Politics and sports or sports diplomacy is the use of sport as a means to influence diplomatic, social, and political relations. Sports diplomacy may transcend cultural differences and bring people together. The use of sports and politics has had both positive and negative implications over history. Sports competitions or activities have had the intention to bring about change in certain cases. Nationalistic fervour is sometimes linked to victories or losses to some sport on sports fields.
While the Olympics is often the biggest political example of using sports for diplomatic means, cricket and association football, as well as other sports in the global arena, have also been used in this regard. In the case of Apartheid, sport was used to isolate South Africa and bring about a major overhaul in the country's social structure. While ethnicity, race, social class and more can cause division, sports is also said to help blend differences.Cornell, Stephen and Douglas Hartmann. "Ethnicity and Race: Making Identities in a Changing World." p.3 Additionally, numerous athletes have sought political office such as Imran Khan and George Weah, some of them unsuccessfully, on either the national level or the sub-national current. Some matches have also had national diplomatic incidents.
Sports
Association football
In regards to football in Europe, it has been suggested that football has been historically able to simultaneously maintain the differences that give each European country their own sense of identity as well as strengthen the bonds that bind them together as one body. Further, football stadiums in Europe have acted as both places of refuge as well as sites of terrorist attacks and political uprisings. According to Benoit, during the period of the Second World War, European Football underwent a massive transformation. With a coinciding sharp rise in popularity at a time of high political intensity, football became politicized. Therefore, Benoit argues that football began to embody three main characteristics during and after this period, becoming: 1) an agent of international relations in the sense that the foreign policies of European nations became supposedly articulated in football; 2) a source of political propaganda via using football to expose the state; 3) a tool to pacify constituents. Consequently, all of these factors have contributed to the emergence of football and its stadiums as a means of political expression, a basis of recent collective memory, and its emergence as a highly politicized game.
While many clubs do not have a fixed political identity, some clubs are known to have clear leanings. According to YouGov statistics, supporters of the English club Sunderland AFC predominantly lean to the political left, and often sing "The Red Flag" during games. While Sunderland fans are generally regarded as left wing, the hooligan firm Seaburn Casuals was known for having far-right associations.
One of the biggest and oldest football rivalries is the Old Firm rivalry between the Scottish clubs Celtic and Rangers from Glasgow. The competition between the two clubs had roots in more than just a simple sporting rivalry. It has as much to do with Northern Ireland as Scotland and this can be seen in the flags, cultural symbols, and emblems of both clubs. It was infused with a series of complex disputes, sometimes centred on religion (Catholic and Protestant), Northern Ireland-related politics (Loyalist and Republican), national identity (British or Irish Scots), and social ideology (Conservatism and Socialism).Richard Wilson, "Inside the Divide" (Edinburgh: Canongate Books, 2012), p. 87: "What is being asserted is two identities: Rangers and Celtic. There are other boundaries: Protestant and Catholic / Unionist and Republican / Conservative and Socialist...." The majority of Rangers and Celtic supporters do not get involved in sectarianism, but serious incidents do occur with a tendency for the actions of a minority to dominate the headlines. The Old Firm rivalry fuelled many assaults on Derby days, and some deaths in the past have been directly related to the aftermath of Old Firm matches. An activist group that monitors sectarian activity in Glasgow has reported that on Old Firm weekends, violent attacks increase ninefold over normal levels. An increase in domestic abuse can also be attributed to Old Firm fixtures.
Bandy Norway declined to take part in the 1957 Bandy World Championship because the Soviet Union was invited, due to the Soviet invasion of Hungary the year before. The country made a similar protest for the 1969 Bandy World Championship because of the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia that year, handing over the hosting of the 1969 event to Sweden.
Ukraine declined to take part in the 2015 Bandy World Championship hosted by Russia because of the Russian annexation of Crimea the year before, since Ukraine still considers Crimea as part of its territory.
Boxing Heavyweight champion Max Schmeling had been lauded by the Nazi Party as a heroic symbol of German destiny and Aryan supremacy. A politically charged boxing match with Joe Louis was preceded nationalistic symbolism and imagery. Schmeling defeated Louis, for the latter's first professional defeat in 1936. Langston Hughes recalled the national reaction to Louis' defeat.
Schmeling, by contrast, was welcomed home with a jubilant reaction. Hitler sent his wife flowers with the message: "For the wonderful victory of your husband, our greatest German boxer, I must congratulate you with all my heart." Schmeling responded to the accolades saying: "At this moment I have to tell Germany, I have to report to the Führer in particular, that the thoughts of all my countrymen were with me in this fight; that the Führer and his faithful people were thinking of me. This thought gave me the strength to succeed in this fight. It gave me the courage and the endurance to win this victory for Germany's colours."David Margolick, "Beyond Glory."
