International Political Economy Zone: Sports

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Turkish Football Reflects National Malaise

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in Sports at 5/24/2024 02:23:00 PM

I haven't had a sports feature in ages, so here's one: The pitch invader--a fan who goes down to the football field--is a fixture of the sport the world over. However, did you wonder if such sporting hooliganism meant more than a lack of impulse control? Its repeated occurrence in Turkey, often accompanied by violence, has spurred a broader examination in the pages of the Financial Times. The overall thesis that sports reflect wider culture is not quite unique. If you consider football as an institution of significance along with, say, government, you may see things in a difference light:

Mistrust among fans over institutions that are supposed to safeguard fairness in Turkish football — including referees, the country’s football federation and club leaders — lies at the heart of the crisis in Turkish football, according to industry insiders and analysts.
“Each week there’s a massive discussion about referee calls,” said Özgehan Şenyuva, a professor at Ankara’s Middle East Technical University who has studied Turkish fandom. “There’s always this search for something deeper, some kind of a conspiracy,” he added.

Further links may be drawn to the conspiracy-minded populism of longtime Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, who sees shadowy forces out to undermine his leadership in all things--including football, apparently:

The suspicion that shadowy forces are at play in deciding matches reflected Turks’ dwindling faith in politics and society more broadly, according to Şenyuva. It comes amid rising concerns over the rule of law, judicial independence and a crackdown on civic society as President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan begins his third decade in power.
Koç’s predecessor at Fenerbahçe, Aziz Yıldırım, was in 2012 found guilty of match rigging and sentenced to six years in jail. Yıldırım was later acquitted, with the government alleging that a group, which it says was behind the 2016 coup attempt against Erdoğan, had initiated a wide-range conspiracy to discredit dozens of leading figures in Turkish football.

As with many things in decline, it is reflected in the finances. In inflation-riddled Turkey, it's obvious:

Turkey’s leading clubs posted a pre-tax loss of €310mn in the 2022-2023 season, according to Uefa, which oversees European football. Collectively Turkish teams recorded €1bn in gross bank debt, with 18 clubs in a negative equity position.

Erdoganism's distrust in officialdom and financial distress stretch far and wide in Turkey.

Highly Subsidized US Industries: Horse Racing

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in Americana,Sports at 5/23/2021 07:44:00 PM

Addled horses may be the least of horse racing's worries if the sport's subsidies take a hit.

As a casual follower of horse racing, I was intrigued by the legendary horse trainer Bob Baffert being barred from participating in the third leg of the Triple Crown, the Belmont Stakes, due to doping. Baffert has already been cited for doping a number of times, but this time is the most noteworthy, just coming off a Kentucky Derby victory in the sport's most prestigious event. As it turns out, horse racing--in the United States at least--is a dying sport. if the pot of money being contested over keeps shrinking, well, that would help explain why even the most prominent trainers are tempted to turn the odds in their favor through underhanded means.

Unbeknownst to me, and I suspect most everybody else outside the industry, American horse racing circa 2021 cannot stand on its own... four legs. Probably by invoking nostalgia and tradition, the industry has managed to wangle massive state government subsidies:

It’s a story rarely told outside the racing industry, and understandably so: Horse racing is propped up by tax dollars from casinos that have nothing to do with what happens on the track or at the betting windows. Although the sport loses public interest with each passing year, at least 24 states, almost three-quarters of those with racing, directly subsidize it with public funds. Based on publicly available information and statistical analysis, the total is likely close to $1 billion annually.
New York and Pennsylvania alone account for half of that amount; over the last 15 years, they’ve distributed around $6 billion. Both states also forgo countless millions each year in sales taxes they don’t charge on racehorse purchases, an exemption that doesn’t apply to other kinds of horses.
Throughout the country, horse racing has become so heavily subsidized that it resembles a public enterprise. In Pennsylvania, for instance, the Race Horse Development Fund is the state’s single largest economic development program, and it funds nearly every aspect of horse racing, from purses to support for breeders, health and pension benefits for horsemen, drug testing of the horses, and even racetracks’ advertising costs.

Is horse racing too big to fail, in financial parlance? The emerging backlash is that these taxpayer dollars are going to an increasingly marginal pastime whose patrons are mostly the rich who can spare cash to gamble with when there are so many urgent social concerns:

But the issue isn’t going away, especially not as the pandemic has dynamited state finances, leaving lawmakers with tough decisions. This February, [Pennsylvania governor] Wolf again included a cut to racing’s subsidy in his proposed 2021 budget. And last week, the editorial board of The Philadelphia Inquirer called for the industry to be “put out of its misery.”
“It’s like a giant party on the Titanic,” Ward said, “except the guests know what is coming.” For racing’s dependence on public money, Pennsylvania might be just the tip of the iceberg.

The doping scandal will probably only raise more questions the industry would rather the general public be unaware of. Make no mistake: American horse racing, a pastime for the wealthy, is on the dole in a big way.

COVID-19 Victim: Privatizing NZ All-Blacks

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in Sports at 11/06/2020 12:20:00 PM

Sold?! The NZ national rugby squad may be on the auction block.

Imagine Brazil's national football team the Seleção privatized. Or Germany's Mannschaft and Italy's Azzurri for that matter. The uproar would be deafening since these storied squads are parts of their national identities instead of being mere corporate identities. There is a saying that everyone has their price, though, and something akin to that may be happening in the Southern hemisphere. Whereas Brazil [5x], Germany and Italy [4x each] represent the winningest nations in Football World Cup history, international sports aficionados should be well aware that the Rugby World Cup's winningest teams are South Africa's reigning champions the Springboks and New Zealand's All-Blacks at 3x apiece. The NZ squad is called such because they dress all in black, whereas their footballing compatriots are the All-Whites for obvious sartorial reasons.

No matter: Just as the pandemic has laid waste to the financial well-being of one of the world's previously well-off petrostates in Kuwait, it is now besieging one of the most storied names in international sports--the NZ All-Blacks. Keeping some of the world's top rugby talent on one squad, training them and keeping them in peak condition is not exactly cheap. Simply put, there are not enough paid appearances nowadays during the pandemic to keep team operations afloat. Apparently, the operating costs are such that the Kiwis are thinking of a private equity buyout of the national rugby team:

The All Blacks rugby team is in talks with private equity investors as it struggles with the financial impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. New Zealand's national treasure has seen its cash reserves slashed by almost half due to lockdowns. New Zealand Rugby (NZR) said it is now looking at alternative sources of funding, such as private equity.
The move raises the prospect that the famed All Blacks name could be sold to the highest bidder. On Thursday, New Zealand Rugby chief executive Mark Robinson told the New Zealand Herald that it had burned through 47% of its NZ$86m ($56m; £44m) cash reserves during the pandemic.

A counterargument is raised though that the New Zealand squad is, if anything, under-commercialized and would benefit from being bought out by private equity to unleash the name's unrealized commercial potential:

The team has the most valuable brand in world rugby, according to British consultancy Brand Finance, which values it at £144m (NZ$278m). "The All Blacks have not been slow to embrace commercial opportunities," said Tom King at sportbusiness.com. "Their deal with kit suppliers was hailed as ground-breaking as was the 2012 shirt sponsorship with AIG which ends next year.

