Sports world’s critics of U.S. hardly on moral high ground
The intersection of politics and sports is an expanding crossroads. We’ve seen it in protests during national anthems. In the boycott of North Carolina by sports leagues and associations. In the potential boycott of Texas, which is considering its own “bathroom bill.”
Now there are rumblings that the United States, as a whole, could feel global reverberations in the sports world due to the Trump administration’s political stances.
Europe’s top soccer official said the travel restrictions proposed by the Trump administration could hurt this country’s chances of hosting the 2026 World Cup. That follows similar reports that immigration restrictions and travel bans could endanger the hopes of Los Angeles for hosting the 2024 Olympics. Though the initial travel ban was blocked in federal court,
President Trump has vowed to keep fighting.
“It will be part of the evaluation and I am sure it will not help the United States get the World Cup,” Aleksander Ceferin told the New York Times. Ceferin is the president of UEFA, soccer’s top governing body in Europe. He is also vice president of FIFA, soccer’s international governing body and organizer of the World Cup, so his words are to be taken seriously.
Ceferin added: “If players cannot come because of political decisions or populist decisions, then the World Cup cannot be played there . ... It is the same for the fans and the journalists, of course. They should be able to attend the event whatever their nationality is.”
The ramifications of a travel ban could also trickle down to other sporting events that involve teams from outside the United States, such as the tours by the top Mexican and European soccer clubs.
Three of the nations targeted by Trump’s initial ban — Iran, Iraq and Syria — are on their way to qualifying for the 2018 World Cup. Iran has played in three of the past five World Cups. All seven nations covered by the blocked ban — the others are Libya, Yemen, Somalia and Sudan — sent athletes to the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro last summer.
While the governing organizations of those events may be narrowing their viewpoint strictly in terms of immigration and travel policy, they haven’t exactly been staking out a moral high ground over the years.
Even those who don’t support Trump’s intended travel restrictions may find the threat of upending the U.S. bids for the globe’s top two international sporting events decidedly hypocritical.
Next year, the World Cup will be in Russia and in 2022 it will be in Qatar. FIFA officials were able to put aside any of their concerns about corruption, human-rights issues, slavery and lack of free speech or free movement to award the prize to those countries.
The IOC has awarded the Olympics to Beijing — twice (in 2008, and for the Winter Games of 2022) and to Sochi, Russia. Again, concerns about free speech and human rights were not exactly at the top of their priority list when entertaining the winning bids.
Neither the IOC nor FIFA has set a precedent when it comes to concerns about whether all players, fans and journalists are welcome in the countries they’ve already chosen to host their games. Gay athletes or reporters may not have that identity stamped on their passports, but they are considered to be breaking the law in Qatar.
The events in question could take place after Trump is out of office. But the decision on who will host the events will be made during his current term in the White House. The choice for the 2026 World Cup will be made in May 2020. Los Angeles and Paris are the only remaining candidates bidding to host the 2024 Olympics. That bid will be decided in September.
Scott Blackmun, the CEO of the U.S. Olympic Committee, didn’t sound too concerned in recent comments to the New York Times.
“The Games are more than seven years away at this point and, candidly, the IOC has been through this a number of times,” Blackmun said. “I think they have the ability to look past what I would call the short-term political or situational environment.”
These issues aren’t isolated to the United States. Marine Le Pen, an anti-immigration politician, is running for president in France, where elections will be held in May. Ceferin said that Brexit-motivated immigration policies could hurt Great Britain’s hopes of hosting such events as soccer’s Champions League final and the European Championships.
And the appearance of being anti-American is nothing new inside FIFA and the IOC. The country’s most recent Olympic bid, an effort by Chicago to host last summer’s Olympics, was considered damaged by the policies of President George W. Bush.
America has long been viewed as a safe haven and as a place for athletes from other countries to train. Both the Olympics and the World Cup, despite their flaws, are some of the world’s most powerful expressions of humanity and cooperation.
But, like so much else in sports, they’re caught in the web of politics. Ann Killion is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. Email: akillion@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @annkillion