Stand up

On the role of sport in political arguments...

In little more than six weeks, the Winter Olympic Games will begin in Sochi, Russia. The build-up has been dominated by concerns the event could be used as a platform by campaigners against the country’s ban on “propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations”, which many claim effectively bans the promotion of civil rights for any non-heterosexual people. This local law along with the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) tough stance on political proclamations make it unlikely that any athlete will risk taking a stand on this or any other issue during the Games. Doing so would put them at risk of sporting sanction at best, hard time in Russian clink at worst. 

However, there is a campaign, Principle 6, which aims to highlight concern without violating these laws. Based on the Olympic Charter’s anti-discrimination code, a range of branded clothing has been produced intended to raise both funds and awareness (though you imagine any athletes daring to wear the gear in Russia will fall foul of some rule regarding non-regulation clothing). Will it provoke the Russian government into changing their laws? Unlikely. But it will make a valuable point and shine an uncomfortable spotlight on an IOC unwilling to rock any lucre-laden boats in a tournament year.

Should sport take a stand in situations like this, or is banning all political comment and carrying on regardless the correct way? As an obsessive sports fan, I hate the politicisation of sport in any way. What happens on the field should be all that counts. But as a person who the Russian government would probably describe as being of “non-traditional” sexual orientation it saddens me to see any endorsement, tacit or otherwise, of discriminatory regimes. 

Thus far, other than a few concerns being half-raised, the only government seeming to be making a point against Russia is Barack Obama’s American administration, which appears to have deliberately selected several LGBT people to form its delegation to the opening ceremony. The President himself will remain at home. To me this is the right way forward: if sport won’t or cannot take a moral or political stance, politicians should show the way with decisions like this. It’s probably their job, after all. 

Next summer, the football World Cup will take place in Brazil, another country with a dubious record on protecting its LGBT community (highlighted distressingly by Stephen Fry in his recent outstanding BBC documentary), followed in four years by Russia, then Qatar where homosexual activity between males is currently illegal. There hasn’t been much talk of protest or boycott of these events, possibly because of the lack of openly non-heterosexual footballers. We only have the USA winger Robbie Rogers, who famously retired, came out and came back earlier this year. Robbie in fact was the catalyst for this piece, as he’s been doing the rounds of UK media this week (including a Newsnight appearance in which that absurd caricature Jeremy Paxman once again distinguished himself with a skin-crawlingly cringey question about being naked in the locker room) promoting the launch of the anti-discrimination initiative Beyond “It” in this country. 

We keep hearing that there are a number of gay players in the English Premier League, but to me the encouragement for them to come out seems more the desire of the media to obtain a juicy scoop than to actually promote diversity and inclusiveness. Football is an unforgivingly “straight” and masculine world ­– a recent news story told of a Scottish referee allegedly kicked out of his association for complaining about lack of support after receiving homophobic abuse – and I can say from personal experience that the amount of time I spent around that environment was a definite factor in keeping my own status hidden for a long time. If football is unable to keep homophobia out of its own house, it seems unlikely the game will do anything to challenge the discriminatory laws of nations, even though it could. Imagine the uproar in Russia if they lost the 2018 World Cup.

Rugby too has its gay stars: the former Welsh international Gareth Thomas, and one of the world’s top referees, Nigel Owens. It’s a sport that supposedly draws a more educated crowd, but I remember squirming in my Murrayfield seat, feeling quite upset at the quantity of puerile and fairly offensive comments being uttered by my fellow Edinburgh fans when Thomas and his Cardiff Blues side came to play a few weeks after his big revelation. Rugby is now an Olympic sport. Should Owens refuse to officiate in Rio or Russia if asked? 

Cricket is another major sport with just one high-profile gay athlete, the Surrey and England wicketkeeper Steve Davies. One of cricket’s biggest markets is India, where the Supreme Court has just recriminalised homosexuality. Their Indian Premier League (IPL) tournament may be fairly ridiculous to most traditional cricket fans, but there’s no denying that its bells and whistles are heard around the world and are worth serious rupees. Will any player turn down a mega-bucks contract in protest at this ruling? 

Some might argue that boycotts and taking tournaments away on political grounds is not the right way to go, and that participation can be used to highlight such issues. This relies on the participants actually being able to make their voices heard, and I don’t believe athletes should risk their career to make political statements. For me, a boycott is preferable to any action which disrupts an honest sporting contest. But if the contest is thus devalued by the absence of star athletes, then we have to question whether the event should have been sanctioned in the first place. 

As with many issues in sport, the problems are traceable back to the governing bodies. The likes of the IOC and FIFA seem to award hosting rights paying more heed to commercial concerns than moral ones. Until they are made to change their mentality, athletes and all others involved in sport will continue to be caught in political crossfire, left with difficult choices to make. In the meantime, those of us lucky to live in relatively liberal and tolerant countries can at least try to help by lobbying and supporting initiatives such as Beyond “It” and Athlete Ally. I think I may have found my New Year’s Resolution.