Sport, evolving language of the Nations
Sport has always been a catalyst of national identity and pride; however, in the XXI century the relationship between sport and national representation has become more complex due to the large-scale migration of athletes and the widespread commercialization of sport. Cases of transfer of allegiances are rapidly increasing to the extent that the correlation between sport and nationality has been questioned, sometimes with explicitly racist connotations. Referring to Rainer Baub?ck’s idea of ‘thin’ and ‘thick’ citizenship[1], differences shall be accounted with respect to citizens with colonial origins, who earn their citizenship based on birthright and descents, compare to those who, without having any genuine link with the country, acquire citizenship by means of a formal contract obtaining passport (sometimes money and training facilities) in exchange of expected medals and improvement of the national team.
To this extent, the victory of the “black, blanc and beur” in 1998 World Cup was questioned by Le Pen, who labelled the French side "unworthy" representatives who did not know the words of "La Marseillaise"[2]: the debate here is based on ethnicity, and specifically on the claims of the dominant ethnicity of a nation who rejects the expressions of minorities. Provided that multi ethnicity is hereby deemed, and shall be deemed, compatible with the concept of national identity, this paper mainly focuses on the thinner forms of national representation, where the ethical dilemma reaches the top of its complexity. In this respect, Qatar silver medal in the 2015 World Handball Championship has been hardly backlashed for the lack of home-born players: 11 out of 16 were foreign-born players.
In the effort to analyse if and how sport is still a focus for the expression of national identity, this essay aims to explore:
- Why modern sport’s history is directly related to the construction of nation-states and how institutionalization and internalization of sport has fuelled the rise of national identities?
- Which factors determine the increasing phenomenon of nationality swapping and how is it regulated by national and international sporting federations?
- Is contemporary sport still representative of national identities or rather it transcends nationalism? To this extent, is the correlation between sport and nations disrupted or rather transformed?
For the understanding of this paper, it has to be stressed that sport and national identity are hereby approached from a flexible historical perspective: the two forces continuously evolve and mutually shape each other, adapting to the new social attitudes and re-inventing the “historical individuality”[3] of the world’s diverse populations.
Although sports have always been “an occasion for the expression of communitas”[4] (such as factories, schools, churches), the relationship between sport and nations emerges only between the XIX and XX century, with the birth of modern sport and the globalization of sporting practices. Modern sport originated in Britain, as a direct consequence of the Industrial Revolution, adopting its attitude to standardization, quantification and institutionalization: indeed, the codification of uniform rules was one of the main purposes of the newly formed international sporting federations, specifically IOC and FIFA, in order to enable the world’s nations to meet, compete and finally declare the greatest, on the basis of commonly accepted yardstick.
In this respect, while certain scholars consider globalization as melting national cultures, the experience of and interaction with the “others”, spurred by advances in transportations and media technology, has triggered a process of self-categorization, where each individual simultaneously experiences the “awareness of difference” and the sense of belonging to one nation.
In sport, this is true in terms of transition from local to international competitions: “allowing the same games to be played all over the world”[5], sport has become the objective and quantifiable tool for comparing different nations. "War minus the shooting"[6], international sporting events, specifically the Modern Olympic Games and FIFA World Cup, provide an arena for the exhibition of a world divided into competing nation-states, where “international rivalry is pursued by peaceful means”[7]. To this extent, the physical performances of a team are perceived as symptomatic “of the more general state of that nation, particularly its health, stability, and world position.”[8]
History provides concrete examples in this respect. The fascist regimes in Italy and Germany presented and celebrated the athletes as warriors of the nation. During the Cold War, the Olympics offered an athletic (yet still political) stage for the rivalry between USA and URSS, resulting in the highest level of competition. The allocation of five places to Africa at the 1998 World Cup was the culmination of a bitterly contested struggle dating back to the 1960s between the new independent countries and the colonists. Arguably the most politically charged match in World Cup history, the game between USA and Iran at the 1998 World Cup, has been defined “the mother of all games”[9], with US defender Jeff Agoos commenting: “We did more in 90 minutes than the politicians did in 20 years”[10] .
Sport is the perfect language of the nations: within the narrative of international competitions, the “other” is present in a tangible way, in terms of representation and symbolism. Symbolism is, in fact, key. Sport rituals and symbols, similarly to religion, “are crucial sites for imagining and re-imagining the nation”[11], enabling a visual representation of the otherwise volatile and abstract concept of "imagined community"[12].
The flag, the anthem, the colours: sport provides “the metonym whereby the nation is presented as a single sentient being”[13]. This is specifically true with respect to the athletes, of both individual and even more so team sport, who become “the embodiment of the wider imagined community, carrying the nation’s hopes and dreams”[14]. The “imagined community of millions seems more real as a team of eleven named people”[15].
This is blatantly obvious when we think of Italian Dorando Pietri collapsing five times before finishing the marathon at the London 1908 Olympics; or England’s Bobby Moore rising the trophy in Wembley Stadium at the 1966 World Cup; or Paolo Rossi scoring a hat-trick against Brazil bringing Italy to final triumph at Spain 1982.