COVID-19 has made profaned so many things previously thought sacrosanct, such as freedom of movement and what else have you. "NZ All-Blacks plc" may just be the next big thing to emerge. It makes you angry enough to do the Maori war dance Haka, but that too would be sold to the highest bidder in the purchase price.

Paris St-Germain v RB Leipzig = Qatar v Red Bull

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in Europe,Sports at 8/18/2020 05:48:00 PM

Battle of the bad guys? Many see it that way.

A few hours after I publish this post, two of the world's most reviled football clubs will meet in the first match of the Champions League semifinals in Lisbon, Portugal. (Normally, there would be home/away ties for these clubs in their respective stadiums, but the pandemic has forced them to play a single winner-takes-all match in relatively COVID-free Lisbon as a neutral site. Needless to say, the thousands of fans are also missing.) This being the International Political Economy Zone, we have international politics in abundance with Paris Saint-Germain [PSG] being bankrolled by the Qatari government, and international economics too with RB Leipzig being bankrolled by drinks company Red Bull.

To be sure, there is a good chance that it will be a good match to watch. Among other stars, PSG features Brazilian drama queen Neymar and the rather more likeable (to me, at least) French speedster Kylian Mbappe. Meanwhile, RB Leipzig features a bevy of up-and-coming young stars. For all that, though, the way these teams got here--and many say they shouldn't be here at all if fair play were observed--make them arguably the two most hated teams in world football.

Let's begin with PSG. Although the pandemic has smashed the fortunes of Middle Eastern oil and gas-exporting nations--including PSG's benefactor Qatar--that came after it had already spent EUR1 billion-plus trying to win this biggest prize in the global game--the Champions League. Qatar likes to portray itself as a progressive absolute monarchy, but many would of course point out that is an oxymoron. Two of Qatar's most visible attempts to make its regime more palatable are the TV network Al Jazeera, which likes bashing other Middle Eastern nations for totalitarianism when, er, it is sponsored by one of its practitioners. So in more recent years, they came upon the gambit of purchasing a languishing Ligue 1 franchise, spending big loading it up with high-priced talent, and winning heaven knows how many of the France's league titles amid less competitive opposition:

PSG have spent over a billion Euros since their takeover, and have become virtually unassailable in their domestic league, winning seven of the last eight Ligue 1 titles. The malice directed at them, however, isn’t due to the amount of money they spend. It’s the source of the money, and what it represents. The club is fully backed by a Gulf state that is frequently criticized for denouncing basic human rights. PSG stands accused of being a tool of political “soft power,” whereby Qatar aims to increase its appeal and standing in the western world via its megastar-laden soccer team...
For many, however, PSG’s combination of problematic funding, a lack of history and a healthy dose of hubris form a particularly unedifying combination. Thus, Tuesday’s Champions League semifinal is the Battle of the Maligned Monoliths. It is not Paris against Leipzig; it is Political Influence against Rampant Commercialism.

Admittedly, I dislike PSG more than RB Leipzig. Making a mockery of UEFA's financial fair play rules, it has bought its way thus far into the semis. They have more connections to Qatar than to their city or country, and seems smugly content beating up other French teams unable to muster the same kind of financial muscle. Elsewhere in the commentary above, while the Premier League's Manchester City (Abu Dhabi) and Chelsea (Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich) have equally problematic ownership, these are clubs with substantial histories that could stand apart from their current owners. The same cannot be said for PSG.

How about RB Leipzig, then? Its story is well-known: Red Bull bought a fifth-tier club, renamed it RB Leipzig (RB stands for RassenBallsport, although it's really a not-so-subtle abbreviation of Red Bull), and has since blossomed into one of the Bundesliga's top clubs. Germans are purists about their football clubs, believing that they should be substantially run by the fans who provide inputs on their operations. RB Leipzig upends all that, inviting much ire in their home country since it makes no pretensions about being anything more than a marketing ploy for Red Bull:

The Independent has meanwhile been told of one early meeting at RB Leipzig, when Red Bull owner Dietrich Mateschitz was asked about the project. “Oh, it is a commercial enterprise,” Mateschitz said. “I won’t sell one extra can through this, but we will create a lot of brand awareness.” A phrase as corporate as “brand awareness” isn’t what most of us got into football for. And while it’s true the purpose is not as consequential as soft power or sportswashing, it is questionable, and provokes a lot of debate about the direction of the game and its role.

That difference over what the game is supposed to be for fosters the central tension around RB Leipzig.

While figures like Mateschitz see it is a vehicle for commerce, German football culture sees it as about community representation, and much more than the match. It is a communal experience, where they have agency. This is a viewpoint that was most aggressively articulated by magazine 11Freunde this week, who announced they are refusing to cover Tuesday’s semi-final. “RB Leipzig isn’t a football club, but an imitation… it never intended on just playing football.”

Unlike PSG, though, RB Leipzig has rather more welcome attributes. For starters, its wage bill is nowhere as large as PSG's, and it has achieved success in one of Europe's more competitive leagues with many journeymen of little pedigree. Leipzig's manager is only 33 years old. It's also in the economically less-prosperous former East Germany, which earns it additional sympathy...albeit from non-Germans like me:

What’s more, they’ve managed it in quite a progressive way. Their entire team will cost less than half of Neymar’s fee, and just over a half of Kylian Mbappe’s. They are as refreshing a new face in the Champions League semi-finals as they are at the top of the Bundesliga.

If RB Leipzig were not controlled and owned by a domineering drinks giant selling quite unhealthy, sugar-laden beverages and were run by the fans instead, it would be considered as a good example of how to nurture a modern club. But it isn't run that way, and for some it makes all the difference. Me, I am not a German purist, so I am more lukewarm about it. PSG, though, is hard to cast as anything but a panto villain people describe it to be. Money usually talks in sport, but sometimes people get offended when some do not take any pains to downplay this fact.

Anyway, here's hoping it's a good game. From the above, you won't be surprised this neutral is rooting for Red Bull (for the first time ever!)

Raptors' Multicultural Canada, Antidote to Trump's US

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in Migration,Multiculturalism,Sports at 6/16/2019 04:35:00 PM

The chances of a Sikh gent being the face of Trumpmerica: 0.00%. For multicultural Canada, it's already reality.

The white supremacist sympathies of Donald Trump have put paid to the idea that diversity is inevitable in the United States, as have any number of actions his administration or party are pushing: asking citizenship status in the census (which is a population and not a white person count); strategizing electoral victory through disenfranchisement of minorities, reducing all forms of legal and illegal immigration---you name it. For a country whose birthrate is below replacement, the inevitable consequence of continued Trumpism would be depopulation. "But hey! We may be depopulating, but we're a depopulating majority white country," rabid Trump fans would say.

As those who've watched the recent NBA Finals have seen, though, the Canadians have other ideas. Not only has the entire city of Toronto become a strong supporter of the multicultural Raptors, but the entire country. In other words, they are not quite Trump-like America (i.e., white people) firsters. The rainbow team is a microcosm of where Canada is headed, and the Canadians are not as disdainful of this general direction:

The team itself is celebrated for its own diversity, starting at the top with Masai Ujiri, the team’s widely respected president from Nigeria. There is player Pascal Siakam of Cameroon or Serge Ibaka, born in the Republic of Congo. And one might argue that as the lone NBA team from Canada, the vast majority of the players come from somewhere else – specifically south of the border – like Raptors star players Kawhi Leonard (Los Angeles) and Kyle Lowry (Philadelphia).

