Is bringing politics to sport justified?

Egyptian judo athlet refused to shake hands with Israeli athlet. I thought it was embarrassing to himself and his country.

Also how is Barcelona justified in bringing politics into sport. Sergie Guardiola was sacked from B team for his anti catalunya Facebook posts.

Well the media does it, The N. Korea and S. Korea selfie is still doing the rounds in the papers.

To a degree it is justified, yes. Don't like the concept of hard-separating the two at all.

I think the separation is mostly there to protect fifa/ioc from the complains of governments

Sport is supposed to be a shared space, ideally. But, steadily its influence has been more and more exploited, particularly since the shitty culture war of the sochi Olympics.

Sports and politics...

May I remind you of Munich 1972, Moscow 1980 and Los Angeles 1984... Oh and in 1968, 1972, and 1976, a large number of African states threatened a boycott over South Africa, Rhodesia and New Zealand, too, unless these states were excluded.

In Athens 2004, Iran didn't want to compete against Israeli athletes, but as they feared sanctions, they just announced their athletes as injured or otherwise unfit (one Iranian judoka just ate too much so that he was disqualified in his weight group so that he didn't have to fight an Israeli judoka )  

It's not a topic that only came up this year...

I really do wonder what is Iran's and Egypt's problem with Israel. Do they teach people hate Israel as part of the curriculum? , Looking at the social media it is extreme hate.

Yes, because the hate is one sided . Seriously when will it end.



I love this picture. Taken at tomorrow land 2014

How about this, instead of taking sides and calling countries prejudice we can tell racists to *bleep* off and learn to love one another

Adit wrote:I really do wonder what is Iran's and Egypt's problem with Israel. Do they teach people hate Israel as part of the curriculum? , Looking at the social media it is extreme hate.

It's not about hate, Iran had a friendly relation with Israel until Islamists overthrown the monarchy and took over the country, after that they cut all ties with them and refuses to recognize them as a legitimate country, now they call them "the Zionist regime".

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CqFbpDKXYAAtDNS.jpg

Celtic fans today at the match against Hapoel Beer Sheva

But are they doing it because they genuinely believe in a Palestinian state or just to piss off the Israeli?

Either way, they're probably used to it by now

Same fanbase that often breaks out in pro IRA songs, usually against Rangers so i'll go for the latter.

Doubt greg from down the road with his can of special brew, 1/2 GCSE and 3 teeth is up to date on the current political state of affairs half a world away

You're underestimating the knowledge of the common people Tom, just the other day my barber told me that Nepal will invade China/East Asia in 10 years, they will become the dominant force there

ES wrote:You're underestimating the knowledge of the common people Tom, just the other day my barber told me that Nepal will invade China/East Asia in 10 years, they will become the dominant force there

Wonder if paddy power are taking bets on this

BarrileteCosmico wrote:But are they doing it because they genuinely believe in a Palestinian state or just to piss off the Israeli?

Either way, they're probably used to it by now

Nah I actually think this was genuine. They've raised 35,000 GBP since that match for Palestine.

In general I don't think it's possible to separate sports fully from politics, and tbh I don't understand the appeal. Politics has become some scary word that no one wants to talk about over dinner or with their friends and everyone thinks is some complicated nuanced subject where everyone is right and so we should just avoid conflict. For some issues that may be true but for causes like the Ethiopian dictatorship that one of their athletes made a sign of protest against, it's a no brainer for people to support them. They're trying to raise awareness for inhumanity on the largest stage they'll ever have, not sure why we're trying to stop them.

The refusal to shake hands was idiotic and embarrassing though.

Actually its nothing new, The handshake refusal is just another one of the long list of incidents occurring against Israel in sports since about 25 years.

Every year we have at least 2-3 incidents about boycotts or alleged boycotts against Israel in Sports, Mostly done by Iranian athletes.

This is basically the reason even though Israel has nothing to do with Europe whatsoever, They play in the Euro qualifiers and world cup qualifiers as a team from Europe even though they are middle eastern.

This is a prime example of how politics has completely changed the nature of sports in Israel and the fact some Europeans might refer to them as European lulz

Except it is not really about 'inhumanly ' and everything about religion. Soudi are bombing civilians in Yemen, I see no one really interested about the inhumanity of that or any one expressing their anger towards Soudi athlets for that matter. It's unnecessary to bring politics especially religious one into sports.

Well maybe Hamas should stop provoking Israel and Israel change their shitty right wing policies. Always a trend on both sides and violence is ALWAYS done by the right. Put the left in power in both sides and see the bombs disappear

Violence is always done by violent people. Left or right doesn't matter. Countless examples all over the world of the left being violent too. Bombs won't dissapear so easily.

FennecFox7 wrote:violence is ALWAYS done by the right.

One of the stupidest posts I've ever seen

I've had some time to think about it and I do think bringing politics in sport is sometimes justifiable. Politics is part of the human experience just like sports so its only natural the two things can interact.

My issue with the handshake, or lack thereof, was the fact that it makes Judo and the teachings it is SUPPOSED to represent look bad.  Judo is about trust between judoka, and about respect between all groups no matter what you bring with you on the tatami. Obviously They aren't teaching that now, and it wasn't just this match that showed that. That other italian guy walking around like a peacock showboating, and the crowd eating it up, was in the same vein.  Its not judo, but just a bunch of people grappling.  

Its not just embarrassing, but disheartening when you consider Judo was one of the few things we've given the world that was able to show people, the chinese in particular, that the Yamato people and culture was not just one of a bunch of island barbarians. A guiding force with which 20th century Pan-Asianismm was built on. It has shown to be a failure though.

good topic. whilst i feel they should be separate, it can be justified, but from a non-violent standpoint. it can be justified if athletes are raising awareness, promoting peace, promoting unity, standing up against ignorant and extreme ideas. in such scenarios, used as a tool for peace and harmony, yes.

but as a tool for some political agenda, which does nothing but rile up ignoramuses and only adds fuel to fires, then no, it is not justified. sports is about entertainment, we already have more than enough idiots out there starting senseless violence; the last thing we need are athletes promoting such behavior

especially in a team setting. many of us played sports as kids, sometimes someone who couldn't speak your language played with you, you didn't understand him, he didn't understand you, but he might have been so good on the field or court, you built comradery. you're making a living off something you love, have a backbone and don't become a pawn for politicians who have other agendas at hand

Interesting topic, especially given what Colin Kaepernick just did. There comes a point when athletes, as role models for those who will replace them in the future, often feel it their duty to address the political climate of the day. There's a way to do it, of course, but it won't lessen the impact it can have when a high profile athlete makes a political statement.

Justification is subjective. What one might find just, another might find unjust.

The other thing we can't get away from is that it all depends on what side you're on. If an athlete made some sort of anti-Trump gesture I'd probably support them and be happy, but if it was the other way around I'd be furious.

That's what I mean when I say justification is subjective.

Kaepernick refused to stand for our national anthem because of the climate between black communities and the police. He was roundly criticized for it by the right-wing while supported by the left-wing. One side found it a just move, the other an unjust move.