How inclusivity in elite sport is compromised by putting profit before people.

We all live for sport, right? Whether it's revolving your life around training and eating right to be able to perform well in the gym and build up an incredible physique, or if during the week, after school or work you practice a sport like netball or basketball so that at the weekend you can compete in your area's local league. Or even if you find your whole week's mood being determined by how well your team do (I've had a great couple of months - Ange Postecoglou please keep me dreaming!). Whatever it is, we all love sport. But sometimes when we delve into what is actually happening right in the core of our sports and the issues financially and morally that go on, a slight sour taste can be left that leave us thinking; Why? How? Who?

Courtesy of Football365

Inclusivity and profit are components in modern society can be very controversial to talk about, and when taking a look at how they impact our favourite sports, sometimes it can be difficult to understand the reasoning behind how clubs, players and sporting organisations act and why they do.

Inclusivity involves components such as human rights, sports washing, equal pay for women, sporting sponsorships and athlete activism.

As of recent times, I am sure every football fan is aware of the initial disappointment surrounding the 2022 FIFA World Cup, and the fact it was hosted in Qatar, all the way in the Southwest Asia. Firstly, the thoughts are the difficulty to travel to the competition for most of us Europeans, and then the amount of money it would cost to do so, and then prices of tickets, places to stay, and just general living whilst out there. Secondly, the World Cup is traditionally hosted in the summer when all major leagues and cups around the world are finished and players can focus on their respective national team, this is something we all look forward to, but the issue here is due to the weather conditions in Qatar in the summer, it would not be sensible to do so this time around so therefore had to be hosted in the winter. Again, putting another negative on to the choice to be in Qatar.

The main issue with the World Cup being hosted here, though, was the wild human rights in place. Since Qatar are not a typically footballing nation, adjustments needed to be made in order for all the teams in the competition, most notably the stadiums. They needed to be large to accommodate all those expected to travel, they needed to be grand to be able to represent the World Cup in the right way, and most importantly they needed to be safe. So from December 2010 when it was announced, building needed to be done in order for all 8 astonishing stadiums to be ready 12 years later.

In the time it took, the lives of over 6500 migrant workers were taken due to the harsh conditions they had to work in, with a particular worker based at the Khalifa International Stadium saying that being there was like a prison in the extreme heat and he was told if there was any sort of complaining about this then there would be consequences (How Many Migrants Died Erecting the 2022 Qatar World Cup? | Time).

In the media, of course this was being scrutinised as for example when the opening ceremony for the competition was live, the BBC decided not to show it on television, only on BBC iPlayer. Instead, Gary Lineker had his own monologue describing all the human right issues ongoing in the country, as a preview to the opening game between Qatar and Ecuador. Many viewers saw this as a statement from the BBC that they would not adhere to the situation surrounding Qatar, and perhaps would not be putting profit first over basic morals and human rights. Unfortunately though, this would really be the only thing to happen showing strong intent from the BBC as after the blocking of the ceremony, as many games as possible were shown including the final between Argentina and France which both the BBC and ITV broadcasted.

So as much as the BBC had shown an interest in speaking their minds and taking profit out of the tricky situation, in general as soon as the first game kicked off, all of that went out the window, proving to everyone that big broadcasting networks really did not care, and profit is the main priority and it comes before anything else.

In an interview with Piers Morgan, Secretary General Hassan Al-Thawadi spoke about the scrutiny his nation and the World Cup had come under particularly from those in the United Kingdom, and run-ins he has had with Gary Lineker regarding to how

outspoken the former England Striker had been. He said "In particular with Gary, the frustration is that we have reached out to him for a sit down, with at very least the idea to present the counter arguments, and how we are utilising this tournament to be historical" (Piers Morgan Uncensored - (125) Qatar World Cup Chief Reveals Migrant Workers Death Toll To Piers Morgan - YouTube).

This shows that the treatment by the media on these human rights issues are being heard by those at the front of the cause, but at the same time when relating back to how inclusivity in elite sport is compromised for profit, profit always come first unfortunately because as much as there have been disagreements from sporting bodies, the public and broadcasters, that is all it ever will be because in this industry money is everything whether the morals involved are right or wrong.

At the end of the day, broadcasters that are not in favour of what they will put on

television still prefer the profit over gracious morality, and places like Qatar where the human rights issues are completely different to standard in the United Kingdom, they will still always stay the same because they are a financial powerhouse and if they can cover up bad human rights with a spectacle like the 2022 Qatar World Cup, then personally I cannot see a world where this changes.

Make of all I have just said as you will, but the glaring beam is that profit will always come before people.

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Following from the last points made where we looked at inclusivity is elite sport, focusing on human rights and the issues regarding the 2022 Qatar World Cup, it is important to take a look at different avenues involved in inclusivity to see if for the human rights, that was an anomaly which could be the case.

The area this is going to be looked at this time round is the topic of gender inequality and discrimination in sport.

In football, particularly, as of recent times the women's game has grown so much with things like the most recent Euro's and World Cup bringing attraction from many that usually would be bothered or interested in watching women's league football, but international football has been the spear to the women's game growing as much as it has.