Yet it’s the team’s fanbase, outside or inside the Scotiabank Arena, that illustrates the diversity of Toronto, where 51.5 percent of residents identified as a “visible minority” in the latest census – women like Claudette Gardiner, born in Jamaica, who is at the playoff game with her Canadian-born daughter Micaela Evans and who talks about the team’s plucky rise in Toronto.

The rise of basketball as a sport in a country dominated by ice hockey deserves mention as a reflection of demographic trends:

Marvin Ryder, who analyzes sports marketing as a professor at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, expects the basketball buzz to grow, at least in urban centers. Canada’s newcomers gravitate to basketball and soccer, which are more accessible than ice hockey. This season the Raptors have given Canada a chance at a badly desired championship. As television crews pan the arena, he says, it shows the pulsing metropolis that is today Toronto and that many outsiders (specifically Americans, he says) haven’t understood. “It is a great way to showcase that Toronto is truly a city of the 21st century,” Professor Ryder says.

Importantly, maybe there is hope even for Trump's America. It was not always this way as even now famous Raptors superfan Nav Bhatia was no stranger to racism when he first arrived in Toronto:

It was not always that way, as Mr. Bhatia can attest. When he first arrived, as a trained mechanical engineer, he couldn't get a job in his field. Instead, he worked as a car salesman. He says at that time he was called far worse than a cab driver. “I never get upset; I do something positive to take away the negativity,” he says. For him that meant inviting underprivileged kids from all different religious and racial backgrounds to games, something he could afford as his own career grew from salesman to manager to successful car dealership owner today. “That is why today you will see here my community,” he says. “I use the game of basketball to bring the world together.”

Perhaps even Trump's America can change if Canadians have even if the latter are generally regarded worldwide as the more civilized North Americans.

UPDATE: See Kareem Abdul-Jabbar expounding on a similar theme in a new Guardian op-ed.

How Gen. Franco Begat Spanish MotoGP Dominance

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in Europe,Sports at 5/19/2019 06:07:00 PM

A long-dead dictator set into motion the dominance of sporting figures like Marc Marquez and Jorge Lorenzo.

I've been paying more attention than usual to MotoGP, the top flight of motorcycle racing. Formerly, there were three classes--500cc, 250cc, and 125cc denoting different engine displacements. Eventually, these have been rebranded MotoGP, Moto2, and Moto3, respectively. Regardless, even a casual viewer like myself will notice that a lot of the top riders and teams in these competitions are Spanish. How did this happen? As it turns out, there is a potentially interesting history behind it all.

One of the most fascinating interpretations comes care of Motor Sports Magazine. it writes that Spanish obsession with these two-wheeled vehicles can be traced to the military dictatorship of Generalissimo Francisco Franco. Shunned by the rest of the world, local bike industries emerged, with sporting events being organized around these manufacturing concerns:

To understand why Spaniards race motorcycles better than anyone, you need to go back decades, all the way to the 1960s, because this is a tale of politics, protectionism, industry, media money and balmy Mediterranean weather.

During the 1960s Spain was still under the heel of dictator General Franco. Since the end of the Second World War, the country had been a pariah to the rest of Europe, which had fought off fascism at a terrifying cost, while Franco blithely remained neutral.

Spain was therefore isolated, so Franco prescribed an economy of self-sufficiency and protectionism. The nascent Spanish motorcycle industry was one of many protected from outside competition, most importantly from Japan. Companies like Bultaco, Derbi, Montesa and Ossa were able to flourish – to an extent – by manufacturing cheap little two-strokes that helped mobilise the nation. Inevitably, locals started using these bikes in street races, organised in towns and cities across the country.

Even if the dictator is long dead, Spanish national competitions now serve as feeders for those aspiring to international competition in the various Moto racing series. Even other Europeans come to compete in Spain for this very reason:

This is where the Spanish have been particularly effective. They succeed at world level because they laid strong foundations at home by creating highly competitive national championships and then taking their best riders through international series and into Grands Prix.

[Major Spanish organizer] Dorna took a while to get a real grip on motorcycle racing. But it got there in the end. As a result Spain has become the global centre of bike racing. The country’s multiple championships – from tiny minimotos through to the larger categories – offers a ladder to the big time. So much so that ambitious riders from around the world quit their national championships and head to Spain.

To underline how things have changed since the 1970s, Kenny Roberts took his eldest son Kenny Jnr away from the US racing scene to contest Spain’s Ducados Open series. He went on to win the 500cc world title in 2000.

Perhaps it wasn't the intention, but Franco may have set Spanish motorcycle racing domination into motion all those years ago.

France & Belgium: Football's Cases for Migration?

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in Europe,Migration,Sports at 7/15/2018 06:37:00 PM

Why can't the non-footballing talents of Belgium and France be spotted and nurtured too? That is the question.

Apologies for the light posting over the past few days. Like most of you probably, I've been following the World Cup rather too closely to have time to post. However, with the tournament over as I write--France has won and Belgium finished third--there is actually an IPE angle here. (Even fourth-place UK deserves mention here.) Bloomberg op-ed writer Leonid Bershidsky penned an interesting commentary from a few days back asking whether immigration's case is bolstered by multicultural French and Belgian teams. Indeed, these teams are more diverse than the general populations of these nations:

France’s starting lineup in Tuesday’s semifinal against Belgium contained five players born overseas or to immigrant parents: Cameroonian-born Samuel Umtiti; N’Golo Kante, whose parents came from Mali; son of Guinean parents Paul Pogba; Kylian Mbappe, whose father is Cameroonian and mother Algerian; and Blaise Matuidi, son of an Angolan father and a Congolese mother. That’s 45 percent of the starting 11. Non-European Union immigrants and their children make up only 13.5 percent of France’s population, according to Eurostat.

Belgium’s starting 11 also had five players of immigrant background: Nacer Chadli, who started out playing for the Moroccan national team before he switched to Belgium; Marouane Fellaini, whose parents are also Moroccan; Vincent Kompany and Romelu Lukaku, whose fathers are Congolese; and Mousa Dembele, whose father is from Mali. Belgium’s population of first- and second-generation non-EU immigrants is 12 percent.

There is a meritocratic nature to footballing that you don't necessarily find in other walks of life in these nations:

In soccer, the son of a banker and a lawyer (that’s the background of French goalkeeper Hugo Lloris) is on an equal footing with someone like Lukaku, whose family couldn’t pay its electricity bills for weeks at a time and whose mother had to water down his milk to make it last longer. Or like Sterling, whose mother cleaned hotel rooms to put herself through school.

Therein lies the rub: Unlike their footballing counterparts, migrants haven't done as spectacularly well as these footballing stars without as established infrastructure for spotting and developing talent:

The odds are stacked against kids with the same background as the world-class soccer players in a number of important ways. Statistics show a higher percentage of second-generation immigrants than native-born people go to college in France and the U.K. (though not in Belgium) — but, according to a 2017 report from the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development, an overwhelming majority of young people with low educational attainment in all three countries are second-generation, non-EU immigrants.

