This hits a bunch of key points for neoliberalism: how do liberal democracies respond to a U.S. government that leans towards populism and authoritarianism? Do international institutions such as FIFA and the World Cup, and global sporting events, still work as a way of spreading soft power when the host is politically toxic to large parts of the world? And what about the tension between principled protest and keeping markets and institutions open? It’s essentially the same dilemma that we’ve discussed in the context of the China Olympics, Russia 2018, Qatar 2022 and Saudi sportswashing, but this time, the ‘problematic host’ is the United States itself. The usual ‘don’t mix politics and sport’ argument is suddenly coming from Europeans, who normally love mixing politics and everything else.
What do you think people should discuss about it?
The most interesting point is that the DFB’s statement is textbook neoliberal institutionalism. ‘Sport is a unifying force. Boycotts hurt the good things we have already built. Let’s work inside the system and engage with political, security and business partners instead.’ This is the same logic that neoliberals use to defend staying in the OECD, NATO or the UN, even when the US goes rogue. However, Trump is now making Europeans feel ‘not just German, but European’ (Goretzka’s words), so a lot of your usual arguments against boycotts, like ‘they’re just symbolic politics that only hurt ordinary people’ might be broken.
Tricky-Astronaut on
Russia hosted the World Cup literally after annexing Crimea. If that didn’t deserve a boycott, then Trump can do basically whatever he wants.
PicklePanther9000 on
Boycotting the US but not Qatar or Russia seems pretty ridiculous. Like what is the principle being boycotted- invading foreign countries? Authoritarian rule? Stringent enforcement against non-citizens?
KosanTheHopeful on
The only way European nations would have ever even considered boycotting the World Cup is if the U.S. had actually invaded Greenland.
moldyhomme_neuf_neuf on
I will sacrifice my own dignity before i sacrifice football
5 Comments
Why is this relevant for r/neoliberal?
This hits a bunch of key points for neoliberalism: how do liberal democracies respond to a U.S. government that leans towards populism and authoritarianism? Do international institutions such as FIFA and the World Cup, and global sporting events, still work as a way of spreading soft power when the host is politically toxic to large parts of the world? And what about the tension between principled protest and keeping markets and institutions open? It’s essentially the same dilemma that we’ve discussed in the context of the China Olympics, Russia 2018, Qatar 2022 and Saudi sportswashing, but this time, the ‘problematic host’ is the United States itself. The usual ‘don’t mix politics and sport’ argument is suddenly coming from Europeans, who normally love mixing politics and everything else.
What do you think people should discuss about it?
The most interesting point is that the DFB’s statement is textbook neoliberal institutionalism. ‘Sport is a unifying force. Boycotts hurt the good things we have already built. Let’s work inside the system and engage with political, security and business partners instead.’ This is the same logic that neoliberals use to defend staying in the OECD, NATO or the UN, even when the US goes rogue. However, Trump is now making Europeans feel ‘not just German, but European’ (Goretzka’s words), so a lot of your usual arguments against boycotts, like ‘they’re just symbolic politics that only hurt ordinary people’ might be broken.
Russia hosted the World Cup literally after annexing Crimea. If that didn’t deserve a boycott, then Trump can do basically whatever he wants.
Boycotting the US but not Qatar or Russia seems pretty ridiculous. Like what is the principle being boycotted- invading foreign countries? Authoritarian rule? Stringent enforcement against non-citizens?
The only way European nations would have ever even considered boycotting the World Cup is if the U.S. had actually invaded Greenland.
I will sacrifice my own dignity before i sacrifice football