AIRmail 12-5-22: Sponsorship Migrates Toward Geopolitical – Rather Than Commercial – Goals & Selective Outrage Around Qatar World Cup Quickly Fades
Key Takeaways
Sponsorship Migrates Toward Geopolitical – Rather Than Commercial – Goals
Selective Outrage Around Qatar World Cup Quickly Fades
New By-Laws at CPA Change Little
NextHash Still Around in Pro Cycling?!
B&B Hotels Situation: How Much of This Is On the UCI?
NBA Chases the Cash Pouring Into Sports
The Conversation blog this week suggests that the sponsorship of major global sporting events has become less about selling drinks and more about promoting geopolitical objectives. Beyond government organizations themselves or parastatal agencies funding sporting events or teams, many of the corporations funding partnerships with FIFA and the current World Cup are in effect extensions of their countries. One example cited is South Korea, where various companies, entertainment and technology ventures are all coordinated in an effort to project the “soft power” – which we discussed a couple of weeks ago – of the country itself. Just this week, Saudi Arabia confirmed the hosting rights to two international tournaments. Including the 2027 Asian Cup. Nowhere has this sort of effort to promote the ideals and goals of independent countries been more apparent than in pro cycling, where several Middle Eastern countries participate directly as sponsors of teams or events.
As the 2022 World Cup in Qatar advanced to the knockout round, concerns about the human rights record of the host country – which were so pervasive two weeks ago – seem to be mostly forgotten. As has often been the case, once the excitement of the games actually begins, earlier ethical or political concerns quickly fade. And despite initial friction around Qatar’s decision to ban alcohol in and near the stadiums, complaints about the venues and services have been far and few between. In fact, the small size of the country and the condensed nature of the competition has eliminated typical historical complaints around unequal travel or climatic conditions suffered by teams. Presumably, a lot of this was anticipated and entered into the calculations when Qatar originally made the decision to shell out $220 billion in order to host the event.
While Qatar has a certifiably weak human rights record, recall that Russia hosted the 2018 event while illegally occupying the Crimean Peninsula – a situation which received only a fraction of the indignation that was directed towards Qatar. Likewise, China’s various human rights transgressions received scrutiny, yet there was limited global concern about holding both the summer and winter Olympics there in the last 15 years. Or, what about Hungary, which has been allowed to host major sporting events, like F1 races and the opening stages of the 2022 Giro, despite Viktor Orban’s government passing strict anti-homosexuality laws and failing to comply with EU immigration laws. In retrospect, it’s no wonder that this type of selective outrage – especially when it doesn’t reference specific issues or acknowledge other (often western) parallel offenders – might be seen as xenophobic in the Arab world.
However, none of this excuses the abhorrent and borderline incoherent comments from FIFA President Gianni Infantino, whose whataboutism minimized the human cost of the Qatari World Cup and essentially posited the idea that no IOC-level decision, no matter the outcome, can ever be questioned or examined. And if it wasn’t already apparent, Infantino’s ill-advised comments only served to highlight and underline the extent to which international sports federations like FIFA and the UCI lack any kind of transparency or accountability.
News that the Cyclistes Professionnels Associes (CPA) held a “vote” last week to ratify new bylaws fell flat, despite some promising changes in its mission. The CPA, which has been the de facto rider association organization “representing” the interests of professional male road racers to the UCI since the UCI created it in 1999, has now opened its general membership to include women racers, in addition to other minor organizational tweaks. However, nothing has materially changed with respect to its structural deficiencies, the lack of a performance roadmap to improve the athletes’ role in the sport, its lack of independence and the accountability of its “elected” leadership. (To explain why we place the words “vote,” “representing,” and “elected” in quotation marks above, we would suggest that none of these terms effectively describe how the CPA functions as an athlete advocacy body.)
We have noted time and again that the lack of well-organized and powerful athlete unions is a deficiency holding back the evolution of professional cycling. The PR release suggests that the CPA is simply falling into line once again, focusing on riders talking to each other in a new internal Rider's Council but ignoring the fact that anything it recommends can be summarily shelved by the UCI. Regardless of the new CPA bylaws, until it has a clear one rider/one vote capability and direct rider union representation with a vote at the UCI Management Committee and Professional Council tables, the global sport lacks crucial direction at a critical time for the sport’s future. The Cyclists’ Alliance (TCA) and the men’s The Riders Union (TRU) — both of which have the freedom of association and independence the CPA lacks — continue to work toward these broader goals, and as we mentioned recently, the TRU has threatened a legal challenge to the CPA in the Swiss courts.
The second season of the UCI’s Track Champions League has been running its event over the past couple of weeks, and it concluded this weekend in London. According to the UCI website, the “reformed race schedule has been designed to create a clear position for track cycling in the cycling calendar. Not only does this give track cycling a clear place in the calendar that doesn’t overlap with road cycling, it provides an opportunity to maximise fan engagement across a regular and consistent race schedule.” Staged across various European cities, the events apparently attracted good crowds, but received only moderate attention in the cycling media. Curiously, hidden in the fine print was the revelation that one of the “official partners” of the event was the mysterious crypto company NextHash. The company’s well-documented but hollow promises and later disappearance contributed to the collapse of South Africa’s Qhubeka WT team in late 2021, and the firm’s CEO was later charged with misuse of company funds. Hence, it seems quite dubious that the company would now pop up in cycling again, particularly as an official sponsor of a UCI event. This once again raises questions about the governance considerations and review processes within the UCI.
In yet another indication of the vast amounts of capital flowing into sports and entertainment properties, the NBA has just announced that it will loosen restrictions on team ownership, allowing sovereign wealth funds, endowments and pensions to acquire passive ownership (up to 30%) in the league’s franchises. It is only the league’s latest attempt to tap into the cash which is chasing sports properties, having opened up to private equity investors a year ago. Just as in soccer and other international sports, the NBA will need to evaluate the risk of investments from the sovereign wealth funds of autocratic countries – many of which have already been accused of sportswashing elsewhere.
Mark Cavendish’s hunt for a team for the 2023 season got a lot more complicated this weekend when it was reported that Jérôme Pineau's ambitious plans for his B&B Hotels team were less concrete than advertised and that the team lacks the funds to continue. While it seems likely that Cavendish will find another team to sign with, most of the other riders on the team won’t be so lucky – due to the late date and number of roster spots remaining on other teams for next year. As observers pointed out, the fact that a team was able to string along its riders and staff until this late date without concrete financial backing calls into question the UCI’s financial criteria and licensing processes.
Finally, the cycling world mourned the death this week of Davide Rebellin, the 51-year-old professional rider known mostly for his absurd career longevity, but also for wins at Amstel Gold, Flèche Wallonne and Liège–Bastogne–Liège. Rebellin was killed when he was hit by a truck while riding his bike in the Veneto region of Italy – again highlighting the fact that while unsafe racing conditions get the vast majority of attention, the biggest risk facing professional cyclists is the time spent sharing roads with vehicles while they are training. Rebellin’s career was tainted by his positive doping test at the 2008 Olympic Games, but the outpouring of affection and sympathy that accompanied his untimely death suggests that some pro cyclists are remembered more for their personality and accomplishments, rather than whether or not they doped.