There’s a familiar saying ringing in the stands at the 2022 FIFA Men’s Football World Cup, suggesting that winning really is all that matters. But athlete activism and solidarity reflect a growing trend among athletes publicly demonstrating social responsibility both on and off the field.
However, FIFA remains adamantly opposed to entering sports activism. For example, the message of the Danish men’s football team ‘Human rights for all’ is a political statement that violates FIFA rules, according to the sports organization.
Similarly, hours before England’s opening game, it was announced that England captain Harry Kane and the seven other European teams would be breaking FIFA rules if they wore a “One Love” armband. FIFA stated that the players would be warned of any political statement.
These planned protests and the ensuing backgrowing point to a tension around social activism and allyship in men’s football, particularly in the areas of sex, gender and sexuality.
Men’s sports and social activism
Sport has a long history of political activism. Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised their fists at the 1968 Olympics in support of civil rights movements in the US and around the world. Fast forward to 2016 and Colin Kaepernick knelt during the US national anthem in protest of police brutality and racial inequality.
In men’s soccer, teams kneeled in support of Black Lives Matter movements that grew after the 2020 murder of George Floyd. On the racial inequality front, men’s sports and soccer have provided moments of symbolic support.
In terms of gender and sexual diversity, Stonewall’s Rainbow Laces campaign has received some attention in the English Premier League. In Canada, the Pride Tape campaign has also shown that some hockey players are willing to show support for inclusive sports environments.
This World Cup sees Canada compete on the largest football stage for the first time in 36 years. Canada Soccer has recently come under fire for a lack of human rights action. Ahead of the tournament, Canada Soccer announced a partnership with You Can Play, a group dedicated to combating homophobia in sport.
Earl Cochrane, the secretary general of Canada Soccer, said “regardless of your sexual orientation, gender identity or who you love, you have a place in this game.”
However, men’s football had a problem with allies long before Qatar won this year’s World Cup. Harsh statements against players and teams who wish to protest undermine the spirit of sport as a space for all.
Rather than depoliticizing sport, these actions by football’s governing bodies draw attention to the ways in which sport is involved in political games for all to see. The silence and silence of teams, players and organizations as a result of these games is an example of a disturbing culture in FIFA and men’s football.
Football, masculinity and homophobia
Men’s sports have traditionally been masculinized spaces where boys become men and men prove their masculinity. Through vigorous acts of resistance, women and other marginalized groups have fought for their gym spaces despite inequality. However, sport, especially men’s sport, remains an area of exclusion.
The lack of openly gay or transgender professional male football players is testament to this exclusion. Those players who are open about their sexuality are rightly praised for their bravery. But the fact that such courage is required of LGBTIQ+ players only reinforces the deeply ingrained norms in men’s football that marginalize men who fail to meet homophobic, transphobic and misogynistic expectations.
Research has shown the damage that homophobic, transphobic and misogynistic forms of masculinity have on men and boys. We have seen the cost of underexposed harmful masculinity in the assaults and the resulting mismanagement of it by Hockey Canada. Conventional codes of masculinity and boyhood have permeated gym spaces, making them exclusive and not spaces for everyone to play.
The consequences of silence
FIFA President Gianni Infantino and FIFA Secretary General, Fatma Samoura, responded to criticism of Qatar’s human rights record, saying football should not be “drawn into any ideological or political battle”. Obviously this is an impossibility. Not only because of the political maneuvering, allegations of sportswashing and a FIFA corruption scandal that rocked the governing body of football, but also because the politics and ideology of men’s football have left the codes of masculinity untouched within it.
Men’s football has its own questions to answer, not only around the World Cup, but also around the lack of involvement in social activism and allying with LGBTIQ+ people and women.
Sports, especially as popular as football, have the potential to be powerful symbols of inclusion and acceptance for men and boys. When players and teams are silenced and disciplined to speak out, it sends a strong message about both sports culture and masculinity.
Moving outside of Qatar
There needs to be a shift in priorities in men’s football. For football’s governing bodies, money is the priority; for teams and players it is winning. If this continues, social activism in men’s football will continue to decline. Allyship involves risks. To do otherwise makes not only FIFA, but also players, organizations and sport complicit in a harmful culture of silence.
This World Cup comes and goes – in four years the World Cup will come to Canada, in partnership with the US and Mexico. But the sporting culture in men’s football now needs to be challenged and changed to get a good start – and we should not be misled into saying that leaving Qatar means we are putting these problems in men’s football behind us.
Masculinity and the unique “we’re in it to win” story shouldn’t silence athlete activism. Instead, sport should be a culture that not only announces winners, but one that demonstrates a spirit of competition rooted in inclusion, acceptance and activism.
Gabriel Knott-Fayle, Postdoctoral Fellow of Masculinities Studies in Education, University of Calgary and Michael Kehler, Werklund Research Professor, Masculinities Studies, University of Calgary
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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