Sportswashing?

It’s been a feature of life over the past one or two decades that elite sport has risen greatly in prominence. New competitions have emerged and continue to be added, like the Indian Premier League and ‘the 100’ in cricket. When I was younger there was only the international, full format game and the regional teams which also played full format. And then the limited overs game was introduced. That was followed by the even more limited overs game given the catchy title T20. Now we have the 100 with even fewer overs, and they all exist at the same time.

In professional football the European club competitions have greatly increased in size, thus providing so many more matches that the successful clubs are complaining that their players are becoming burned out. The number of races in the F1 motor racing calendar has increased, and the major current story is that of elite women’s football and rugby union attracting big attendances and media coverage which would have been unthinkable just a few years ago.

And the media coverage itself is interesting. Sports-related stories and issues which once only appeared on the sports pages are now making the front pages of the general news, and even issues of only modest significance are sometimes taking the banner headline spot.

So what’s going on here? Well, first of all we know that elite sport is a major component of the entertainment industry. And we also know that it’s controlled by a tiny number of excessively wealthy people who want there to be even more competitions to produce even more games to attract even bigger attendances and therefore make even more money. Is that what sport should be, I ask myself.

But what if there is another underlying aspect to this trend? As the world grows ever more brutal and societal control by governments, the Establishment, the corporate world, and the media ever more widespread, something is needed to distract people from the process. Could that something be sport? I daresay the BBC could tell us, but I doubt they will. Or am I growing ever more cynical as I get older?

(This post was jotted quickly because I’m busy, so it might need editing.)