Even with other facts of growth like women being added to EA Sports' latest release of FC 24, where they can mix with the men in the most popular game mode, Ultimate Team, and as well as being broadcast more frequently on television in comparison to for example 10 years ago, there is still such a gap between the men and women in football, with wages being the most highlighted factor that separates the genders apart.

As of The Guardian, in 2015 the United States Women's National Team filed a lawsuit against the U.S Soccer Federation. This is because the women recognised that they were being paid 25% of what the US Men's National Team were earning, despite earning $20 million more than their male counterparts (I thought the main issue in women's sports was equal pay. I was wrong | Sport | The Guardian), due to the fact they won the World Cup in 2015 and were undisputedly the best national team in the world of women's football as they dominated with star players such as Alex Morgan and Megan Rapinoe.

Alex Morgan (Left) and Megan Rapinoe (Right)

Courtesy of John Walton/EMPICS/PA Images via Getty Images

The suing was not wholly successful as although the judge allowed them to have the same level of flights and hotels, the same amount of pay was denied. 7 years later, though a new deal was stuck in the US Soccer Federation which mean both the men and women teams would be paid equally.

Megan Rapinoe and Alex Morgan were interviewed about the gender discrimination and equal pay feud and how the victory made them feel, Rapinoe said " It was a long process but I'm just proud of how us as players have stuck together and put our foot down, so for us this is a huge win in not only righting the wrongs of the past, but to set the next generation up with something we could only have dreamed of".(TODAY - (136) Megan Rapinoe, Alex Morgan React To Equal Pay Victory: 'It's A Huge Win' - YouTube).

From the situation that happened with the USWNT, we can see that the court was reluctant to give the women equal pay despite arguably deserving to be paid more than the men because of better performances. This is an anomaly.

Throughout the media, people are very split about the gender pay difference in football. Some would say the same as the USWNT and have the argument that if they are doing the same job, they should be paid the same, or some would point out the fact that men's football is wildly more popular than women's, so therefore they have more demand in broadcasters wanting to show the games, being sponsored etc. This means that more money is being pumped into the men's game, so, fairly, the men get paid the percentage of the total income for essentially what the player is worth the football club, but in other words, the organisation, the company. All of what I've spoken about and discussed can be followed through with (Why gender equal pay is so hard to achieve in sport | UCL School of Management).

As much as football clubs are about being the best they can be in the footballing world, they are also businesses, so when talking about the reason most women get paid a lot less than their male counterparts, it is not because they are worth less as a person and a player in the club, it is because the club will view players as assets and investments so if the women's game is not getting as much attention as the men's, then the ability will never be there to pay both genders the same when they are looked on as assets rather than players, because a football club is also a business. What is the main aim of a business? Profit.

So, when relating this discussion to the initial title of how inclusivity in elite sports is treated when regarding how the people at the top of these sports view the importance of profit, it is clearly visible to see that when studying the idea of the gender differences, particularly in football, and furthered more specifically with the topic of the difference in pay, that it is going to take many more years of progression from the women's game to be able to catch up to the men's. This is not particularly the fault of women either, as historically, in 1921 the FA actually met and decided to ban women's football for the foreseeable future, elaborating by say it " is quite unsuitable for females and ought not to be encouraged" (Kicking Down Barriers - The story of women's football in England (thefa.com)), with this ban being in place for a large 51 years, so who is not to say that if that never happened I could have been writing this, questioning why men are not paid nearly as much as women are!

And finally, some stats to demonstrate the pure diversity of the wage structures and how much players are paid depending on if they are a man or woman, courtesy of WalesOnline (Best-paid women's footballers and how much wages are compared to men - Wales Online). As of August 2023, the top 3 highest paid women were Sam Kerr, earning £417,000 a year, Alex Morgan earning £375,000 and Megan Rapinoe at £373,000 - coincidentally the latter 2 both being a main topic of discussion thus far. Now in comparison to the men's highest paid, being Cristiano Ronaldo at £173,000,000, Karim Benzema at £172,000,000 and Kylian Mbappe at £100,000,000 a year. These numbers are genuinely astonishing, especially when knowing that Ronaldo earns 415 times more than Kerr, just based off wages. As previously stated, it is hard to see this changing anytime soon due to the general demand gearing towards men's football in the media so this is what is provided by broadcasters, and this is something we all might never see budging in our lifetimes.

Courtesy of workingmums.com

So to end this, and the previous points, I think it is simple to see that both human rights, when relating to all of the issues that went through the 2022 Qatar World Cup, as well as the gender issues with the links to the pay difference between men and women in football, that profit will always be the dominator for governing bodies in sport whether this is the right thing to happen or not, or if it is something that cannot be controlled like when speaking about pay difference. This, then, is open for debate if it is a positive or negative thing for our sport to mainly be revolved around finances, but that is the bottom line. Personally, it is negative for us consumers that just want to enjoy and experience a calm world where everyone is happy but that is simply unrealistic, but on the flip side, I think it is completely understandable for the reasons why sport is like this.