Then again, why is it not the case that similar mechanisms for spotting and developing talent are not available in other endeavors?

There’s a lesson in this for the rest of society. Soccer’s support networks for talented kids can and should be replicated in other areas of endeavor. Some of the boys and girls growing up in no-hope areas today could be the Mbappes and Lukakus of tech, finance or the arts. The national teams, multicolored as they are, exist to remind governments, businesses and educational institutions that they just need to look harder.

So football does provide an example in how migrants can achieve outstanding success. However, the real challenge from a societal perspective is to make similar means for advancement available for other migrants and their offspring who are not as blessed with sporting skills. That would seal the case for migration.

Let's be timely here: Although the Ugly American Donald Trump did his best to insult the Europeans for welcoming migrants, I would venture these nations would much rather have their first- or second-generation footballing talents for company instead of the US-based racist-in-chief. Why not make migrants' contributions as evident in other areas to shut up people like him for good? If it can be done in football...

Did Golfer Greg Norman Save Oz From Tariffs?

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in Sports,Trade at 3/17/2018 10:24:00 PM

Who you gonna call when Trump's hitting your country with tariffs? Golfing great Greg Norman.

I'll have more to say about the United States being poised to apply $50 billion worth of tariffs annually on China over alleged intellectual property theft and related issues, but I wanted to get this news out of the way first as it involves one of the countries Trump does not consider an ally by any means. Just today, we received news that a lot of American (military) allies are going to be exempted from the forthcoming tariffs on steel. At this rate we're losing track of Trump's trade measures, but it turns out Australia is among those getting a free pass as confirmed by the USTR:

The United States trade representative, Robert Lighthizer, said on Thursday that several American allies would initially be exempt from the steel and aluminum tariffs that are to take effect shortly. Speaking at a meeting of the Senate Finance Committee, Mr. Lighthizer said that the European Union, along with Argentina, Australia, Brazil and South Korea, would be exempted. Canada and Mexico were earlier left off the list of countries subject to the tariffs.

As a side note to the exemption, it may have been the case that a famous name lobbying for the Aussie side could have swayed Trump. He is none other than Australian golfing great Greg Norman--nicknamed the Shark--winner of multiple major titles (but famously never the Masters Tournament). From the sport, remember that Trump owns many golf courses--some regularly featured on professional tours--Norman became a friend of Trump. Being wise, the Australian government sought his help:

Golfing legend and Donald Trump mate Greg Norman was "called in" to lobby the US President on Australia's behalf over steel tariffs, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has confirmed...

Mr Norman was among a number of senior business leaders to petition Mr Trump in a letter reminding him of the US's trade surplus with Australia, as well as the two countries' long-standing defence ties.

Mr Norman is a good friend of Mr Trump's, bonding through a mutual passion for golf. When Mr Trump won the presidency, Australian ambassador to Washington Joe Hockey called Mr Norman on behalf of Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to find out Mr Trump's mobile phone number."I don't normally give out cell phone numbers of people in my database, but considering it was for the Prime Minister to call the President of the United States, I thought that would be the right thing to do," Mr Norman later explained.

The full letter signed by Australian business leaders...and Greg Norman, of course, you can find here. With Trump, it appears flattery will get you places, no matter how the saying goes.

Premier League Post-Brexit & Post-Free Movement

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in Europe,Sports at 9/12/2017 03:06:00 PM

Premier League clubs would have a harder time hiring European talent like N'golo Kante after leaving the EU.

The top flight of British football--the Premier League--is arguably not the most competitive in Europe if you go by the number of European Champions League winners it has produced. That said, the overall level of competition may be rather higher given its higher wages than comparable first divisions in other European countries. Something that has enabled a lot of transfer activity to the Premier League was being part of the European Union, where freedom of movement is part of the deal for EU citizens.

The UK's impending [sort of?] exit from the European Union is causing some consternation among Premier League clubs that will lose easy accessibility to European footballing talent. Instead of being readily available almost as though they were British, European players would now fall under the same restrictions facing migrant workers from elsewhere in the world. Fewer marquee European names playing in England due to these restrictions could negatively impact Premier League revenues:

England’s standing in the soccer world would be diminished if EU stars gravitated to other countries after Brexit, potentially cutting the value of future TV rights after the current 8-billion-pound ($10.5 billion) deal expires. Players from the bloc are allowed in to the U.K. under EU freedom of movement rules, while athletes from elsewhere must meet criteria that only permit the highest level of foreign players, judged on criteria including age and how many times they have played for their national team.

It's not going to be the same. That said, there are plans afoot to tailor immigration rules to the demands of this sport:

The league says that, under current rules that apply to athletes from outside the EU, two French players who were crucial to Leicester City winning the championship in 2016, Riyad Mahrez and N’Golo Kante, wouldn’t have gained admittance to the U.K. in a post-Brexit world.

The government wants to develop an immigration system that’s in the best interest of the whole of the U.K., and plans to make initial proposals for a new policy later in the autumn, a spokesman said. “We recognize the importance of sport to the nation and within that the contribution that international talent makes,” the government said in a statement. “We are in discussions with key representatives from the sport sector, including the Premier League, regarding the challenges and opportunities that our EU exit brings.’’

Together with most things concerning Brexit, the fate of hiring foreign footballers is up in the air. Then again, there is no certainty that the departure will happen.

FIFA Non-Grata: Muslim Ban USA Can't Host World Cup

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in Sports at 3/18/2017 03:52:00 PM

Iranians not welcome here (among others): On the USA's non-existent prospects for hosting the 2026 World Cup.

It's pretty evident that you should not host one of the world's most international sporting events if your country is run by a Muslim-banning race-baiter. Yet, that the organization running the World Cup is FIFA--hardly the model of "global governance"--may have placed the possibility in some question as the United States is considering a bid to host the 2026 event. Despite FIFA's odiousness, it is nonetheless remarkable that it won't go near an even more disreputable entity, the United States of America, run by one President Donald J. Trump.

To be sure, there are procedural issues: what if one of the Muslim-banned countries qualifies for the World Cup? One has done so a number times before--Iran--and the others cannot be completely ruled out especially now that the competition has increased its number of participants from 32 to 48.

Donald Trump’s travel ban could prevent the US from hosting the World Cup in 2026, Fifa has warned.

Gianni Infantino, the president of world football’s governing body, said on Thursday that Trump’s revised executive order, which temporarily bars entry to the US for citizens from six majority-Muslim countries, could invalidate any bid from the US. The president’s policy, Infaninto suggested, is incompatible with tournament regulations.

Infantino told reporters in London: “Teams who qualify for a World Cup need to have access to the country, otherwise there is no World Cup. That is obvious.”

The above-mentioned bid requirement will probably disqualify Trump's USA:

“We are now in the process of defining the bid requirements. In the world there are many countries who have bans, travel bans, visa requirements and so on and so forth. It’s obvious when it comes to Fifa competitions, any team, including the supporters and officials of that team, who qualify for a World Cup need to have access to the country, otherwise there is no World Cup. “The requirements will be clear. And then each country can make up their decision, whether they want to bid or not based on the requirements.”

