Star athlete ambassadors of sport for development and peace

ABSTRACT

It is not uncommon for star athletes to be involved in sport for development and peace (SDP) initiatives as role models, be it a long-term ambassadorship or a short-term commitment. As the SDP sector has been continuously growing in the past two decades, scientific interest in the field has developed as well. Nonetheless, there are still gaps in the literature regarding high-profile athlete endorsed SDP initiatives. This article explores high-profile athletes’ involvement in SDP, and its purpose is to identify the characteristics these athletes need to have in order to be successful as ambassadors in SDP. Nine semi-structured interviews with SDP practitioners on athlete-ambassadorship are analysed, through the lens of Goodman and Barnes’ ‘development celebrity’ and ‘star/poverty space’ concepts. The responses from the interviews revealed that celebrities used in SDP programmes need to be popular not only on a global level, but specifically in the local context, among the beneficiaries as well. These ambassadors and mentors need to understand SDP in order to be authentic contributors to the programmes. Credibility is essential, but also fragile as the media attention, which is so valuable for promotion purposes, can backfire in the case of any scandals.

KEYWORDS:

• Sport for development and peace (SDP)
• development celebrity
• high-profile athlete
• athlete ambassador
• role model

Acknowledgement

The authors would like to thank Filip Filipić for his consultancy support in the web-based search phase of the research and Rachel May for proofreading the paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Sport for Development and Peace International Working Group (SDPIWG). Harnessing the Power of Sport for Development and Peace: Recommendations to Governments. 2008, SDPIWG: Toronto.

2. Right to Play: Athlete Ambassadors. Available from: http://www.righttoplay.com/Learn/keyplayers/Pages/Athlete-Ambassadors.aspx [Accessed 27 June 2018].

3. Right to Play: Athlete Ambassadors. Available from: http://www.righttoplay.com/Learn/keyplayers/Pages/Athlete-Ambassadors.aspx [Accessed 27 June 2018].

4. UNAIDS, the forerunner organisation to combat AIDS works with 25 Goodwill Ambassadors, among whom 3 are high-profile athletes. Available from: http://www.unaids.org/en/aboutunaids/unaidsambassadors [Accessed 10 July 2018].

5. The United Nations Children’s Fund works with over 400 international, regional and national Goodwill Ambassadors and Advocates. 80 of them are athletes. Available from: https://www.unicef.org/people/people_ambassadors.html [Accessed 10 July 2018].

6. The UN Refugee Agency works with 22 Goodwill Ambassadors and 20 High Profile Supporters, three of them are athletes. Available from: http://www.unhcr.org/prominent-supporters.html [Accessed 10 July 2018].

7. An interview for this study with a staff member of GIZ, Heidi Beha, revealed that the German Development Agency works with four high-profile athlete ambassadors: Haile Gebrselassie, Britta Heidemann, Nadine Kessler and Nia Künzer.

8. Light for the World is an international disability and development organisation. Two members of their international board of ambassadors are world-class track and field athletes: two-time Olympic champion Haile Gebrselassie and Paralympic champion Henry Wanyoike. Available from: https://www.light-for-the-world.org/international-board-ambassadors [Accessed 10 July 2018].

9. There were 30 profiles that were duplications and 28 profiles that could not qualify as SDP organisations in this research. A staff member of sportanddev.org was contacted in this phase, and he confirmed that these 58 organisations could indeed be duplications and irrelevant profiles that slipped through their verification system in the past 15 years.

10. We considered a Facebook page currently running if the last post on the page was not older than 3 years old, meaning that it was posted not before 25 June 2015.

11. Here we define an athlete ‘high-profile’ if they have been involved in competitive sport on an international level, at least as members of the national team of their country. Using this definition allowed us to keep those athletes in the analysis who might not have been among the best and most well-known athletes on the international stage in their discipline, but could still be influential as the ‘face’ of an organisation when it comes to promotion and fundraising in the local context.

12. Look to the Stars website. Available from: http://www.looktothestars.org [Accessed 29 November 2018].

13. Goodman and Barnes (2011, 76).

14. Yusra Mardini fled the war in Syria in 2015 and used her swimming skills to save fellow refugees’ lives on their way to Europe. She was part of the first Refugee Olympic Team in 2016 in Rio de Janeiro and she is working with UNHCR since 2017. Available from: https://www.unhcr.org//yusra-mardini.html [Accessed 11 December 2018].

15. Those respondents who gave us authorisation to disclose their names: Vladimir Borkovic, Jutta Engelhardt, Janine Handel, Paul Hunt, John Sugden, Karine Teow. The list of respondents with their affiliated organisations can be found in Appendix I.

16. Over 51 000 members of the public in 25 countries were asked to assess 54 individuals to measure their reputation in April-May 2011. Available from: https://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Mandela-still-worlds-most-trusted-20110921 [Accessed 13 July 2018].

17. Roger Federer is the president of the Roger Federer Foundation, a non-governmental organisation funded in 2003 that supports educational projects in southern Africa and Switzerland. Available from: http://www.rogerfedererfoundation.org/en/what-we-do/overview/ [Accessed 15 July 2018].

18. After proofreading the text, the respondent asked for some changes in her quote to reflect her opinion more clearly.

19. Roger Federer’s official Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/Federer/ [Accessed 21 June 2019].

20. More on the investigation into Didier Drogba’s charities: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ivorycoast-britain-charities/footballer-drogbas-charity-cleared-of-fraud-but-may-have-misled-donors-uk-watchdog-idUSKBN13R1O3 [Accessed 21 June 2019].

21. Juan Mata’s Twitter account: https://twitter.com/juanmata8, streetfootballworld’s Twitter account: https://twitter.com/sfw_tweets [Accessed 19 June 2019].

22. Roger Federer Foundation, Malawi visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfYin92D9G8 [Accessed 27 March 2019].

23. The respondent referred to Gábor Király, former Hungarian national football team member, who became famous during the 2016 European Championships by wearing tracksuit trousers. https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/jun/18/hungary-euro-2016-gabor-kiraly [Accessed 7 December 2018].

24. Most of the respondents have been involved in SDP in multiple organisations and in various roles. Here we use the affiliation they preferred for this research.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mariann Bardocz-Bencsik

Mariann Bardocz-Bencsik was born in 1986 in Budapest. She holds a Master’s degree in International Studies and a Bachelor’s degree in Sport Management. She is currently enrolled in the PhD programme of the University of Physical Education in Hungary, her research topic is the role of sport in international development. She completed two internships abroad; both were linked to her PhD-studies: one at Peace and Sport in Monaco and one at the Swiss Academy for Development in Switzerland. She worked in the international office of the University of Physical Education, Hungary and now works in the European Non-Governmental Sports Organisation (ENGSO). She is a member of the Hungarian Society of Sport Science.

Marko Begović

Marko Begović is a PhD candidate at the German Sport University, MA in Olympic studies and graduated in Foreign Policy and Diplomacy. Begović is currently team leader within Hellas Tennis Academy, member of the Editorial Board of the International Scientific Journal of Kinesiology “Sport Science”, a guest lecturer and independent researcher/consultant, author of several academic papers. Previously, