Should honour and honesty be kept out of sports?

Following is an edited version of Rev Michael James’ column, ‘The Word and the World’ in the July 10 issue of the weekly Catholic Standard of the Diocese of Georgetown, Guyana. Rev James is a former General Secretary of the Antilles Episcopal Conference

‘Should politics be kept out of  sports?’ used to be a popular topic at secondary schools and other debating clubs. Over time, the prevailing view at community, national, regional, and international levels favoured the proposition that sporting arenas should remain a haven from political divisiveness.

Sports should and does serve strictly as a unifying space for friendly competition, shared noble values and international sisterhood and brotherhood.

Originally expressed as Citius, Altius, Fortius (‘Faster, Higher, Stronger’), the International Olympic Committee updated its motto in 2021 to add ‘Together’ to emphasise and trumpet global solidarity and unity in fair play through Sport.

These noble goals have served to justify the billions of dollars of public and private expenditure on international sporting events, of which the FIFA World Cup is the premier example, with its assertion that ‘Football Unites the World’.

Of course, everyone knows that behind the noble ideals lie the immense profits generated by the world’s most powerful financials interests, exemplified by the designation ‘Official Sponsor of the World Cup 2026’, whose advertisements hold us captive during every TV broadcast—especially the newly created advertisement segments, euphemistically named “hydration breaks”.

Many are aware of the massive corruption scandals in international sport, such as those associated with the national delegate votes to award the 2022 FIFA World Cup  to Qatar, and the envelopes with US$40,000 in cash allegedly distributed to Caribbean delegates at their 2011 meeting in Trinidad by a Qatari official to secure votes for the Qatari bid, which led to the resignation of top FIFA officials.

The current international football crisis, involving FIFA’s Independent Committee’s decision to reverse a red card issued to a US player following a public appeal by one of the world’s most powerful politicians, has officially put to rest the notion that politics does not dominate international sport.

But what was, and continues to be, the impact of this crisis on players and public alike? It has led to international outrage and an immediate collapse in the credibility of FIFA’s leadership—far more devastating than any symbolic gestures, such as the awarding of the FIFA Peace Prize to promote the idea that football unites the world.

The impact of this latest political interference with FIFA’s rules on the US football team was both stunning and visible. Entirely innocent  themselves, the players were made scapegoats by their own national Soccer Federation—which had endorsed the plan that gave them an unsought and humiliating advantage over their opponents, and potentially increased FIFA’s income in US. They were unrecognisable on the field as a team that had previously brought pride to their country.

Their Belgian opponents, who had played to mediocre results in previous games, were suddenly transformed into representatives of global football supporters, as  millions around the world—including many in the US—rallied behind them.

With every pass of the ball, they symbolised a shared desire to affirm that fraud and dishonesty, even when perpetrated by the richest and powerful, cannot have the final say. The US team and many of their supporters recognised that losing the match to Belgium was insignificant compared to the shame they would have faced had they won not on their own merits but through unfair means.

Real victory, on the football field as in life, is measured by a paradoxical but eternal truth: whoever seeks to save their life will lose it. Only those prepared to lose—for the sake of honour and honesty—will ultimately preserve it.