Donald Trump will probably dismiss this all by saying that no Americans watch soccer anyway since he doesn't--a perfectly uninformed response from a remarkably ignorant America-firster.

£4M Per Olympic Medal: UK's Cost of Success

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in Europe,Latin America,Sports at 8/26/2016 03:59:00 PM

The United Kingdom's unprecedented feat at the 2016 Rio Olympics--winning more medals [67] in the event following the one they hosted [65 at London 2012]--has not gone unnoticed. Far more populous China is contemptous, having been beaten into second place overall going by gold medals won. Near-neighbor and constant reference point France [in 7th place] regards the UK's performance with a mixture of disdain and envy (as usual). But what are factors went into it beating more populous competitors with presumably more talent to draw on and cash to spend--especially freed of democratic constraints on public expenditures like China and Russia?

1. The establishment of a national lottery to funnel cash to sports programs, whose funding has greatly increased as a result in the new millennium -

Former UK Prime Minister John Major is little remembered outside of the UK since he served between two much more globally-recognized figures: Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair. However, his government's decision to launch the National Lottery right before Blair's New Labour era came into power may have set up the UK's run of successes at the Olympics.

Reportedly, the UK government spent just £5m per year funding Olympic sport before the 1996 Atlanta games. But UK Sport spent £54m on elite sports in the run-up to the Sydney games in 2000 - where Team GB won 28 medals and ranked 10th. By the time of London 2012 it was spending £264m, and Team GB came third in the medal table, with 65 medals.

2. Selectivity is funding sports programs -

It is, yes, performance-based funding. In the absence of a prevailing record, they went on forecasts targeting the overall medal haul (which the Chinese have practiced, of course):

Before the beginning of each funding cycle, all sports present to UK Sport a detailed, costed strategy and agree a range of medals which they will aim to achieve at the following Olympic or Paralympic Games. UK Sport scrutinises all the strategies and allocates funding on a "top-down basis". As a spokesperson puts it: "We start with the sports which are targeting the most medals and work downwards i.e. we do not 'salami slice' funding and give some to every sport." The level of funding in each sport is assessed annually and benchmarked against results at milestone target events in each year, to determine whether they are on track for the next Games.

3.Attention to detail -

Those working with the athletes sweat the details that may lend the Brits an advantage come competition time. Three examples are given:

In the build-up to these Olympics, a PhD student at the English Institute of Sport named Luke Gupta examined the sleep quality of more than 400 elite GB athletes, looking at the duration of their average sleep, issues around deprivation and then individual athletes' perception of their sleep quality. His findings resulted in an upgrading of the 'sleep environment' in the Team GB boxing training base in Sheffield - 37 single beds replaced by 33 double and four extra-long singles; sheets, duvets and pillows switched to breathable, quick drying fabrics; materials selected to create a hypo-allergenic barrier to allergens in each bedroom.

In track cycling, GB physio Phil Burt and team doctor Richard Freeman realised saddle sores were keeping some female riders out of training. Their response? To bring together a panel of experts - friction specialist, reconstructive surgeons, a consultant in vulval health - to advise on the waxing and shaving of pubic hair. In the six months before Rio not a single rider complained of saddle sores.

Then there is the lateral thinking of Danny Kerry, performance director to the Great Britain women's hockey team that won gold in such spectacular fashion on Friday. "Everyone puts a lot of time into the physiological effects of hockey, but what we've done in this Olympic cycle is put our players in an extremely fatigued state, and then ask them to think very hard at the same time," Kerry told BBC Sport. "We call that Thinking Thursday - forcing them to consistently make excellent decisions under that fatigue. We've done that every Thursday for a year."

So it's not just about the money. Although it undoubtedly helps, it needs to be spent in a way that maximizes medal chances based on realistic projections and delivering on real-world results if further funding is to be received. Plus, there is much attention paid to things which may give athletes a competitive advantage from suggestions from coaches and players to applying sports research. Actually, the GBP 4M per Olympic medal looks more affordable if divided per capita per year, upon which the tab comes to £1.09.

Let Team GB show us the way in cost-effective sporting expenditures which burnish national pride..

Baku F1 Race: Global Media is ~169 Years Late

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in Energy,Sports at 6/21/2016 12:30:00 AM

To paraphrase Jenson Button, it's "Baku baby, yeah."

As a commentator on third world goings-on first and foremost, it behooves me that last Sunday's European Grand Prix on the streets of Baku, Azerbaijan has been portrayed as a coming out party for that particular country on the world scene. So Azerbaijan is seldom mentioned in the Western media outside of the context of human rights abuses--surprise, surprise--but its economic and strategic importance in geopolitics seems to be glossed over by these accounts. It is treated as some kind of Johnny-come-lately when its energy industry has been at the global forefront from the very start.

There are, in addition, squabbles remaining over historical grievances in this part of the world:

If it were only a matter of the outward beauty of the location and the circuit’s extraordinary features, the view before the race would be one of a major success in the making. But there is controversy, given Azerbaijan’s poor human rights record and the fact that its disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh — also claimed by Armenia — is a war zone.

Azerbaijan, a country of more than nine million at the crossroads of Europe and Asia that shares borders with Armenia, Georgia, Russia, Iran and a small sliver of Turkey, sees itself as a part of Europe. For that reason the country bid for the race, and requested the title of European Grand Prix — rather than Azerbaijan Grand Prix. The name had been free since the last race in Valencia, Spain, in 2012, according to Arif Rahimov, the chief executive of Baku City Circuit Operations Company, the promoter of the event.

Azerbaijan proudly linking itself with all things European runs into difficulty with the EU's current emphasis on human rights and such. For all that, do consider things in broad historical sweep: it has been synonymous with energy in the region for decades and decades. Well before the Americans drilled their oil well, the Azeris were already, ah, well into the game:

Azerbaijan has been linked with oil for centuries, even for millennia. Medieval travelers to the region remarked on its abundant supply of oil, noting that this resource was an integral part of daily life there. By the 19th century, Azerbaijan was by far the frontrunner in the world's oil and gas industry. In 1846 - more than a decade before the Americans made their famous discovery of oil in Pennsylvania - Azerbaijan drilled its first oil well in Bibi-Heybat. By the beginning of the 20th century, Azerbaijan was producing more than half of the world's supply of oil.

Also consider:

The first stage started with the mechanical production of oil from the dug wells in 1847 and continued up to 1920. The years of 1847-1848 were characterized by the first production of industrial oil from the dug wells in Bibieybat and later Balakhany fields and the development of oil industry of Azerbaijan started from that moment.

The early 19th century was characterized by the first production of oil from the manual well dug at Bibieybat 30 meters away from the seashore. The first oil refinery was constructed in Baku in 1859. The kerosene plant was built by Djavad Melikov in Baku 1863 and fridges were used in the oil refining for the first time in the world. 15 oil refineries operated in 1867.

The development of well drilling technologies led to the discovery of a number of oil wells (Binegedi, Pirallahi, Surakhany and others), the increase in the production of oil, the development of oil infrastructure and oil refining and the creation of hundreds of companies engaged in oil production, refining and sales. The national bourgeoisie formed in Azerbaijan and Baku turned into one of the industrial centers of the world.

