Once Again: Money Over Democracy In Sports (And An Important Lesson For PR Pros)

Arthur Solomon

The moguls who control the jewels of the international sports events—the Olympics and soccer’s World Cup have one thing in common: They don’t care which country hosts their propaganda-rich tournaments as long as the countries cough up enough money. 

The most recent example of money over democracy is the on-going tournament in Qatar from November 20 to December 18. And once again American companies like VISA, Coca-Cola, McDonald’s and Budweiser have thrown in their lot with non-democratic countries by sponsoring games that are not fun for the persecuted citizens in totalitarian countries that have hosted the Olympics and World Cup.

On November 20, the New York Times wrote, “After a 12-year buildup stained by corruption and human rights abuses, Qatar will draw billions of eyes during the quest for World Cup glory,” Substitute Olympics for World Cup and the sentence would still be accurate.

Most people think of the Olympics when the subject of international sporting events in totalitarian countries is the subject. That’s because the most infamous example of international sports cooperating with a despotic regime is when Germany was permitted to host the Summer and Winter Olympics in 1936 despite it being known for the persecution of people who didn’t measure up to Hitler’s twisted master race beliefs. Nazi Germany was only the first of several anti-democratic countries to host the Olympics. (More on this later.)

FIFA, the international governing body of association football, (soccer in the U.S.) also has a long and disgraceful record of playing footsie with totalitarian regimes.

A column in the November 18 Wall Street Journal by Tunku Varadarajan  about the World Cup was titled, “Soccer’s World Cup and Its Quirks.” A sub-head read, “Should FIFA let a country that isn’t a democracy host?”

The article concluded with, “Should Qatar be hosting the World Cup? FIFA’s bidding process was opaque and corrupt. Hundreds of workers died in the building of Qatar’s stadiums. Qatar’s emir isn’t the first autocrat to host the cup: Mussolini hosted in 1934, as did the Argentine junta in 1978 

and Mr. Putin in 2018. Since China will bid for the cup in the future, a way needs to be found to exclude unsavory regimes from hosting this, the world’s most popular sports event. Democratic Europe is soccer’s powerhouse. It should demand that no cup ever be hosted in a country that isn’t a democracy.” I couldn’t agree more.

World Cup players from European democracies originally were to protest the anti-human rights policies of Qatar by wearing armbands that were seen as a rebuke to host nation Qatar’s human rights record.

But an Associated Press article on November 21 reported, “…FIFA’s threat of on-field punishment for players pushed World Cup teams to back down Monday and abandon a plan for their captains to wear armbands… Just hours before the first players wearing the armbands in support of the “One Love” campaign were set to take the field, the governing body of soccer warned they would immediately be shown yellow cards — two of which lead to a player’s expulsion from that game and also the next.” 

As bad as FIFA’s sorry record is it doesn’t replace the hideous and shameful record of the International Olympic Committee.

In 1936, despite it being known that the Nazis were persecuting Jews, and other people that they considered undesirable, the IOC permitted Germany to host the Summer and Winter Olympics. (The first concentration, camp, Dachau, was constructed in 1933 by Nazi officials and was used as a model for future camps.)

Totalitarian Germany showed its true face immediately after the conclusion of the Nazi Olympics but the IOC’s attitude toward totalitarian governments didn’t change. In 1968 the IOC awarded its game to Mexico, despite the country’s single-party authoritarian government. Twice the IOC awarded its games to Russia in 1980 and again in 2014 and another totalitarian government, Yugoslavia, hosted the games in 1984.  China was given the 2008 Summer Olympics and the 2022 Winter Beijing Olympics.“Just show us the money” would be an appropriate IOC motto.

American sponsors of the Olympics, along with American networks and the United States Olympic establishment also showed no shame in helping put a good face on those countries. 

The usual response given by American sponsors when criticized for bankrolling the games in despotic countries is, “We just follow the athletes,” when in reality they mean “that’s where the sales are.” 

The athletes would be harmed by participating in boycotts, according to the United States Olympic Committee, as if winning an event is more important than showing disgust about totalitarian countries human rights abuses.

And it’s no surprise for the networks embrace of televising the Olympics (and the World Cup) no matter where the games are held. Remember what, then CBS CEO Leslie Moonves said about Trump during the 2016 presidential election campaign. “It may not be good for America, but it’s damn good for CBS. …” 

And if that isn’t a disgrace, what is?

The Important Lesson For PR Pros

If a client is sponsoring an event in a totalitarian country, there’s a likelihood that protests against your client’s participation might occur (as it did during the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. Be prepared for such an occurrence. Don’t wait until protests begin to plan responses.

About the Author:Arthur Solomon, a former journalist, was a senior VP/senior counselor at Burson-Marsteller, and was responsible for restructuring, managing and playing key roles in some of the most significant national and international sports and non-sports programs. He also traveled internationally as a media adviser to high-ranking government officials. He now is a frequent contributor to public relations publications, consults on public relations projects and was on the Seoul Peace Prize nominating committee. He has been a key player on Olympic marketing programs and also has worked at high-level positions directly for Olympic organizations. During his political agency days, he worked on local, statewide and presidential campaigns. He can be reached at arthursolomon4pr (at) juno.com.