was completely unfamiliar to reality, but his campaign eventually lost momentum when just Hakeem al-Araibi told his story all over the world . Is this the consequence, is this revenge? Tonight, of course, Shejk Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa is in place at Zayed Sports City Stadium in Abu Dhabi when his Bahrain meets the United Arab Emirates in the Asian Championship opening match. At the same time, the former national defense defender Hakeem al-Araibi in a waiting room prison on the way back to hell. There is a parallel world order where the two change places. https://bloggar.aftonbladet.se/nivasvarld/2019/01/battle-of-bahrain/ 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted January 5, 2019 Share Posted January 5, 2019 Milan Baros mud creeper. I knew it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sne Posted January 7, 2019 Share Posted January 7, 2019 Apparently Neymar has fake dreadlocks now but they fell off after the last game. Apparently The sun thinks this is news. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Genie Posted January 8, 2019 Share Posted January 8, 2019 Its hard to believe that Neymar and Lewis Hamilton aren't related. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo985 Posted January 8, 2019 VT Supporter Share Posted January 8, 2019 3 minutes ago, Genie said: Its hard to believe that Neymar and Lewis Hamilton aren't related. Because they're both words removed? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Genie Posted January 8, 2019 Share Posted January 8, 2019 1 hour ago, Stevo985 said: Because they're both words removed? They are both elite sportsmen but both utter words removed in the same kinda way. They are also good mates. 2 of a kind. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted January 8, 2019 Share Posted January 8, 2019 I find it hard to beieve anybody can like Neymar enough to be his mate Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Genie Posted January 8, 2019 Share Posted January 8, 2019 maybe they are related actually Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo985 Posted January 8, 2019 VT Supporter Share Posted January 8, 2019 I didn't think Neymar spoke much English. Maybe that's how they can bear to be around each other. They can't hear each other talk. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted January 8, 2019 Share Posted January 8, 2019 I see Guardiola again wants big teams to have B teams in the league Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villa4europe Posted January 8, 2019 Share Posted January 8, 2019 (edited) they cant keep hold of a youngster that they dont play so of course its the reserve league structures fault if man city played diaz he wouldnt be leaving simple as that B teams would just mean chelseas 400 players have a home and the big boys can buy all the young talent FWIW on pep - he wants to keep youngsters at city so he can train them the way he wants rather than loaning them out to possibly inferior clubs and coaches - no problem with that the reserve leagues are a bit shit and the level of competition is poor, its too far away from the standard of the PL (and the championship from what we've experienced) - agree with that a spanish kid playing in the championship for man city B would turn down the chance to play for madrid - absolute bollocks Edited January 8, 2019 by villa4europe 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sne Posted January 8, 2019 Share Posted January 8, 2019 Yeah I see no possible issues with B-teams facing their parent clubs Just as long as players cant face their parent clubs and a walk over means they are thrown out of the league City could probably afford to sport 5-10 teams with PL quality using their oil money like a trawler net scooping up talent while destroying the rest of football like a coral reef. wonder if he'll leave City in time to be the Qatar manager for their WC or if Iniest, Xavi, Zidane or Wenger will beat him to it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hornso Posted January 8, 2019 Share Posted January 8, 2019 Time for FIFA to step in and limit the amount of players clubs can send out on loan, will help stop clubs like Chelsea & Man City stockpiling all the young talent. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HanoiVillan Posted January 8, 2019 Share Posted January 8, 2019 Despite the title of the thread, this is one rare occasion where I feel confident absolutely nobody is going to fall for 'please let Man City have an enormously well-funded B team in the Championship that nobody goes to watch'. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikeyp102 Posted January 9, 2019 Share Posted January 9, 2019 Diaz going for £20m+ is bloody ridiculous. The guy has played less than 20 games at senior level. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hornso Posted January 9, 2019 Share Posted January 9, 2019 58 minutes ago, mikeyp102 said: Diaz going for £20m+ is bloody ridiculous. The guy has played less than 20 games at senior level. That's true. The thing is, Sancho went to Dortmund for £8m (I think), now he'd be worth an insane amount of money. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Genie Posted January 9, 2019 Share Posted January 9, 2019 9 hours ago, Hornso said: Time for FIFA to step in and limit the amount of players clubs can send out on loan, will help stop clubs like Chelsea & Man City stockpiling all the young talent. Problem is FIFA will be getting large amounts of money from the companies (families) that own the elite clubs in sponsorship. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villa89 Posted January 9, 2019 Share Posted January 9, 2019 13 hours ago, Hornso said: Time for FIFA to step in and limit the amount of players clubs can send out on loan, will help stop clubs like Chelsea & Man City stockpiling all the young talent. There are lots of rules and changes that FIFA should make but they are corrupt and incompetent so it won't happen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villa4europe Posted January 9, 2019 Share Posted January 9, 2019 googled fifa rule changes, was half expecting something about van bastens orange card or sin bins or some other nonsense that no one really wants but it looks like heres whats up for discussion at the moment - no rebounds on penalties, if a penalty is saved or hits the post the ball is dead lose the word "deliberate" from the handball rule and describe it as the arm being in an unnatural position stopping or limiting subs during injury time subs have to leave the pitch via the nearest means rather than stroll to the technical area (was trialled at the club world cup) loans capped at 8 players @Hornso Opposition players dont have to wait for a free kick / goal kick to leave the penalty area before it becomes a live ball (theres your big game changer) managers now get proper red and yellow cards players sent off automatically miss their next game regardless of competition the meeting is in March to see which ones are agreed 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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