indwe magazine – Nov 2005

For the Love of the Game

Text: Shun Govender
Not too long ago South Africans used to pride themselves about sunshine, braaivleis, rugby and a famous brand of motor car. Like religion, sport is something people ‘believe in’ and from which they take their cues about life and patriotism . And like a people’s identity some sporting codes have come to be associated with specific nations. So when the world of sports begins to wobble, emotions run high, often very high.
lately the sorry state in which South African rugby, soccer and cricket gets plunged into almost every other day has shifted sports media attention from the back pages to front page headlines. It is not the praises of South African sports that are sung these days; instead there are complaints about bad coaching, about management and political interference in the game, about personal ambition and greed, about bad sports behaviour on and off the field. We are dished up a never ending stream of laments, and falling away from sport is the support of the fans. Do not interfere with a man’s beer and his Saturday afternoon.
Sports is Big Business
Everybody knows that ‘sport’ is big business – on and off the field. In fact, there are soccer clubs that are so skillfully managed that they are businesses in their own right, generating huge turnovers. Players are bought and sold daily on the global sporting market place for ‘dream-come-true’ millions. A massive advertising industry has grown up around the skillful use of world-famous sports faces, figures and commodity branding. Sports women and men promote any and everything under the sun for an advertising fee. The purse is so fat that you could be set up for life if you win a championship.
Global corporations reduce their tax liability by announcing sponsorships to promote sports and open doors for less fortunate but gifted talent. From horse-trading for players to multi-billionaires buying and owning crowd-pulling clubs, sports and its development have benefited immensely from the flurry of economic activity that surround them. The reasons are obvious: to stay at the cutting edge of sports science technology, to manage a winning team and to become a world champion athlete – all of these require hard work, and big money.
The Non-financial Spin-offs
The non-financial spin-offs from sports are also greatly beneficial for society at large. Business is about more than making money; it is about improving and adding value to the quality of life. The same goes for sport and the business of sport. Sport is about beauty, inspiration, culture, nobility in winning and losing. Sport is about breaking down gender stereotypes, and welcoming the differently-abled members of our communities. Sport is an avenue to a humane future for human interactions. Children’s imaginations are fired through playing games, and sporting greats have been spawned and nurtured by a childhood memory. National pride, anthems and flags have danced and wept on sports fields in great and small places on the planet. Beating a rival nation in fair and open competition on the sports field is an immensely more superior form of diplomacy than winning on the killing fields of war.
The Darker Side of the Game
And yet, like business, there is also a darker side to sport. Big money has brought big-time corruption with it. Officials and players alike crudely or craftily cash in, games are thrown and matches fixed across continents, dope test results topple mega stars as fast as they try to make a quick buck. The kinds of pressures to perform that are brought to bear on coaches and players alike often prove to be too much to handle. Even the public seems to have become more fickle and gullible; when the going is good they will adore you, but that’s as far as allegiances seem to go these days. Sports women and men live and die by their sell-by dates, which become shorter and shorter, because they have been turned into profit-making commodities. The malaise is more pervasive: sports stadiums and villages are built for Asian Games, African Games, and Commonwealth Games in developing countries only to become run down, unused and non-viable economic burdens afterwards.
The world of business in sports is clearly under scrutiny to put its house in order and clean up its act. Athletes are icons and role models. They have to excel and inspire us in their business activities in the same way they do on the field or in the ring. Sports administrators too have to become models of business management and leadership styles.
Hosting 2010
South Africa will host the 2010 Soccer World Cup. With the event just around the corner the hype is already building up and all the sporting business actors are gearing up and setting plans. Government too is going to become a big economic player in the run-up to the event. New stadiums have to be built, and old ones refurbished. Policy and strategic decisions have to be taken regarding their locations, and their social and economic impacts weighed up. Many poor communities will vie for preferred treatment, and rightly so. Service and support sectors such as transport, tourism and the hospitality industry stand to make mega bucks. The necessary infrastructure must be in place and working at peak efficiencies well before kick-off. The country will have to spend millions to make millions.
Stop Complaining and Start Celebrating
This is a wonderful business venture with the potential for generating huge profits and social benefits at the same time. Not only do we have to capture the imagination of billions of people all over the globe for whom the love of the game is everything, but we are being challenged to show that good business practice, wealth creation, sports enjoyment and social upliftment all stand to benefit if we can come up with a winning formula. This will have to be a formula that can bring the actors to a commitment to work together. They will have to work with government to hammer out a policy framework which is realistic, achievable and able to be implemented within the given time frames and plans. The kind of money, technical expertise and other resources needed will have to be sourced and committed well in advance. Those who will seek to disrupt, to manipulate, to steal must be exposed and dealt with quickly and effectively.
If we can achieve this, then maybe the lamenting and complaining will stop, and the celebrating will begin and become an unending victory for all our beautiful people. Let’s do this for the love of the game.
Top >