Match fixing condemned in sports but encouraged in politics...

Match fixing condemned in sports but encouraged in politics...

This week as New Zealand gets ready to go to the polls we have a timely report from the sports corruption desk, which brings to light an interesting double standard when it comes to laws allowing for the prosecution of athletes involved in match fixing. This also opened up a discussion about the politicisation of sporting events and the wider role of sports in the media.

Sports and politics appear to be two totally separate spheres of life but this is quite far from the truth. Governments have long recognised the economic and social benefits that come from hosting global sporting events and how to use their involvement in these events to score political points. I have recently reported on corruption surrounding the bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cup tournaments, to be held in Russia and Qatar, respectively – countries not exactly steeped in footballing history or known for their honest interpretation of democracy and human rights. Russia’s ongoing involvement in the escalating Ukraine crisis has led many to call for them to lose the privilege of hosting a World Cup. There were many suspicions of corruption surrounding the recent Winter Olympics in Sochi, with many reliable reports accusing the Russian government of serious misuse of public funds with inflated contracts being awarded to oligarchs that are “friendly” with the government. This is not the first Russian Olympic controversy either, as in 1980 the United States led a boycott of that year’s Olympics in Moscow, initiated in response to Russia’s invasion of Afghanistan.

Closer to home and we still all cringe with embarrassment when we remember John Key’s supremely awkward triple handshake at the 2011 World Cup. While this was a superficial moment there have been many more serious instances of sport mixing badly with politics in our short history, one of the most notorious being the violence and protests over South African apartheid that dominated the Springbok tour of 1981.

Next year New Zealand will host the Under-20 FIFA World Cup and co-host the Cricket World Cup with Australia. With the integrity of these tournaments in mind, and in the wake of the many recent scandals of cricket match fixing that implicated many of our most high-profile cricketers, Sport and Recreation Minister Murray McCully introduced legislation in the last parliament that would allow for a maximum sentence of seven years of jail for New Zealand athletes or officials who were found to be “deliberately influencing an event for betting purposes” and “improperly manipulating a sports event.” Before the proposed law change, athletes found to be participating in match fixing were able to be sanctioned by their respective sporting bodies but not able to be charged with any crime.

While I agree that match fixing is bad for sports, I do find more than a hint of irony in John Key and his Sports Minister using the term “improperly manipulating a sports event.” So what about the government “improperly manipulating” an election?

This is exactly what has been allowed to happen in previous elections with National making pre-election deals with other parties to guarantee the minor party winning that electorate so they can drag a few more MPs into parliament under the coat-tailing rule and prop up the National government. This can lead to parties getting more representation and influence than the public actually voted for them to have. Sounds like “deliberately influencing” and “improperly manipulating” the democratic process to me. This very issue was debated in the last parliament and as “The Right Honourable” Winston Peters said: “At its highest level we have match fixing in politics. So how can you possibly say to sports people, ‘this is wrong, we have to stop it,’ and yet condone it in your own business?” He makes a point that is hard to argue against without looking like a blue face-painted, party balloon-waving, “Team Key” shirt-wearing, partisan moron.

This “political match fixing” goes to ridiculous lengths as National’s Epsom candidate, Paul Goldsmith, was spotted removing his own campaign advertisements and echoing John Key’s instructions for Epsom voters to support ACT instead. The ACT MPs from Epsom haven’t exactly proved themselves to be ideal candidates either. Former leader John Banks was expelled from the last parliament after being found guilty of not declaring campaign contributions. Current ACT candidate in Epsom, the rather wooden David Seymour, is likely to get a free ride into parliament despite his embarrassing and low budget campaign video which wasn’t immediately clear whether or not it was a self-parody. Apparently it wasn’t.

To be able to have an open and honest discussion in the media about whether an electorate deal is going to be struck and the election “improperly manipulated” is pretty amazing and I can’t believe that more people are not outraged about what is (despite being legal under electoral law) a blatant disregard for the democratic process. If the All Blacks and Wallabies coaches had a press conference in which they casually talked about engineering a result that would benefit both teams in the Rugby Championship there would be a public outrage, and rightly so. But to be ambivalent to the fact that the same thing is happening in our politics shows the amount of disinterest and disengagement that the general public has when it comes to politics in New Zealand. Well, we are famous for our sheep ...

Media and political scholar Noam Chomsky makes me feel rather guilty about being a hack sports reporter as he talks derisively about the role that sport plays in his infamous “propaganda model” of the mass-media. He says: “Take sports – that's another crucial example of the indoctrination system, in my view, because it offers people something to pay attention to that's of no importance. In fact it's striking to see the intelligence that's used by ordinary people in discussions of sports as opposed to political and social issues.”

Maybe this is why the 2011 election was held shortly after the Rugby World Cup. Most of the country and the media had been so focussed on this event and not on politics and John Key assumed the success of the tournament and the All Blacks would rub off onto him. Or maybe he just realised that his main opponent was the uncharismatic and bungling idiot Phil Goff so he didn’t have a lot to worry about.

If you take a look at the newspaper or the six o’clock news on any given day, chances are there will be more pages or airtime devoted to sports than politics. This brings up a paradoxical question about the relationship of sports and the media. Is sport so popular because the media cover it so much (which implies a degree of active agenda setting) or does the media simply give a lot of sports coverage because it is so popular (merely reflecting public opinion)?

In Dunedin we don’t have to worry about the “dirty politics” of match fixing as both of our electorates are reliably red Labour strongholds. The only time I think an electorate deal would be popular here in Dunedin North would be if Labour’s David Clark would step aside so that the Legalise Cannabis Party deputy leader Abe Gray could make it into parliament as part of a left-wing coalition. This, with me being fully aware of the hypocrisy after everything I have just said, would be an appealing deal to make but I can’t see it happening any time soon.

So whether it is the Academy Awards, a cricket match or a general election, match fixing is reprehensible and only demeans the integrity of that institution. If the government wants to stop it happening in sports then they shouldn’t do it in politics.
This article first appeared in Issue 23, 2014.
Posted 4:38pm Sunday 14th September 2014 by Daniel Lormans.