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Sport rules – okay!
Having become a mega-sized global business sector, its top participants having been bestowed with the status of "professionals", having acquired the perception that its huge international entertainment showpieces can change the lives of millions, and being – in the absence of war – a major conduit of national pride and patriotism: sport is now one of the most universally worshipped idols of humankind of all times. However, with that come some serious dangers.
Like all major religions throughout the world, sport has many sects. A high priest of one of the smaller denominations of these, also known as "The Beautiful Game", has just brought unbelievable shame over humanity. It illustrated, as proved over and over throughout history, how heartless the fanatics of any religion can be toward fellow human beings.
Issa Hayatou, president of the African Football Confederation (CAF), has excommunicated Togo from the 2012 and 2014 African Confederation Cup tournaments. The reason: Togo’s team was ordered home by its government after three members of its broader team were shot on their way to the most recent tournament in Angola.
The rationale for this drastic censure, according to this almighty cleric of the sport religion: “governmental interference”.
The omnipresent importance and influence of sport does not manifest itself only in the age-old power struggle between church and state. It was reported that at a recent international mining indaba held in Cape Town, several major players in the local mining sector were absent. In this instance, their attendance was made impossible by the fact that the date of the indaba, organised by the American Mining Indaba, was moved to accommodate, among others, the Winter Olympics and Paralympics in Vancouver.
On the church/state front, some observers and experts claim that the papacy of soccer, Fifa, has with its dictates forced South African arms of government to ride roughshod over the established rights of some of its own citizens and caused it to pass pieces of legislation that are in conflict with the constitution of the land.
Fifa also seems to have scant respect for the hard-won and well-established democratic principle of freedom of the press. Media representatives will not be allowed into soccer’s houses of worship unless they promise to praise only the Fifa papacy.
In parts of the country, including one of its poorest provinces, multimillion-rand stadiums were built in the vain hope of attracting some of the crumbs off the table of the 2010 World Cup feast, in the form of “base camps”.
In Cape Town, billions have gone into establishing a showpiece stadium in a particular area because it would appear pleasing on the eyes of millions of global television viewers, while previously disadvantaged areas remain without proper facilities.
At least the tiny nation of Togo apparently has decided to fight back. It is reported that Togo has filed a legal complaint against CAF for failing to protect its team from the deadly attack as they travelled to last month’s tournament in Angola. CAF’s high priest Hayatou, however, seems to insist that what he deems in the interest of his denomination of the sport religion should override the powers of a sovereign state to protect the safety of some of its citizens.
Looking at the state of play in the battle for supremacy between the governing bodies of sport and the state, one has to say it looks much like 40-love to the pope.