The industrial method of oil production was first used in the Balakhany-Sabunchun-Romany oil field in the Absheron peninsula in 1871. Two laws "On the excise tax on oil wells and oil products" and "Sales of oil lands held by leaseholders to individuals were adopted for the improvement of the relations in the oil industry in 1872. 15 regions of Balakhany and 2 regions in Bibiehbat were first to put on auction on December 31, 1872.

In many way it's apt that a sport literally fueled by the stuff Azerbaijan is famous for is finally held there. In history, the country's prominence in oil production predates even that of the United States. 169 years later, Azerbaijan is finally receiving some global media attention. Fancy that.

Globalization: Zidane Flogs Indian Real-Estate

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in India,Sports at 6/17/2016 11:20:00 AM

What does Zinedine Zidane have to do with selling kitschy Indian real-estate? Apparently nothing.

It is fairly common in booming countries of Asia for real-estate developers to embark on mega-projects. In our high inequality countries, you should be utterly unsurprised that most of these projects cater to wealthy segments, often hawking properties at exorbitant prices. And therein lies the rub: with so much development concentrated at the upper end of the market, there will inevitably be fewer takers. Such is the problem now faced by real-estate developers in India.

Now, using foreign sporting personalities to flog [to pitch or sell in Brit-speak] stuff abroad is not unusual. Witness the insufferable Cristiano Ronaldo selling a face massager on Japanese TV for a recent example. However, his coach (for now)--the legendary Zinedine Zidane of Real Madrid, recently crowned champions of Europe--is doing the same. That is, selling a somewhat iffy product in Indian luxury real-estate at a time when the inventory there is piling up:

Zinedine Zidane is renowned for his prowess on the football field. Now a Mumbai developer is counting on the retired French football star’s power off the pitch to revive flagging sales in the city’s luxury home market.

Kanakia Spaces Pvt has hired the former attacking midfielder to market a high-end residential project named Paris in Mumbai’s new business district in the northern part of the city called Bandra. Zidane has been signed on as the project’s wellness brand ambassador to design the development’s fitness and sports areas. The company did not disclose how much it’s paying for Zidane’s brand endorsement.

Kanakia, which is counting on the star power of Zizou, as 43-year-old Zidane was nicknamed during his career, features a four-story replica of the Eiffel Tower and a reproduction of the Louvre Pyramid at the Paris project. The builder has sold about 43 percent of the 464 apartments for sale at the development, where units range from 760 square feet to 1,300 square feet and cost between 37.6 million rupees ($559,000) and 64 million rupees, the company said.

It's a straightforward supply and demand problem, with the inventory of overpriced luxury homes unlikely to dissipate anytime soon as buyers have been cautious as the global economy shows signs of slowing down:

“These marketing gimmicks won’t help to sell these homes,” said Pankaj Kapoor, founder of Liases Foras Real Estate Ratings & Research Pvt. “Prices have escalated at every level and what’s needed to boost sales is a genuine price correction.”

Sales of homes costing more than 20 million rupees dropped 23 percent in the quarter ended March from the previous three-month period, according to data compiled by the property consultancy and advisory firm. The average home price in Mumbai is still near a record set in December 2014, as a limited supply of land and demand created by a growing urban population have led to “exorbitant price levels,” according to Kapoor.

As sellers have resisted dropping prices, Mumbai is grappling with record inventory. The city has 266 million square feet of unsold homes, Liases Foras said. It may take developers as many as five years to unload their inventory of luxury homes at current levels, the data show.

Actually, there is a segment of the Indian real-estate market that is growing: homes real people can actually afford:

Budget homes costing less than 2.5 million rupees is the only segment which is showing signs of demand picking up.

Selling things people can actually afford; what a radical idea.

Oklahoma Thunder, the Team Fracking Built

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in Energy,Sports at 5/25/2016 05:39:00 PM

It is with some sadness that Aubrey McClendon--the man who brought the Oklahoma Thunder to Oklahoma City--formerly the NBA title-winning Seattle SuperSonics--passed away under still-unexplained circumstances in March. At that time, of course, oil prices were still rather depressed, and he was also facing a federal antitrust indictment besides. Still, McClendon was instrumental to bringing the Thunder who appear NBA Finals-bound once more to Oklahoma, and of course funding the buildup of a very strong team. Even know, it remains the team fracking built:

McClendon is credited and sometimes cursed for championing the drilling technique known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. The technology led to a boom in U.S. oil and natural gas production from porous rock formations, known as shale, that had been hard to tap. And fracking made him a billionaire. By 2005, Chesapeake was the second-largest U.S. natural gas producer, after Exxon Mobil.McClendon had a deep impact on Oklahoma City in the years he ran Chesapeake...

He created tens of thousands of jobs and showered tens of millions of Chesapeake’s and his own dollars on the community. He helped bring the NBA’s Oklahoma City Thunder and an Olympic-class rowing venue to town. He secured the city’s first Whole Foods Market, brought upscale shopping and dining to the Chesapeake neighborhood and contributed to many charities, from local elementary schools to Boy & Girls Clubs.

In fact, his death came almost immediately after attending the game wherein Stephen Curry sank THAT 3-pointer from nearly half-court:

Good news, though, was scarce for McClendon everywhere he went, even an outing on Saturday night to watch a Thunder game, the basketball team he partially owned and helped bring to Oklahoma City from Seattle. Wearing a blue-shirt, sleeves rolled-up, he took his usual front-row seat on the baseline near the Thunder bench.

What looked to be a brief respite from his business woes turned into a heart-breaker. McClendon could only stand with his hands at his sides as Golden State Warriors’ star Steph Curry sank a last-second three-pointer to hand the Thunder an overtime loss. McClendon left the same way he always did, walking through the private back corridor of Chesapeake Arena.

I suppose McClendon could have been affected by his team's disheartening loss on top of the indictment and the pressure in oil prices which affected his mental state. Still, the name of the Thunder's home venue remains the Chesapeake Energy Arena, and with the current push of oil prices to test the $50/bbl level, it seems oil money never went away in funding the team's success.

Without fracking, there would likely have been no Oklahoma Thunder.

6/2 UPDATE: OK, so the Thunder ultimately didn't advance to the 2016 NBA Finals, but there is no mistaking the transformation wrought by the Thunder on its own city as the fracking boom was underway:

“But it’s not just that,” Durant continues. “I drive through downtown, through midtown, through the Asian district and see so many different businesses, so many different people. It’s a big, diverse city that’s grown with the team.” The impact of sports franchises on urban renewal is often overstated, but in Oklahoma City it’s obvious. “The Thunder has given us a worldwide brand we’ve never had before,” says the mayor, Mick Cornett, citing the area’s strong corporate recruitment and staggering influx of millennials. “The exposure has been immeasurable. You tell somebody in another country you’re from Oklahoma City, and they say, ‘Kevin Durant.’”

Bye-Bye Berlusconi? Chinese Interest in AC Milan

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in China,Europe,Sports at 5/22/2016 01:37:00 PM

AC Milan in its mid-1990s heyday. It's very far from there now.

