When it comes to playing sport, it's not often a good idea to sit back and see what the other team does before acting. It's true that Greece once managed to win the European soccer championship with a defensive strategy. But, other than that, it's generally not a good idea just to wait and see. That's not how you win the Super Bowl.
So what does that have to do with the decision by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) to move this season's Champions League final from St. Petersburg, Russia, to Paris, France? Quite a bit actually.
The Champions League is the most prestigious transnational competition in European football. But the UEFA and many other sports federations and clubs around the world have waited so long to speak up about anti-democratic potentates that it hurts.
Ignorance or indifference?
The statement by Franz Beckenbauer, the legendary German football player and manager, that he hadn't seen a single forced laborer on World Cup construction sites in Qatar is still infamous. He literally called the construction workers there "slaves," yet noted that they were "all running around freely." Perhaps some of the forced laborers had conveniently died off beforehand?
Some might have considered that a more practical solution. After all, it would make it much easier to cooperate with the Vladimir Putins, Xi Jinpings and Viktor Orbans of this world. It would also make it easier to pocket all the money that's needed for the war machine — oh, pardon me: I mean, the gambling machines.
Ah, so Gazprom, which has sponsored European soccer games for more than a decade, is a Russian state-owned company? And Russian President Vladimir Putin locks people up indiscriminately and invades other countries as he pleases? Oh no, we hadn't noticed anything like that before, not once over, not all these years.
Taking a stand
One might be tempted to say that, against that background, Russia's invasion of Ukraine has had a cleansing impact. It's simply no longer possible to look away, especially when there's a cannon barrel right under your nose. With that in mind, it will be much more pleasant to play the next games in Paris than in St. Petersburg. So, yes, thank you for that.
It would be easy to get furiously angry about the matter-of-fact manner with which sports officials — such as Thomas Bach, the German president of the International Olympic Committee — regularly offer young athletes up to dictatorships, as though they were compliant hostages.
It is only sport and sport is apolitical, right? Nothing, gentlemen (because it is still mostly men at the top of the sports business), nothing, is apolitical anymore. And certainly not in times like these.
Vettel: 'It's wrong'
Perhaps not all sportspeople have made up their minds as firmly as the Formula One racing driver Sebastian Vettel. "I think it's wrong to race in this country," he said, simply and clearly, about an upcoming race in Sochi, Russia. The race has since been canceled.
Should other sporting heroes and heroines not agree with the position that Vettel takes, here's a cautionary tale that shows how winners can easily become warmongers.
The German writer Klaus Mann wrote a great novel, "Mephisto," about how success and fascist power can combine. In the 1981 film version of the book, the main character, Hendrik Höfgen, is a star of the stage who capitulates to the Nazis in order to secure his success. In the final scene of the film, he roams around Berlin's iconic Olympic Stadium, shouting: "What do they want from me? After all I'm just an actor."
By then, the fascists had long since turned the searchlight on him and he realizes that he has made a deal with the devil.
Athletes and sportspeople in Berlin, and in all other stadiums of this world, should know that the character in Mann's book was based on a real man, a director and actor, who did apparently collaborate with the Nazis in order to ensure creative success. And, yes, he was successful. But, no, he was not innocent.
This article has been translated from German.