Fincher: The mingling of sports and politics becoming all too commonplace
PROTECTED CONTENT
If you’re a current subscriber, log in below. If you would like to subscribe, please click the subscribe tab above.
Username and Password Help
Please enter your email and we will send you a password reset link.
“… a distinction should be made that football is democratic, capitalism, whereas soccer is a European, socialist sport.” – former American Football League quarterback and U.S. Rep. Jack Kemp, R-New York
My Sunday School teacher brought up this Jack Kemp quote as the World Cup got underway a few weeks ago.
She noted the cost of a ticket to the championship match – last week a USA Today contributor noted the cheapest ticket he could find was listed for more than $8,000 – and quipped that Kemp could have been correct when he said that in the 1980s, but current ticket prices make soccer look much more capitalist now.
Kemp may have only been taking a playful jab at soccer fans with that statement, but it struck me that his innocuous quote is remembered today.
If someone now made a similar quote, it would likely be forgotten the following week due to the continuous blurring of the line between politics and sports since Kemp’s day.
There is likely no better example of this than two weeks ago when emerging American soccer star soccer Folarin Balogun received a red card for a foul committed during a match against Bosnia and Herzegovina.
According to the rules of FIFA – the organization that governs international soccer – a player who receives a red card is, at a minimum, disqualified from playing in the following match.
Yet, President Donald Trump contacted FIFA’s president Gianni Infantino to discuss Balogun’s one-game suspension, and, lo and behold, FIFA later announced the suspension had been converted to a one-year probationary period, which allowed Balogun to play in the next match against Belgium.
Of course, FIFA cited a somewhat vague and broad rule that allowed the conversion of Balogun’s penalty. The irate Royal Belgian Football Association responded by pointing out how FIFA’s interpretation violated other rules in addition to earlier communications from FIFA about those rules.
We can only assume Trump’s behind-the-scenes communication was impactful in the decision. Politically, it was a great move by Trump. After all, what did he have to lose by giving it a shot?
As a host country of the World Cup, the U.S. likely had some leverage in how timely and efficiently it met FIFA’s logistical requirements for the remaining tournament matches.
Maybe the better question might be is the juice worth the squeeze?
Trump’s intervention did not seem to strike most Americans as unusual or inappropriate because the U.S. team benefitted even though it ultimately lost to Belgium, 4-1.
Even a Pollyanna like me was not bothered much by Trump’s maneuvering. FIFA already has a reputation for being one of the most corrupt organizations in sports, so why not play its game to our advantage?
Yet, the long-term danger is this might further embolden politicians to insert themselves into sports controversies when they see a clear political benefit for doing so.
We have already seen West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey and Attorney General J.B. McCuskey threaten a lawsuit and launch a state investigation into the NCAA after the University of West Virginia was left out of the 2025 men’s March Madness basketball tournament.
Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry put himself front and center of expressing LSU fans’ frustration with former LSU football coach Brian Kelly’s huge contractual buyout and publicly called for the firing of the school’s now-former athletic director Scott Woodward.
Landry also claims to have facilitated LSU rehiring controversial men’s basketball coach Will Wade.
Even here in Alabama, Gov. Kay Ivey and state Speaker of the House Nathaniel Ledbetter sued the Alabama High School Athletic Association when the AHSAA made students sit out a year from athletic activities if they utilized CHOOSE Act funding to transfer to a private school.
The Alabama Legislature later passed a law in April to overrule the AHSAA’s rule.
As a fan, sports offer a reprieve from thinking about everyday problems. When politicians insert themselves into sports unnecessarily or when sports leagues and teams make political or social statements – even when I agree with the statement – it sours that short break from reality.
If individual players want to suffer the slings and arrows of making political statements, that is their right, but let’s avoid connecting political viewpoints with particular sports and teams as much as possible.
If you define socialism as government intervening too much in our personal lives, perhaps Kemp was right about the European version of football resembling socialism.
But he was wrong about the American version of football or popular American sports in general representing the antithesis of socialism. These days they look more like mirror images of each other.
Brandon Fincher is an academic journal editor at Auburn University. He lives in Opelika with his wife, daughter and two Labrador retrievers. You can find his writing at brandonfincher.com.
