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The Politics of South African Football. Alpheus Koonyaditse
Читать онлайн.Название The Politics of South African Football
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isbn 9781990962509
Автор произведения Alpheus Koonyaditse
Издательство Ingram
The IOC had been specific that the decision could be overturned “if South Africa renounced racial discrimination in sport and opposed the ban in its own country on competition between white and black athletes.”
Early in June, two months before being suspended, the South Africans had announced that they would be including seven non-white players in their team of 62 Olympic participants. This was not enough however: on June 26, 1964, the committee gave South Africa one last chance to make a “declaration within 50 days or face the ban.” Riled by the IOC’s insistence, the South African Amateur Athletic Union pulled out of a British athletics meeting in June 1964 to protest against the ultimatum. The South Africans accused the IOC of introducing politics into sports. The South African refusal to condemn apartheid drew further condemnation before the Games. There were protests against South African policy at the Wimbledon tennis championships in London late in June 1964, with several players scheduled to meet a South African withdrawing from the competition. Teams from Africa were encouraged now more than ever before, to have South Africa isolated completely.
A year before the 1968 Olympics the IOC sent a fact-finding delegation to South Africa. The report from the delegation, which consisted of Lord Killian, Reginald Alexander and Sir Adetokunbo Ademola of Nigeria, confirmed to the IOC executive board that the South African government’s stance regarding the maintenance of segregation policies as part of the broader laws of the land was “unaltered, but indicated its agreement to allow a mixed-race representation for the Mexico Games.” This satisfied the IOC, and on February 15, 1968, at its congress in Grenoble, France, the IOC voted in favour of inviting South Africa to the 1968 Olympics in Mexico.
The next day, February 16, 1968, Yidnekatchew Tessema, told the media in Addis Ababa that Ethiopia would boycott the Mexico Games, and that it would incite other Africans to do the same. He asked: “What has the IOC achieved if the status quo is to remain the same after the Games?” It became clear that African, Asian and Latin American countries and Brazil in particular, would also join the boycott. Things happened quickly, and Algeria and Uganda soon heeded Tessema’s call. The Soviet Union, for its part, condemned the invitation to South Africa as a “flagrant violation of the statutes of the International Olympic Committee” and warned that it might even consider boycotting. Within 24 hours, Africa reacted as one. Ghana, Tanzania, Mali and Egypt joined the group calling for a boycott, with Syria, Cuba, Sweden, Norway and Finland declaring their solidarity with Africa.
On February 25, 1968, the Council of Ministers of the Organisation of African Unity also voted in favour of a total African boycott. On February 26, the executive committee of the Supreme Council for Sports in Africa threw its weight behind an African boycott of the Olympics. The IOC was not pleased, and its president, Avery Brundage, issued a number of warnings disguised as advice to would-be boycotters, and when the movement continued to gain strength, went as far as declaring that “the Mexico Games will be held even if I have to be there with five South Africans.” The hosts, to forestall a possible last-minute cancellation of the Games by the IOC, effectively undercut Brundage’s position by threatening to deny South Africans entry visas. The IOC finally relented, and on April 13, 1968, appealed to the South African National Olympic Committee to voluntarily withdraw for the sake of the IOC. South Africa refused. This left the IOC with no option other than the one Africans had been calling for: withdrawing South Africa’s invitation.
On April 20, 1968, the IOC executive board met in Lausanne, Switzerland, and unanimously agreed on the wording of the telegram to be sent to all board members:
In view of all the information on the international climate received by the executive board at this meeting, it is unanimously of the opinion that it would be most unwise for a South African team to participate in the games of the XIX Olympiad. Therefore, the executive board strongly recommends that you endorse this unanimous proposal to withdraw the invitation to these games.
On April 24, 1968, as the postal vote result was announced, it became clear that not all IOC Board members had a problem with segregated sports. Forty-seven were in favour of withdrawing South Africa’s invitation, sixteen against it, and eight abstained.
(Thirty-two years later another abstention, by New Zealander Charles Dempsey, in 2000, would haunt South Africa and deny it the right to host the 2006 World Cup.)
Attempts to get South Africa out of international sport had been steadily intensifying. Africans accused the IOC of refusing to ban New Zealand’s team to the 1968 Olympics, despite their continued sporting relations with South Africa.
The Africans embarked on a boycott, knowing that they risked being expelled from major sports bodies like the IOC and FIFA but, as Tessema explained, “this is the price we are prepared to pay.”
The 1968 Olympic boycott came at huge personal sacrifice to a considerable number of African athletes. The track-and-field events were hit particularly hard by the absence of Filbert Bayi from Tanzania, world champion of the 1500-metre dash, and John Akii-Bua of Uganda, holder of the world record in the 400-metre hurdles race. Kenya followed suit. In a statement issued just hours before the opening ceremony, Kenyan foreign minister, James Osogo, said the government and the people of Kenya “hold the view that principles are more precious than medals.”
Osogo said the IOC decision not to ban New Zealand would give “comfort and respectability to the South African racist regime and encourage it to continue to defy world opinion.”
The African boycott, which was supported by other countries, was proving effective, as 20 of the 26 participating countries withdrew from the 1968 Games. This was working fine for Africans and with no reason to change the winning formula they repeated the strategy eight years later. A total of 23 countries boycotted the 1976 Olympics: Algeria, the Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Iraq, Kenya, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Niger, Nigeria, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso) and Zambia.
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15 The IAAF had already suspended South Africa in June 1970, but until the 1976 expulsion, the country’s athletes had been permitted to compete individually at minor athletics meetings.
In 1951 the South African Soccer Federation (SASF) emerged as perhaps the only truly multiracial football organisation that openly challenged apartheid principles and sought to become the country’s legitimate representative within FIFA. However, FIFA’s continued recognition of the whites only SAFA effectively sabotaged this attempt. In the meantime it had become apparent that football was being used politically both by government supporters, to further the divide-and-rule strategy, and as a political weapon by those opposing racist policies.
On April 22, 1971, Prime Minister Vorster announced what appeared to be a new sports policy for South Africa. This was apparently intended to persuade international sports bodies that South Africa’s racist policies had changed. The new revisionist terminology referred to “multinational sport”, as opposed to sport along racial lines. In essence this was meant to convey the understanding that South Africa was a country made up of several distinctive “nations”, and that each so-called nation had or would be given separate but equal status in all respects including sport. This was the disingenuous attempt by the apartheid government to justify the perpetuation of separate sports bodies for different race groups. Meanwhile, it was patently clear that true multiracial sport would not be allowed at the club, provincial or national level.
In 1974, when most international sports bodies had either suspended or expelled South Africa, the Sports Minister, Dr Koornhof, said that South African sports bodies which had been suspended from international bodies could organise “multinational” and “open