The lure of big money is leading sports towards an uncertain future.
When the International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach urged politicians and athletes to keep politics out of this year’s Tokyo Olympic Games, it has also plenty to do with protecting their “cash cow” as much as to protect the event’s neutrality status and as a peaceful meeting place.
It is now more evident on how mainstream sports are throwing caution to the wind in pursuit of profit and short term gains. Whether it is their full embrace of gambling or turning a blind eye towards sportswashing, more and more sports organisations and athletes seem to be more interested in making money.
“Cash is King” is the new mantra for a growing number of those involved in sports.
The Spanish FA may want us to believe that the Super Cup, being held in Saudi Arabia, was only agreed upon because the middle-east nation relented in allowing women to attend the games. But the financial benefits cannot be discounted.
Both Barcelona and Real Madrid are reportedly assured of USD6.6m each as appearance fee while Atletico Madrid and Valencia USD3.3m and USD2.2m respectively.
The deal with Spanish FA, to not only hold the tournament in Saudi Arabia, but also to change its traditional dates from August as well as to increase the number of participating teams, is a whopping USD131m over a three year period.
Barcelona coach Ernesto Valverde summed it up succinctly when he said that the bottom line was football had become a business and as a business it looks for income.
The IOC earned USD3.56 billion in 2016, a figure expected to increase this Olympic Games cycle. While most hosts fail to break even, the IOC never has the problem as they hold the broadcast and commercial rights to the Games.
Any political stand made by participating athletes would seriously jeopardize their ability to make money. Just look at how the NBA and its clubs were cowed into submission after the threat of sponsorship and broadcast blackout by China. This after Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey tweeted his support of the Hong Kong protests.
The exorbitant sums being given as appearance money is attracting many top athletes to places where sport is suddenly a major drawcard. In recent months, Saudi Arabia has hosted some of the richest sporting events, or are planning for it in 2020.
Once it was the gambling cities like Macau and Las Vegas that offered huge amounts of cash to lure top sporting stars.
That a heavyweight boxing match could be held in Saudi Arabia would have been unthinkable a decade ago, neither would be the notion of running the Rally of Dakar, which ironically has not seen action in Dakar since 2009.
How about the number of top ranked golfers queuing up to play in the middle-east? Top golfers including Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, Justin Rose, Patrick Reed and Phil Mickelson are all said to be paid huge but undisclosed sums of money to play in the region.
Tiger Woods was reportedly offered USD3m appearance fee while Rory McIlroy USD2.5m, but both players opted not to play in Saudi Arabia.
Mickleson, whose net worth is estimated to be in excess of USD300m, claimed that he was playing in Saudi to do his bit to grow the game in the Kingdom.
Would he have done it without the cash carrot? Or would he do his bit to do the same in a third world country without any appearance fee?
Much of the excuses given by the organisations and sportsmen are no different from what was bandied around previously – I am here to play and promote the sport!, Politics has no place in sports!, It is part of our plan to positively engage through sports!
These are all eerily similar when sports converged into China in the 1990s, when human rights issues there were questionable. With the recent issues with the Uighurs, nothing much has changed as China still hosts plenty of cash-rich events.
The Women’s World Chess Championships is being held in China and Russia, both grappling with human rights issues. But the prospect of increasing the prize money to USD 500,000 for the first time overrides such issues.
Back in 2005, the then FIFA president Sepp Blatter claimed that FIFA was against European clubs making forays into Asia because they undermine the development of Asian football. He had also claimed that the issue of big money in football was being studied by a FIFA task force.
We all know what was the outcome. Blatter himself was kicked out for corruption while many European clubs are now dependent of Asian money.
Whether we like it or not commercialization of sports has affected sportsmanship and ethics.
Sebastian Coe, in an interview several years ago said the more money there was in sport, the more incentive was it for athletes, venues, hosts, marketing companies, sponsors and organising bodies to cut ethical corners.
“When there is so much money there is a powerful incentive not to act in the Corinthian spirit,” he had said.
Coe, the World Athletics president, himself was slammed by critics for selling out and hosting the World Athletics Championships last year in Doha. Qatar’s human rights issues is not something many are proud about either.
The opportunity to offer bigger prize money for athletes, gain profits from events and in increasing instances – lining one’s own pockets – was too good not to take up.
With money now the controller in many sports, the ideal concept of sport is now overshadowed by business. Rightfully or wrongfully, money has replaced the innocence, charm and true competitiveness of sports.
No matter how hard you fight the system, wrestling money’s control over sports is not going to happen.
Cash is King, after all.
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