Sport, Money, and Sportswashing
Posted: Sat Sep 23, 2023 1:25 pm
I started to put this in Fret's F1 thread but thought it would be unfair to crap on it, especially as it took on a life of its own, so...
I used to be a big F1 fan; Sunday nights in the pub usually revolved around pulling the latest Grand Prix to pieces and then reassembling it. Sadly, the more money and restrictions poured into the sport the more the joy was sucked out of it for me. I know it's an oversimplification, but when the sport became more about pitstops than drivers I lost my love for it.
I watched snooker and tennis taking the same path, minus the pit stops, obviously.
Now we have the Saudis etc. sportswashing by staging multiple Grands Prix, running golf leagues, tennis events, boxing matches, and, dare I say it, taking over Premier League football too.
Money - too much of it at least - is ruining sport as a spectacle, and taking it away from your average punter in a lot of cases.
Football supporters are clamouring for their clubs to be taken over by oil-rich murderers and funds belonging to countries that spit on human rights. I'm happy to say that all of the Liverpool supporters I interact with in one place or another are, in the main, strongly opposed. What does one do though if the current owners sell to the Arabs? It's pure business for most of them.
Could I really stop supporting the club I've followed since n1965? It's an ethical problem I'm actually scared to address fully because I honestly don't know how strong my ethical stance would be, and that scares me.
I used to be a big F1 fan; Sunday nights in the pub usually revolved around pulling the latest Grand Prix to pieces and then reassembling it. Sadly, the more money and restrictions poured into the sport the more the joy was sucked out of it for me. I know it's an oversimplification, but when the sport became more about pitstops than drivers I lost my love for it.
I watched snooker and tennis taking the same path, minus the pit stops, obviously.
Now we have the Saudis etc. sportswashing by staging multiple Grands Prix, running golf leagues, tennis events, boxing matches, and, dare I say it, taking over Premier League football too.
Money - too much of it at least - is ruining sport as a spectacle, and taking it away from your average punter in a lot of cases.
Football supporters are clamouring for their clubs to be taken over by oil-rich murderers and funds belonging to countries that spit on human rights. I'm happy to say that all of the Liverpool supporters I interact with in one place or another are, in the main, strongly opposed. What does one do though if the current owners sell to the Arabs? It's pure business for most of them.
Could I really stop supporting the club I've followed since n1965? It's an ethical problem I'm actually scared to address fully because I honestly don't know how strong my ethical stance would be, and that scares me.
