FIFA World Cup 2022: Signs of politics in sporting events

Sazzad Hussain

The weaving of the Palestine flag by the triumphant Moroccan football team after their win over Portugal in the World Cup Quarter Final on December 10 marks a culmination of the show of solidarity for a political cause which has not been so rare in sports. This show of support for the Palestinian cause, perhaps at the highest sporting events for the first time comes at a time when the world has almost side-lined the seven-decade-long conflict over other issues.

Morocco, an Arab monarchy in North-West Africa (called the Maghreb) is a country which has had regular relations with Israel since the latter’s inception in 1948. In fact, Morocco is the only handful of Arab nations that has diplomatic relations with Tel Aviv. What the Moroccan show of solidarity to the Palestinian cause at a mega sporting event means, the world has seen many other such strong political signs in sports in the last hundred years.

In the 1908 London Olympics Irish athletes who were team members of Britain, boycotted the game as Ireland was not allowed to play as a nation. After years of conflict and civil war independent Irish Republic was formed in 1922 and it went on to be a regular Olympic participant from the 1924 Paris games.

Jesse Owens, winner of four gold medals in athletics at the 1932 Berlin Olympics was snubbed by Adolf Hitler by not shaking hands. At this what came to be known as the Nazi Olympic, a people’s Olympiad was organized in Barcelona, Spain to oppose the policies of Hitler in Germany. Actually the IOC, in its meeting at Barcelona voted in favour of awarding the 1932 games to Berlin, then under the Weimer Republic. But as the Nazis took over Germany in 1933 and unleashed its anti-Semitic and other atrocious agendas the international community wanted to hold a parallel Olympics at Barcelona in 1936. Teams from both the USSR and USA and many European and African colonies were sent. But the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, just before the scheduled games forced the organizers to hastily call it off.

In 1958 the newly formed People’s Republic of China refused to attend the 1960 Rome Olympics since Taiwan was recognized as a representative of the country by the western powers. However, the IOC backed by USSR but disliked by the USA asked Taiwan to march under the name Taiwan or Formosa instead of the Republic of China. They agreed and China did participate. But during the march-pass, the Taiwanese team carried the placard “Under Protest” instead of the name change of their country as asked by the IOC.

The most iconic political protest at the Olympics took place in the 1968 Mexico City games when American sprinter Tommie Smith, gold medallist in 200 meters sprint and his compatriot John Carlos, bronze medallist at the same event performed Black Power Salute at the medals podium while the national anthem was played. Both Smith and Carlos were protesting against the racial discrimination against blacks and other minorities in the USA at that time. In solidarity with them, Peter Norman, the silver medallist from Australia too wore human rights badge on his jersey.

The trio were booed and ostracised by the racist establishments and sporting bodies in their countries. However, in both America and Australia, their protest has now been glorified with public tribute. Avery Brundage, the President of the IOC and an American, who took stern actions against Smith and Carlos were later removed from his post. Brundage's removal was one of the three stated objectives of the Olympic Project for Human Rights.

The world of cricket too was instrumental in raising politics and ending racism and other discriminations. It was largely because of the D’Oliveria Affair in 1968 that became a watershed in the world of sports in boycotting apartheid South Africa. Popularly known as Dolly, Basil D’Oliveria was an English cricketer with a coloured background from Cape Town.

He was selected in the England Test squad for the 1968-69 series tour to South Africa. But the apartheid South African regime, for its apartheid policies, pressured MCC to drop D’Oliveria from their team. The MCC did not budge and as a result, the tour was cancelled. The incident prompted the ICC to ban South Africa from international cricket for 22 years till 1992 and also its sporting boycott by world bodies. The D’Oliveria Affair was one of the acts that pressured apartheid, South Africa, to end its century-long racial segregation and discrimination and the independence of Namibia.

In the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia, two Swiss players Granit Xhaka and Xherdan Shaqiri gestured the double eagle symbol—representing the Albanian flag, after scoring goals against Serbia. The gestures were meant for Kosovo, a separated and independent state in the Balkans, once part of Serbia under Yugoslavia. It showed their solidarity for Kosovo, an Albanian-majority state where Serbia unleashed bloody repressions during its war of independence.

In the Qatar World Cup too, we have seen different political signs by players representing different causes. For example, the Iranian players refused to sing their national anthem in support of the ant-Hijab protests in their country. Similarly, the German team also covered their faces before a match in protest of the ban on LGBTQ rainbow bands by the organizers.

However, it is the Palestine flag waved by the semi-finalist Moroccan team at the Qatar World Cup that bears eminence. I think it will go a long way in garnering global support for the cause of Palestinian independence from Israeli occupation. Before that England all-rounder, Moeen Ali wore Save Gaza and Free Palestine arm bands during the third test against India in Southampton in 2014. Though ICC bared Moeen from wearing the band during the rest of the game, the England team backed him over his wearing of the political arm band.