Who Owns Sport - The Sponsors?

As a former newsman whose career has reached into most corners of daily journalism, including reporting from the touchline and editing big match reports, I understand well why there is no popular movement around the world that can match the cultural richness, economic clout and political power of sport.

Sport means much to the people who play and sometimes a lot more to the audience it inspires childhood dreams, national passions and feelings of community that help people to identify themselves in a world which is changing rapidly and in ways that are not always for the best.

Today the ability to reach global audiences through television has created a billion-dollar sports industry involving powerful multinational corporate sponsors, advertisers, the sports organisations, consumer good producers and media companies.

The globalisation of sport has created wealth for many people and institutions in the sports and media world. It is also changing the role that sport plays in society. In the quest for market shares the cultural, democratic and community values previously synonymous with sport are steadily losing importance.

Some of the things we might consider are how the process of commercialisation and globalisation:

• Reinforces the concentration of power in fewer media conglomerates and has encouraged authoritarian and exclusive sports organisations
  
  
• Leads to oppression of open public debate in the sports world, when silence is more or less directly imposed on athletes, coaches, leaders and other agents in the sector
  
  
• Creates a distorted image of sport ideals
  
  
• Turns sport into a privilege for the wealthy whether on television or at the sports ground

Certainly as a representative of journalists, I know that many reporters feel the pressure of a powerful industry that encourages them to serve commercial imperatives rather than the public interest.

In the past few years we have many examples where the ideals of sport are being tarnished in ways that suggests sports men and women and the people who work with are under intolerable pressure to deliver success. As a result, the balance between commercial interests and the public good has been seriously disturbed. In, particular we might reflect on:

• The doping scandals in Tour de France, which were revealed, tellingly, by the police, and not by the sports authorities or the vast press corps.
  
  
• The medias revelations of how the worlds leading soccer player and heroic role model for millions of youngsters, Ronaldo, was forced to play in the World Cup Final despite clear evidence of illness.

• The regulations of the International Volleyball Federation that imposes sexually challenging clothes on female players, in order to attract television audiences.
  

• The decision of the International Amateur Athletic Federation (1997) to secretly cut down out-of-competition doping controls, a decision that might be seen as convenient for the facilitation of more world records - and better television and sponsor contracts.
  

• The on-going purchase of major sports clubs by entrepreneurs aiming to buy sport in order to control other markets, as shown in the dramatic attempt by Rupert Murdoch to buy Manchester United for almost 1 billion dollars.
  

• And, of course, the high profile allegations of corruption within the IOC and other international sporting organisations.

It would be foolish to deny that sponsorship and globalisation of information and media resources do not provide serious and disturbing challenges.

The corporate machine increasingly dominates the national sporting scene. In the Netherlands, for instance, Dutch Telecom, Philips, some cable networks and the production company Endemol together launched a new sport television channel, which has acquired all exclusive rights for the national football league. The Dutch football association is even one of the shareholders of the channel. A similar project for a pay sport television channel is being started in Denmark.

The merging of media companies, sports organisations and sponsors has led to a serious dilemma for many sports journalists who find themselves squeezed between the demands of an industry and the loyalty to serve the public interest - in a compelling, educated and unbiased manner.

Competitive sport has become a global phenomenon worth billions of dollars and in which there is ever-closer co-operation between the media, sponsors and the sports authorities. This is a lucrative triangle for those that control the industry, but is it something of a "Bermuda Triangle" for critical and investigative sports journalism.

At the same time, some believe that sport is an essential part of national identity and creativity that should not fall under the exclusive control of commercial sponsors. In the UK, for instance, regulations ensure that matches of the national team at home and abroad have to be made accessible to the broadest possible audience through public broadcasting.

But in a global economy there are unacceptable contradictions that affect us all that are played out very far from home. Issues such as use of child labour in production of sports products for massive world markets are deeply troubling the international labour movement and need to be addressed.

How can sport be clean if in the name of promoting a spirit of human excellence and achievement we damage the fundamental human rights of the very young people and communities that look to sport to provide examples of heroism to which they can aspire? Everyone connected with sport, and most of all its sponsors, must set standards that are uplifting and do not diminish the lives of the worlds most vulnerable groups.

We know, too, that the pressure on athletes to perform well to meet the expectations of sponsors and promoters is leading to unacceptable compromises with their own good health and that of the community, particularly in the use of drugs, a scourge in a world where the problem of drug taking among young people is a matter of major public concern.

So let us look at some of these problems. Is the issue of ownership itself important? Certainly it was to the fans of Manchester United who last year emphatically rejected the overtures of Mr Murdoch? But how do we restore the balance of public interest against the narrower aims of sponsors without losing the potential advantages of greater investment in sport at national level?

We must look more specifically at the current demands of sponsors and ask what is the potential impact on sport? Do we need to find new ways of working or can we reinforce existing standards and codes to help balance the relationship between sportsmen and women and sponsors of the game? How can we ensure that the audience feels the benefits of sponsorship? How do we put people first when the bottom line is defined by ratings, market share and financial reward?

Finally, I want to say a word or two about some heroes of my own. They are the few journalists who have endeavored to shine a light into the darker side of modern sport, many of whom love sport dearly. They have often run into walls of silence, non-co-operation, obstruction and intimidation by the sports world and sometimes by their own editors. Im pleased to say that theses days, because of the rising public concern Ive mentioned, an increasing number of reporters, many of them young journalists, are working for positive change in sports journalism

Their concern is to resolve the fundamental dilemma of sponsorship and sport. How to ensure that financial gains from sports go back to the benefit of the games and not into the pockets of those who use sports merely as another means of financial speculation. If the current trend that many of them fear continues, towards sports being regarded as just another saleable media product, then we all stand to lose.

The International Federation of Journalists is the world's largest organisation of journalists. It represents more than 450,000 members in over 100 countries. IFJ promotes co-ordinated international action to defend press freedom and social justice. It does not subscribe to any given political viewpoint, but promotes human rights, democracy and pluralism. The IFJ is opposed to discrimination of all kinds and it believes in freedom of political and cultural expression, and defends trade union and other basic human rights.