Sporting Integrity

Some people think that sport and politics should always be kept separate; I suppose their reasoning is that sporting events are purely for entertainment purposes (i.e. the best athlete wins, and that’s all there is to it), and morality shouldn’t spoil that enjoyment. But, as you’ve probably already guessed, I disagree. I was perturbed a few weeks ago when the seemingly amoral - as in, money driven - Bernie Ecclestone pushed for the Bahrain Grand Prix to take place regardless of the serious repression of the masses that has been occurring for over a year now (not to mention the fact that Grands Prix annually take place in China where human rights abuses are even more frequent!). I’m frustrated that shortly the Euro 2012 football tournament will partly be held in Ukraine where Yulia Tymoshenko is currently incarcerated under draconian circumstances as a political prisoner; a country which only a few years ago rightly hailed their Orange Revolution for installing a progressive government, has now managed to take three steps back for its one step forward. And on a more local level, boxing (one of my favourite sports) is being brought into disrepute by Frank Warren, David Haye and Derek Chisora. After an outrageous press conference a few months back where Haye and Chisora brawled like savage animals (for which, I hasten to add, I think Haye was more to blame as he threw the first punch - his claim that pre-empive strikes are always acceptable would have seen us in nuclear war decades ago!), they are now being rewarded by the Luxembourg Boxing Federation with a big fight payday. I know that boxing revolves around money - like a lot of sports do - but this is a step too far. Irrespective of whether the legalities of boxing commissions are technically being followed, it is clearly an immoral fight as it wouldn’t be taking place now had it not been for the demonstration of casual brutality. Boxing is meant to be a controlled aggressive sport, not one for street thugs to show off their barbarism. And unlikely as it is, I really hope Warren gets stripped of his manager’s licence so he can never promote a debacle like this again!