A rematch was scheduled later in New York City. In the build-up to the event U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt offered his support: "Joe, we need muscles like yours to beat Germany." Schmeling's hotel was picketed by American protestors after an accompanying Nazi Party publicist declared that a black man could not defeat Schmeling and that when he won, his prize money would be used to build German tanks.Dettloff, William. "The Louis-Schmeling Fights: Prelude to War." Louis won the rematch in a first round knock out and he became the focal point of anti-Nazi sentiment leading up to World War II. Louis later recalled the pressure on him before the fight: "I knew I had to get Schmeling good. I had my own personal reasons and the whole damned country was depending me." After the war the two men would reconnect and strike up a personal friendship.
Decades later, Cassius Clay, better known as Muhammad Ali, took up political causes in his refusal to be drafted for the Vietnam War amid the Civil Rights Movement during the presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson.
After earning the championship, Clay converted his religion to Islam, which instigated conflict with his boxing career. He also abandoned his name that was given to his slave ancestors and adopted the new name Muhammad Ali. On 28 April 1967, he refused to serve in the Army during the Vietnam War, stating religious reasons, namely that it goes against the Qur'an's teaching.
He then became an icon of not only the civil rights struggle, but also the anti-Vietnam War movement. However he was convicted of draft evasion, sentenced to five years in prison, fined $10,000 and stripped of his championship. It was not until a lawsuit in 1970 that Ali redeemed his title. He would continue in historical boxing matches now known as Rumble in the Jungle in 1974 and Thrilla in Manila in 1975, defeating George Foreman and Joe Frazier, respectively.
Chess
Chess, which is a recognized sport of the International Olympic Committee, has a history of being linked to political issues. World Champion Alexander Alekhine collaborated with National-Socialist Germany during the Second World War. Cold War politics featured in the 1972 World Championship match between the American Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky of the Soviet Union, when Fischer defeated Spassky and temporarily halted Soviet chess dominance; and again in the 1978 World Championship match, when the Soviet Anatoly Karpov narrowly defeated Viktor Korchnoi, who had recently defected from the Soviet Union. Several countries boycotted the 1976 Chess Olympiad, because it was held in Israel.
Cricket
In 1969, the Marylebone Cricket Club refused to allow Basil D'Oliveira to play for England against South Africa for fear of upsetting the apartheid regime. D'Oliveira was a coloured born in South Africa and refused permission to play for the South African team by the government, instead he played for England. Following his performance against Australia in the previous year's Ashes, D'Oliveira was one of the most likely players to be selected. However, he was not selected; although the selection committee claimed this was a cricketing decision, it was viewed by the cricketing public as a capitulation towards the apartheid regime. After a withdrawal from the squad, D'Oliveira was selected, enraging the Apartheid regime and resulting in the tour's cancellation.
Cricket has also played a role in sporting diplomacy. Following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and Soviet pressure on India to deflect the tension they faced, in 1987 Pakistan's president at the time, General Zia ul-Haq, attended a test match between India and Pakistan in Jaipur – a visit that apparently helped cool a flare-up in tensions. Furthermore, following a fifteen-year lull in test matches, cricket tours between India and Pakistan were revived in 2004 in the wake of diplomatic initiatives to bury half a century of mutual hostility. Both sides relaxed their tough visa regulations for each other, allowing thousands of fans to travel across the border.
In an attempt to replicate the cricket diplomacy of the past General Pervez Musharraf came to India in 2005 ostensibly for a cricket match. The trip, however, quickly took on the air of a summit as the sides were urged "to seize a historic chance to end their dispute over Kashmir." Often this rivalry has been tinged with a religious-political bent to it. A Pakistani fan in Karachi ran onto the pitch to attack the Indian captain, and fans threw stones at the Indian players during the match in Karachi. In 2000 right-wing Hindus dug up the cricket pitch in New Delhi to protest against the Pakistani team's visit. Following the Kargil conflict, and at various other times, there have also been calls to suspend cricketing ties between the two countries.
In reference to immigrants from the Caribbean and South Asia, British Conservative party member Norman Tebbit once said that a "cricket test" could adjudge a person's loyalty to England by determining whether or not they supported the England and Wales cricket team ahead of those from their own countries of origin.
In 2008, the England and Wales Cricket Board cancelled Zimbabwe's 2009 tour of England and suspended all bilateral relations between the two states in response to the situation regarding the 2008 Zimbabwean presidential election. MPs Jack Straw and Tessa Jowell wrote to the International Cricket Council asking then to ban Zimbabwe from international cricket.