Boycott the 2022 World Cup, as some Norwegian clubs have suggested? Or the Winter Olympics in Beijing earlier that year in the name of respect for human rights? Very bad idea, according to the President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Thomas Bach: “We just have to learn from history. A boycott has never been used for anything, except to punish the athletes ”, he estimated, at the end of March, in response to rising voices, from Norway or Germany.
Now in his sixties, Mr. Bach speaks from experience. Crowned Olympic team fencing champion in 1976, he had to give up defending his title when, four years later, West Germany boycotted the Moscow Olympics. “The boycott of the 1980 Olympics followed the invasion of Afghanistan by the USSR, and Soviet troops left in 1989, nine years later! The boycott was pointless. “
Evoking the boycott in sport brings up hints of the Cold War. “It was a weapon then used in a logic of blocks, strong alliances”, recalls Carole Gomez, research director at the Institute for International and Strategic Relations (IRIS). In 1980, the USSR organized the Games without being able to count on the United States and 65 other nations. Four years later, in Los Angeles, the Soviet Union and seventeen other delegations gave up visiting America. In 1988, six countries (Albania, Cuba, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Nicaragua and Seychelles) joined forces with North Korea in its refusal to compete in Seoul, at its southern neighbor.
“They are not geopolitical analysts”
In the name of sporting neutrality, France took part in each of these Games – with the exception, in the Soviet Union, of the equestrian, shooting and sailing federations. Today, the French National Olympic and Sports Committee (CNOSF) remains faithful to this line. Denis Masseglia, its president, says to himself “Categorically against” the idea of a future boycott. It would be, according to him, “Make athletes take on a role which is not theirs and which would make them the only ones punished in the end, the turkeys of the farce.” Or, if some speak of boycott, let it come first from the political, economic and cultural world. But why the sportsmen first? Why ask them to sacrifice their major objective? “.
For athletes sometimes preparing their entire lives for an Olympic event, finding themselves the flag bearer of a sometimes much larger cause presents some risks. “If they do not understand the subject, it can be slippery for some, estimates Carole Gomez. They are not geopolitical analysts. “
“The only boycott that has changed things is that of Apartheid South Africa”, underlines Simon Chadwick, director of the Center for the Eurasian Sports Industry at EM Lyon business school. On the one hand, the IOC prevented any South African delegation from participating in the Games, from those of 1964 to those of 1988. On the other hand, in 1976, twenty-two African nations shunned the Montreal Games to protest against the presence of New Zealand, whose rugby players had faced the Springboks before. “But if sport played a role in its outcome, it was a boycott of several years, not a simple boycott of a T-shirt. “ Norwegian footballers and the like will appreciate it.
Rhetoric and practice
If this mode of action is becoming scarce, it is also due to growing resources and “Increased power of international bodies such as the International Olympic Committee”, Carole Gomez analysis. Before organizing the 2022 Winter Games, Beijing was full of participants in the summer of 2008, despite the prior protests of non-governmental organizations about Tibet. Just like Sochi, in the Russia of Vladimir Putin, for the winter meeting of 2014.
The word “boycott” should not, however, be deleted from the dictionary. But it is now used most often in rhetorical use. Without taking action. Or, in absolute terms, only on an individual basis. Even when it seems impractical, a simple call for boycott represents “An inexpensive way to mobilize the population or put subjects on the agenda”, according to Carole Gomez. Or to mobilize against brands associated with the events: “Activists threaten to attack the activities of AirBnB, one of the sponsors of the Olympic Games, on the sidelines of Beijing 2022”, Simon Chadwick points out.
During its recent presentation of the outfits intended for the Australian delegation for the Tokyo Games, scheduled for the summer of 2021, the Japanese equipment manufacturer Asics has attracted a lot of criticism. He has been accused of using cotton grown in the Xinjiang Autonomous Region, where China is accused, among other things, of subjecting the Uyghur population to forced labor. Now even the sponsors are called on to get involved.