Italian club AC Milan is, in a way, emblematic of wider fortunes of its home nation. For such a long time a giant of European and hence world football, it has since fallen on hard times. I recall visiting Italy in 1994 and seeing joyful celebrations as it won not only the Serie A title but also the European Cup (today's Champions League). Its owner was of course the media magnate Silvio Berlusconi, still unaffected by the later scandals that would tarnish his image and very much the industrialist of the age. How it was back in the day!

Nowadays, things are rather different. Berlusconi has made him a laughingstock in bunga-bunga land. AC Milan struggles to compete in the second-tier continental competition, the Europa League, let alone the Champions League which it used to be a dominant participant of. The weekend's loss in the Coppa Italia to Juventus, which has won the Italian league for five straight years now, means the seventh-placed AC Milan will not qualify for the Europa League. It will be three years that they have not qualified for European competition. Prior to the game, Berlusconi even threatened not to pay his players' wages if they lost:

We cannot afford to carry on making fools of ourselves. These people here [turning to point at the camera] are the ones who give us a living because they give us money as sponsors.

They have just told me now that if you keep playing the way you are, they aren't going to give us any more money. So I won't pay you. In fact, if you want your money you would have to take me to court for it, and do you know how long it takes for a civil action case to be heard in Italy? Eight years.

While I trust former Prime Minister Berlusconi on the parlous state of Italy's judicial system--not that it reflects well on him--he remains a businessperson at heart no matter what else he has become. With an asset rapidly losing its luster, a lack of money probably accounts for their inability to build a new stadium, it's perhaps time to cut losses and move on. As it so happens, the Chinese are looking into buying this still-storied name:

Former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi's family company is likely to open exclusive talks next week with a group of Chinese investors interested in buying AC Milan soccer club, one of his most cherished assets, a source said on Saturday. The tycoon is under pressure to finally relax his grip on the club he calls "my Milan", which has failed to win any major silverware in the past five years and is now in the red.

However, the club remains one of the most famous names in world soccer, having being crowned champions of Europe seven times and winning 18 Italian titles. "It's very likely that an agreement will be reached next week that will lead to a deal in the next month," a source familiar with the situation said on Saturday. The agreement would be between the consortium, and Berlusconi's family holding company, Fininvest. The makeup of the Chinese group is not clear.

The club still commands a fair sum...for now:

The consortium has valued the club at 700 million euros ($798 million), including debt, another source said last week. The club had 188.5 million euros in debt at end-2015 and made a net loss of 89.3 million euros. A deal to sell all of AC Milan is still far from certain. Berlusconi, 79, has proven very reluctant to relinquish control of the club, though he has said he cannot give it the kind of additional capital that wealthy Arab and Asian investors have been pumping into AC Milan's European rivals.

Shadowy unnamed Chinese, an Italian mogul admitting he cannot generate Middle Eastern or Asian levels of footballing cash...it's a sign of the times as the world turns. Fascinating globalization-themed stuff, no?

Today's PRC Pt I: Michael Jordan Takes On "Qiaodan"

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in China,Sports at 4/26/2016 03:36:00 PM

Just sue it: Michael Jordan takes on the fakers "Qiaodan"

."The image of China as the Wild, Wild East of intellectual property protection is, in many instances, well-deserved. After all, if you allow copying entire Apple Stores or Land Rover automobiles, then IP protection is probably not one of your priorities. But, that may become a thing of the past as the American basketball legend Michael Jordan has reached China's Supreme People's Court in a case against PRC-based "Qiaodan." Despite the knock-off being around since, oh, 1984, let's just say that it took this long to get around to meaningful legal action:

In the appeal hearing that started on Tuesday, Jordan’s lawyers argued that Qiaodan Sports Co. Ltd., a family-owned business with about 6,000 shops selling shoes and sportswear throughout China, has damaged the basketball star’s legal rights to his name, asking that the company’s trademark registrations be revoked. Qiaodan, pronounced "Chee-ow dahn", is a Mandarin transliteration of Jordan that was registered by the Chinese company more than a decade ago. Jordan first sued the company in 2012 and lower courts have ruled on behalf of the Chinese company.

It appears a flagrant violation, yet the wheels of Chinese justice take a while to turn:

Qiaodan, one of the country’s top sports apparel makers founded in 1984, legally registered the Pinyin "Qiaodan" and Chinese characters of the name. Jordan’s lawyers say the company uses his basketball jersey number "23" to sell products, as well as created a similar basketball replica of Jordan’s iconic "Jumpman" logo that Nike Inc. uses for its Air Jordan brand. Jordan’s team argues that under China’s law, the company’s trademarks have damaged his legal rights and is asking the court to invalidate more than 60 trademarks used by the company.

"Qiaodan is a name that is well known to every household in China and refers to Michael Jordan," Qi Fang, a lawyer with Fangda Partners representing Jordan, told the court on Tuesday. Lawyers for the Chinese company succeeded last July in arguing that Jordan is a very common English last name. Jordan’s lawyers appealed that case and the decision by the Supreme People’s Court will be final.

With China aiming to become a consumer-driven market, the outcome of this trial matters insofar as it will send a signal to other foreign brands whether their IP will be protected better:

The case illustrates the challenges of Chinese intellectual property law for some foreign companies in the world’s fastest-growing consumer market. The case could set an important legal precedent for trademark rights in China, and some legal scholars say the case offers the nation’s Supreme People’s Court an opportunity to present a positive image of the Chinese legal system.

"It’s an extremely influential case, and the final verdict from China’s top court would play a leading role in future similar cases," said Li Shunde, a Chinese Academy of Social Sciences research specialist in intellectual-property law. "China has been consolidating IP over the past years and apparently the authorities want to use this case to show that the country takes the IP issues very seriously and is devoting resources to protect the rights of foreign businesses."

EU Footballers: Would Brexit Ruin Premier League?

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in Europe,Sports at 4/18/2016 10:32:00 AM

Coach Wenger [hearts] the EU: Like his European players, he would find it much harder to work in the UK if it left the EU.

I am likely preaching to the converted here, but consider this somewhat surprising voice in favor of the UK remaining in the EU. While many different people, places and things have waxed and waned in terms of popularity in the UK, you can pretty much be certain that football remains at the forefront of its people's attentions. As IPE types ponder more economically relevant questions such as the effects of Brexit on UK trade with the single market, longtime French Arsenal FC coach Arsene Wenger now questions the effects of Brexit on Premier League football.

You see, many (continental) European stars playing for English teams would lose their freedoms of movement to the UK as part of the EU should the UK vote to leave. Hence, they would need to get work permits just like all other players from outside the EU at the current time. This uncertainty is factoring into club decisions on whom to recruit for the upcoming season as Wenger describes:

Wenger’s transfer policy could potentially be further influenced by the UK’s vote on leaving the European Union, with the implications Brexit would have on football still unclear. “It raises many questions,” he said. “Will the European players be considered as they are now? For example, if England votes for Brexit, will the French be considered like South Americans players [who require work permits]? That would completely re-question the influx of foreign players.

“Will England go that way? If they did, that would leave the Premier League with some questions.”

The pro-EU brigade has taken that statement as a vote in favor of remaining. Can you imagine a Premier League--by some measures the world's most difficult--hindering the influx of the world's best players? Many may instead choose to work on the continent.

