Sportsmanship and the World Cup

The World Cup tournament has brought 736 players and 373,000 fans to South Africa; each match is being watched by over 100 million people worldwide, and staging the tournament has cost the host nation $8.6 billion.  At the last world cup in 2006, FIFA made $1.8 billion profit from media and commercial licences - more than South Africa is likely to make from the whole games.  While the "beautiful game" is bringing both profits and pleasure to many people around the world, an alternative set of statistics indicate the price that others are having to pay.

The cities hosting matches have been "cleaning up" ahead of the tournament - not primarily litter, but homeless people, street children and beggars.  In Johannesburg alone, 15,000 people have been swept off the streets into temporary shelters out of town. Thousands of informal traders have been evicted from their normal pitches, with only a few allowed to sell near the stadiums, where they must compete with fast-food chains.  Event organisers estimated that up to 40,000 prostitutes were being recruited into South Africa for the games - many lured by traffickers.  

Perhaps the most challenging relational issue surrounding the World Cup is the way the commercialisation of sport generally has been at the expense of sportsmanship - the conduct and attitude of fair play, courtesy, and grace in losing.  Football has the power to build relationships between people and nations with little else in common, but can also expose the worst in people - among players and fans alike. 

When the highest levels of sport are played more for money than for the joy of the game, then society is the poorer for it.