Michael Moynihan: Sportswashing leaves a very dirty trail

Traditionally people turn to the sports pages to escape life’s harsher realities, but the bill eventually comes due

A message showing support for Ukraine is displayed on screen ahead of the Carabao Cup final at Wembley Stadium, London. Picture: Nick Potts/PA Wire 

TROUBLE in the NBA, I see. Trouble with a parallel or two here.

Recently NBA Commissioner Adam Silver mused aloud about reporters going into the dressing room after games to interview players, a practice that came to a temporary end with Covid.

Silver didn’t say he wanted to continue to bar reporters from the dressing rooms, and he made a reasonable enough point about the practice — that if one were starting from scratch in designing a relationship between those covering a sport and its practitioners, having the former hang around the latter while they dress wouldn’t be a natural starting point.

Unfortunately he also porridged up a lot of nonsense about privacy and when women reporters started to go in to interview players and so on, to the extent that he had to release a statement which sought to clarify a few bits and bobs.

As ever, when you’re releasing a statement to clarify an earlier statement it’s not a good sign, but Adam Silver’s missteps isn’t the focus this morning.

Rather than muse on the tribulations of sports bodies everywhere in getting competent administrators, and media access to athletes, events in Ukraine have been on everyone’s mind. There’s no escape from them here either.

The reason is simple. Traditionally people turn to the sports pages to escape life’s harsher realities, as a refuge from the bad news, but the bill eventually comes due, and the bad news has arrived here now. Switching off to enjoy the sport can’t be an option, not when switching off — sportswashing, in other words — is the whole point.

Sport comes into the Ukraine equation in all sorts of ways. To take a very obvious example, Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich, a Russian native, was named in the UK parliament last week by an MP who suggested seizing his assets and barring him from ownership of Chelsea.

Credit the club’s manager, Thomas Tuchel, for at least acknowledging that issue, and the wider issue of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine: “You’re right, we should not pretend that this is not an issue and I agree. The situation in general, for me and for my staff and for everybody here at the Cobham, for the players, is horrible ... Much more to all people and families who are actually more involved than us. And our best wishes and our regards and thoughts are obviously with them.”

Outfits like Uefa, which at the time of writing was attempting some kind of three-point turn towards an eventual decision, would do well to be as open. If Uefa wants an example of how to behave it could do worse than look to the organisers of the Eurovision Song Contest, who have been far more decisive (banning Russia from the competition).

Tuchel can hardly plead ignorance of Chelsea’s owner before he joined the club, but he could have asked why he was the one, in effect, being held to account for the British establishment’s avid embrace of Russia for many years, though in the interests of clarity feel free to replace “establishment” with “sleeveens with high notions”.

Anyway, feel free also to purse your lips and shrug and move on; relax and enjoy the next live game, whenever that rolls around. No doubt it’ll arrive complete with the hysterically charged advertising intended to make you feel you’re part of the whole — you know the one with the Neil Diamond song, the song whose lyrics now seem ominously prescient: good times never seemed so good.

Maybe you’ll enjoy it ahead of Newcastle’s next game, bankrolled as they are by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund. Or Manchester City’s next game, bankrolled as they are by the UAE’s Sheikh Mansour.

For the grown-ups, though?

Slava Ukraini, heroiam slava!

Illustration of the modern Catch-22

At this stage you’re probably prioritising your existential crises in order of significance, like the rest of us.

Helpful hint: you don’t have to stop worrying about the impending World War before you rationalise your concerns about the ongoing global pandemic, but for preference try to keep the threat of catastrophic climate change front and centre.

I kept climate to the end for a reason — I noted a cheery piece in Vox last week which ties in to the end of the Winter Olympics. The 30-second version? A new study has found that suitable venues for Winter Olympic Games may be harder and harder to find in a warming world, with the Vox piece sharing gems such as the Beijing Winter Olympics, just finished, costing at least $3.9bn (about €3.54bn) — with some estimating a far higher final bill.

In one of the neatest illustrations of the modern Catch-22, Vox pointed out: “Rising temperatures mean that more winter precipitation falls as rain rather than snow, and the snow that does fall can be less substantial. Covering a mountain slope in synthetic powder can harm the environment...”

So, environmental damage means artificial snow is needed, but artificial snow brings environmental damage. Which means artificial snow is needed...

Yes, that’s the world we live in.

Golf! Mickelson! Statements! More statements! Letters!

It’s difficult to keep everything in order at present — don’t feel bad, we’re all in the same boat — but the last few days have made me almost forget the golf.

The golf! Mickelson! Statements! More statements! Letters!

I won’t dirty your earholes with a lengthy recap, though Mickelson’s attempts to justify joining a Saudi-led breakaway have to be seen to be believed (and can’t be believed when seen): “We know they killed [Washington Post reporter and U.S. resident Jamal] Khashoggi and have a horrible record on human rights. They execute people over there for being gay. Knowing all of this, why would I even consider it? Because this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity . . .” 

Suffice to say Rory McIlroy emerges from the ensuing cloud of dust with a fine line in putdowns (“I don’t want to kick someone while he’s down, obviously, but I thought they were naive, selfish, egotistical, ignorant.”) But wait! Both were outdone by a Greg Norman open letter to the PGA Commissioner which began: “Surely you jest. And surely, your lawyers at the PGA Tour must be holding their breath.”

This David Simon-level dialogue will hardly be bettered this coming week. But it’s early days yet.

Amis at his best

Another fruitful visit to Prim’s bookshop in Youghal where I picked up a long-lost classic: What Became of Jane Austen? And Other Questions by Kingsley Amis.

The great man ranges over a wide variety of subjects in this collection — the famous Why Lucky Jim Turned Right features, about his own drift away from left-wing politics, but many of the pieces focus on writers and their subjects, such as the writer in the book’s title, or the cool examination of another famous protagonist, A New James Bond.

For me, top billing to Dracula, Frankenstein And Co — an examination of horror on film with a sharp eye on great shows, now forgotten by most, such as The Devil Rides Out and Dead At Night.

Back to Youghal soon to restock.

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