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“Sport... has rarely been a space for activism” is factually incorrect. From Modern sport’s inception it has been a space for activism and political engagement. 1/15 https://twitter.com/edwest/status/1341286828356341766
Working class players fought to play football (that was codified by public schoolboys). Professionalism was a move by working class players to have the wages they lost from their jobs recompensed. This is at the foundations of modern sport 2/15
Female players fought for fifty years (and still do) for the right to play after it was banned by the FA. Just playing football as a woman was a form of activism in a world that deemed women shouldn’t play football 3/15
American-Jewish athletes threatened to boycott the 1936 Berlin Olympics (that Hitler used to showcase Nazism) 4/15 https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/the-movement-to-boycott-the-berlin-olympics-of-1936
Jimmy Hill was a leading activist who fought to abolish the maximum wage i. 1961 5/15 https://www.efl.com/news/2016/january/fifty-five-years-to-the-day-20-maximum-wage-cap-abolished-by-football-league-clubs/
The Olympic Project for Human Rights founded by Dr Harry Edwards, culminated in activism at the 1968 Mexico Olympics 6/15 https://www.history.com/news/1968-mexico-city-olympics-black-power-protest-backlash
The activism of Muhammad Ali in the 1960s is well known, so to suggest activism in sport is rare is, erm, interesting 7/15
There’s a massive list of various boycotts of apartheid-era South Africa 8/15
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sporting_boycott_of_South_Africa_during_the_apartheid_era
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sporting_boycott_of_South_Africa_during_the_apartheid_era
The National Front actively recruited fans in the 1970s and other far-right groups use football (and other sports) to recruit 9/15
Bosman is a different form of activism where a player fought for their right to play in a different EU country and not be tied to a contract after that contract had expired 10/15 https://www.open.edu/openlearn/health-sports-psychology/health/sport-and-fitness/sport/what-was-the-bosman-ruling-the-one-minute-guide
Since the 1990s fans and players have been engaged in a variety of forms of activism, from the Football Supporters Association (ticket prices, governance etc) to Kick It Out, to ultras and a variety of forms of activism and strategies 11/15
There are many, many more examples of activism by players and fans throughout the history of modern sport, from its early days to today. 12/15
To suggest that sport is not political also ignores that sport upholds the politics of the status quo regardless of the acts of a player or fan. 13/15
The Olympics upholds nationalism (nationals teams, flags & anthems). Sport operates in a capitalist economy and the sponsors reinforce this. 14/15
Invariably the people that say sport (or fans or players) shouldn’t be political are the ones that wish to maintain the status quo. And this article is no exception. 15/15