However, such correlation between athletes and nation appears weaker if we think of Angel Popov, Bulgarian-born Qatari weightlifter; or Sergiu Toma Moldovan-born Emirati judoka; or Yasemin Can, Kenyan-born Turkish long distance runner; as well as Diego Costa, Brazilian-born Spanish footballer who opted for representing Spain after being granted citizenship.
The above athletes are all legitimate citizens of the respective countries; hence, why there is discrimination against those naturalized, especially if naturalization is granted for sport purposes?
The general principle of eligibility[16], under which only those who possess the citizenship of a country can be part of the national teams of that country, is the most evident and institutionalised expression of the synergy between sport and nationality. However, as per the principle of sovereignty under public international law, each state has exclusive and discretionary competence in the attribution of its citizenship: the result is a set of strongly diversified national legislations and the arising phenomenon of multiple nationalities. International sporting federations have, not very successfully, acknowledged and tackled such phenomenon by amending from time to time the eligibility rules, and specifically allowing athletes to change allegiance under specific circumstances.
However, national sporting federations continuously stretch the rules and justifications for national team eligibility, in order to recruit highly skilled athletes, fuelling concerns of “marketization of citizenship”[17]. “This stretching of the concept of belonging can be seen as a global continuum where, on one side of the spectrum there is maximum of historical ties and ancestral relationships, that includes jus sanguis and jus soli and on the other side of the spectrum there is no-prior relationship with the adopted nation.[18]” Indeed, as sport has reached a global dimension, driven mainly by commercial processes, it seems to have become a wholesale market where talent is traded for citizenship. Referring to the case of the Qatari Handball team at 2015 World Championship, former FIFA president Blatter, claimed that the practice of importing players "contradicts the spirit of a national team"[19] because of the lack of a genuine link with the member association.
However, if we look deeper into the Qatari case, the national sport formations seem to perfectly reflect the social structure of the country, and hopefully to anticipate social reforms to ease the very restrictive citizenship legislation[20]. Indeed, we cannot ignore that foreigners amount to around 88%[21] of the total population: this is mainly due to the country’s abrupt economic boom, which attracted millions of foreigners interested in earning money and leave with no citizenship aspiration. In addition, we cannot ignore that as an emerging power in a globalized world, a major component of the Qatari national identity, as of today, is represented by its international positioning and recognition, as pursued through its foreign policy and, strategically, sport.
It seems that, even outside the pitch, it is in Qatar today nature to rely on external sources in order to project its image to the world stage, and specifically its unique image of a modern monarchy-state able to embrace the modern efficiency and the authenticity of Arab culture: the persistent tension between universalism and nationalism is here clearly visible. Likewise, “the potential of sport for unity and disunity should never be underestimated”[22].
Such potential shall be fully embraced rather than rejected: in a liberal framework, the opportunity to switch allegiance may benefit the national associations, the athletes, who may choose their country for instrumental or cultural reasons without such choice being an all-or-nothing statement of identity and most importantly, fans. Victories, medals and performances boost the national pride and unify nations.
Bibliography
[1] Baub?ck, R., (1999), Recombinant Citizenship, Institut für H?here Studien - Institute for Advanced Studies (IHS)
[2] Hooper, S., (April 26, 2002), French spirit of 1998 turns sour, CNN, edition.cnn.com
[3] Chabod, F., (1998), L’idea di nazione Nazione e Romanticismo Laterza, pp. 17-23
[4] Martines, E., (1999) Britishness and Home Nations on the playing field, pp. 103-107
[5] Key, B. J., (2013), Globalizing Sport: National Rivalry and International Community in the 1930s, p.41
[6] Orwell, G. (1945), The Sporting Spirit
[7] Bull, H., (1977), The Anarchical Society: a Study of Order in World Politics, p. 156
[8] Polley, M., (1998), Moving the Goalposts; a history of sport and society since 1945, p. 35
[9] www.fifamuseum.com, (4th August 2016)
[10]O'Callaghan, E., (20 June 2018), Great Satan 1-2 Iran: the most politically charged match in World Cup history, www.theguardian.com
[11] Farquharson, K., & Marjoribanks, T., (2003), Transforming the Springboks: Re-Imagining the South African Nation through Sport, p.45
[12] Benedict, A. (1991), Imagined communities: reflections on the origin and spread of nationalism, pp. 6–7
[13] Polley, M., (1998), Moving the Goalposts; a history of sport and society since 1945, p. 35.
[14] Storey, D., (2019), National allegiance and sporting citizenship: identity choices of ‘African’ footballers, Sport in Society
[15] Hobsbawm, E., (1990), Nations and Nationalism since 1780: programme, myth, reality, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, p. 143.
[16] Articles 5 of the FIFA Regulations and Rule 41 of the Olympic Charter
[17] Jansen, J., (2018), Nationality swapping in the Olympic field: towards the marketization of citizenship?, pp. 523-539
[18] Oonk, G., (2017), Who Belongs to the Nation? Sport, Nationality and Identity: a Global Continuum of Thin and Thick Citizenship Cases
[19] Khatri, S. S., (2015), Blatter: Qatar’s reliance on foreign handball players an ‘absurdity’, www.dohanews.co
[20] Law No. 38 of 2005
[21] en.wikipedia.org, Demographics of Qatar
[22] Mangan, J. A., (1996), Tribal Identities: Nationalism, Europe, Sport, p.9