West Ham chief executive Karren Brady, a Britain Stronger In Europe board member, has previously warned that exiting the EU risks leaving clubs without "emerging talents" on their books. James McGrory, chief campaign spokesman for Stronger In, said: "Arsene Wenger has been at the forefront of bringing the best players from around Europe to play in Premier League, which has helped to make it the envy of the rest of the world.

"Our stadiums are packed every week with fans who want to watch the likes of Dimitri Payet, N'Golo Kante and Arsenal's own Hector Bellerin. As Wenger says, leaving the EU risks supporters missing out on seeing emerging talents from Europe coming to play at their clubs. "Leading figures in football are clear - leaving the EU would disfigure the beautiful game in this country."

Of course, Brexit wouldn't mean that (continental) European players cannot play in the Premier League. It's just that the hassles associated with dealing with immigration regimes non-Europeans face would represent a huge change for them. Even Arsene Wenger's' work status would likely be at stake here as a Frenchman working in the UK for, what, two decades already? After all, he is, at the end of the day, an EU resident plying his trade in the UK.

Will the Paris-Dakar Rally Ever Return to Africa?

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in Africa,Security,Sports at 1/24/2016 06:45:00 PM

What's the 'Paris-Dakar Rally' doing in Bolivia, of all places? Ask winner Toby Price (AUS).

It may strike you as false advertising, but the world-famous test of endurance known as the Paris-Dakar rally or just the Dakar rally has not been held on the African continent since 2009. This cross-continental motorsports event across inhospitable terrain used to be between Paris and Dakar, Senegal at various times since its 1979 inception. The Sahara desert was the proving ground for one of the ultimate tests of man and machine. However, since 2009, it has been held in South America due to security concerns on the African continent:

The Paris-Dakar Rally was moved from Africa to South America in 2009 but it is still called The Dakar Rally (or simply, Dakar). It is one of the toughest rallies in the world. The South American trail is also tough but does not reach the extremities in the Saharan desert. This year’s rally will start with a “prologue” in Buenos Aires in the Argentinian capital, on the 2nd of February, go through the length of the country and turn around in ,Uyuni, Bolivia on the 8th of January and take another route into Argentina where it will end in Vila Carlos Pas, Rosario, on January 16th. For cars, it will be a total of 9,583 gruelling kilometres.

This rally is unique. It is a race of extreme endurance of man and machine, a modern day Odyssey. It is the ultimate physical and mental test of man (and woman). Since the start of the rally, 69 people have lost their lives as a direct result of the race. This is made up of 28 competitors and 41 non-competitors. The non-competitors who lost their lives include the race founder, Thierry Sabine, 14 news journalists and support crew, 4 spectators, 4 children, and 18 other unnamed spectators and bystanders. The most common cause of death is collision. But casualties have been few in recent years. Even so, Motorbike rider, Michal Hernik, was found dead in mysterious circumstances in the 2015 race.

However, security challenges prompted leaving Africa altogether by 2009:

By 2000, the rally started to contend with terrorists in the African desert. That year the participants were airlifted across some of the more dangerous routes. That year’s race ended in Cairo. 2001 saw a woman finishing top for the first time. Jutta Kleinschmidt from Germany won in a Mitsubishi. In 2006, the race started in Portugal for the first time. This was repeated in 2007.

The 2008 race was cancelled after the murder of four French citizens and three Mauritanian soldiers in the days before the start of the race. The French Foreign Affairs Ministry advised its citizens not to travel to Mauritania since the country’s intelligence identified terrorist threats aimed at the rally. The following year, 2009, the race was moved to South America and Africa lost an important attention seeker to the continent. Africa’s loss became South America’s gain.

Critics will see the rally as a neo-imperialist relic since African participants have been next to none during the event's history. Ditto for African automakers. Still, the move to South America is a bit saddening insofar as it reflects the deteriorating security conditions in the Sahara. Mind you, this was before ISIS allegedly gained allies in the desert regions of Africa.

Brazil's So Broke Olympians Don't Get Air-Conditioning

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in Latin America,Sports at 12/05/2015 02:11:00 PM

It must get hot wearing these Olympic outfits when there's no A/C.

It wasn't supposed to be like this. Brazil during the tail end of the Lula years was riding high on elevated commodity prices as China fueled a seemingly endless demand for what Brazil was selling...then the party stopped when the PRC's economy slowed down, ending a commodity supercycle in which Brazil was one of the biggest beneficiaries. With the 2014 World Cup and the forthcoming 2016 Summer Olympics, Brazil has essentially been left holding the bag with costly international sporting events it can barely afford as perma-recession has taken hold.

As bad as things are, perhaps the ultimate humiliation for Brazil is yet to come. Imagine one of the southern hemisphere's major energy exporters not even being able to provide Olympic athletes with air-conditioning. Due to cost overruns--is anyone really surprised when these Games are concerned--budget slashing has to happen somewhere. As it so happens, Brazil is keen on shifting the burden on the Olympic committees:

Shifting the cost for air conditioning and other amenities from the host city to each nation’s Olympic committee – or to the athletes themselves – is a big deal, said Nick Symmonds, a two-time Olympic runner. “The world wants to tune in and watch the world’s greatest athletes compete at the absolute highest level," Symmonds said. "If you don’t provide them with good food, a good place to sleep and comfortable temperature, they won’t be able to recover and bring the A-plus product that the world is demanding. To cut the budget on athletes’ hospitality and comfort, that’s just going to cheapen the games.”

[Rio 2016 spokesperson Mario] Andrada said air conditioning is an “absolute necessity” in some areas, though not bedrooms. The 17-day event, which kicks off on Aug. 5, takes place in Rio’s winter, and the average daytime temperature is in the mid-20s Celsius (mid-70s Farenheit). Some days are much hotter, though, with highs last August creeping into the mid-90s.

Others worry that the cuts will further underscore the chasm between athletes from wealthy countries and those from poorer ones. (Already some top athletes, including the NBA players who join the USA Basketball squad, choose luxury hotels over accommodations in the Olympic Village.) Those who can afford extra for air conditioning or who travel with laptops or iPads (the host committee has scrapped plans to provide TVs in individual bedrooms) will have it; others may not.

It all goes back to the notion of "economic diversification." Brazil has some world-leading manufacturing concerns like Embraer which makes smaller-capacity regional passenger jets, but for the most part, it remains over-reliant on commodity exports. Even in calendar year 2015, it lives by high commodity prices and dies by low commodity prices. Interestingly, its newfound austerity will further disadvantage fellow athletes from developing countries by forcing them to do with al fresco accommodations.

Is Brazil being shamed? They now say they will provide free A/C, but you never know:

Throw away the floor fans. Rio de Janeiro Olympic organizers have changed their minds and said Friday that athletes will have free air conditioning in their bedrooms at the athletes village. The decision to have free air conditioning comes after The Associated Press reported this week that about 10,000 Olympic athletes would have to pay for it because of budget cuts.

“The sports department found a solution that could allow us to have the air conditioning,” said Mario Andrada, the spokesman for the 2016 Games. “So were buying air conditioning for all the athletes’ bedrooms and social rooms.”

This may be true, but even suggesting that no one gets free air-conditioning suggests evident desperation is at work here.