Hi everyone,
We are Nicolas and Tom, with a brand new issue of inQ-On-Politics. It’s our selection of and take on current political affairs, media campaigns, policy proposals, and expert debates from Brussels, Berlin and beyond. All through the lens of what we render essential in today’s political and economic world: values*.
We invite you on a values-driven journey through political analysis, dotted with suggested links and follow-up posts. In these times of unspeakable tragedy, we continue to believe that those who are bound by common values and act accordingly, yet not naïvely, will be able to stand up to even the most ruthless aggression. BTW: If you want to leave us some change to cover our coffee costs, you can do so here.
After a lengthy break, we’re back with an issue on the need for responsible sports communication, particularly in the multi-million dollar world of professional football.
#Values First
Sport is political, and it’s never been anything but. Sport conveys social values such as motivation, fairness and cultural diversity like hardly any other area of society. The public perception of sport is so significant, because it appeals to a vast array of interest groups such as employees, consumers, investors and voters at the same time; they are conjugating characteristics for social cohesion and the unity of society.
Sport provides structural models that characterise our actions, role models that give us orientation, to which we can aspire and to which we can rise to new challenges.
However, sport isn’t synonymous with “politics” and rightly avoids acting as a better mediator of social interests. A central question is: in a world of hybrid crises, can sport’s claim to convey social values stand up to players who destroy the spirit of sport through fraud, contempt for humanity and corruption?
In football, it’s said that a team can only be as successful as its ability to defend together and be as flexible as possible in attack. In other words, a system only works as well as its defenders and their willingness to stand up for the principles agreed by the team.
After all, it ought to make a difference to democratic public opinion and global perception whether war criminals like Putin try to sell friendly matches as a moral alternative to excluding Russian athletes from the Olympic Games, or whether people denounce corruption at FIFA and demand clear rules and more transparency for further tournament awards.
Gestures such as the signing of a human rights charter for the 2024 European Championships are surely examples to follow.
#Best of Discourse
Apropos sport and its values. The announcement of Nike’s sponsorship deal with the German Football Association, or DFB, has caused quite a public stir, including sharp criticism from individual policy-makers. That was hardly surprising given the 70-year partnership between Adidas and the DFB.
It’s quite astonishing, however, how unprepared and reactive the DFB was in communicating the business decision. Naturally, there’s nothing wrong with picking a new kit supplier, as it’s happening a lot in the world of association football. And if you look at the contract details, the business aspect of the deal becomes even clearer: Nike is apparently showing a far greater commitment to amateur and grassroots sports, a slap in the face to former partner Adidas, which simply denied this social responsibility.
The German FA, which always positions itself as a non-profit organisation in a billion-dollar business environment, was under quite some pressure to accept the most cost-effective deal, in order to keep its non-profit status vis-à-vis the German tax authorities.
When national and regional politicians came out harshly criticising the FA’s move away from the German kit-maker, this is initially comprehensible given the nationwide social and cultural significance of the DFB. Its own dopey communication around the deal has created the impression that this cultural connection has been largely disregarded. While a closer look will tell you a different business story.
Even worse, political reactions have been completely off the mark. The evocation of a crude mixture of nostalgia and patriotism is not only worrying for Germany as a business location, which no longer seems to be aware of its own economic strengths, i.e. the openness of its economy. It’s also perilous given the rise of protectionism in the global economy. The dispute settlement mechanisms in the WTO have been blocked for some time and the European economy is becoming increasingly conscious of its vulnerability in the trade and security bloc between China and the USA. For Germany as a business location, this kind of “economic patriotism” is pretty thin ice.
Where some fundamental values of sport are really under attack can be seen again these days, when the new right-wing media, with democratic parties jumping on the bandwagon, exploit the religious beliefs of German national players, and thus repeatedly call into question the promise of cultural progress and social cohesion based on diversity. The infamous Rubiales case should have shown us what a lack of ethical rules in sports can entail.
One thing is evident: neither democratic societies nor sport can afford a further erosion of fundamental values. Sport organisations and companies need guidance in public debates, especially when it comes to controversial topics such as gender, climate change and racism - especially in local, influential environments. The more we question the integrity of a person or organisation, the more polarised the environment becomes and the greater the threat to social cohesion.
#Think Twice
The jersey competition between Adidas and Nike is a symptom of a deeper debate about how we deal with the social responsibility of organisations and companies in polarised times. In a world of digitalised mass communication where we’re constantly exposed to mis- and disinformation, credibility, supported by the influential individuals and the state’s democratic institutions, is more relevant than ever. Communication is tied to its own multipliers, such as employees or influencers.
The Edelman Trust Barometer impressively illustrates the risk organisations run into if they don’t develop a deeper sense for social awareness, leaving their employees alone with the demands of politics and civil society, especially internally. At the same time, it highlights some inherent political problems in that trust in public institutions for the major transformation tasks of our time is considered to be very low and unprepared organisations/companies are being entrusted with social consensus building and moderating influences, side-lining regional and national parliaments where this competence should actually belong.
#Connecting the Dots
Traditional journalism, increasingly derided in the digital age, has an important role to play in highlighting wrongdoing in sport.
One case whose consequences we haven’t fully grasped yet is that of the “Football Leaks” revelations. It’s thanks to the European Investigative Collaborations network that whistle-blowers have a trustworthy point of contact for securing documents and processing information, and that the quality of these documents differs significantly from platforms such as Wikileaks, which flood the internet with sometimes personal and dangerous information.
Best,
Nico & Tom
*Values are the foundation of our work. To say it with the fancy words of the Treaty of Lisbon: “[T]he values of respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights, including the rights of persons belonging to minorities.” Which is far from being a reality, of course.