By: Roberta Modin
Sports Analyst and banker, Kojo Addae-Mensah has bemoaned how politics is gradually eating into the sports fabric and taking away its true meaning of unity.
Speaking on GTV Sports+ Matchday Show, Tuesday, November 22, 2022, he said that the Qatar 2022 World Cup appears to have witnessed many political interferences.
“I made it when I first came on the show about the politics interfering with the game. I’m not happy about it at all. It is looking like we can’t do much about it but yesterday England versus Iran, not singing the national anthem, wanting to wear an armband…” he added.
Politicking in sports is becoming rife as political actors parade sports events to deliver speeches, in most cases angled at promoting their agenda.
Dunning et al (2002 & 2018) argued that there is a network between politics, football, and society, and politicians capitalized on football to carry out their social mobilization and political propaganda agenda.
Meanwhile, other sports areas like athletes have heeded to the adage that sports and politics should not mix. The Guardian, in 2020 published that the International Committee of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics Games has in January warned that athletes engaging in political acts of protest would face disciplinary action.
Line of Fire Radio Program Host, Dr. Micheal Brown in his article ” Why Politics and Sports do not make for a good mix” argued that people watch sports to get away from their troubled world for a bit. Therefore, mixing sports with politics is like “an unwanted intrusion, as if the sports world is saying, you cannot enjoy the game until you hear our message”.
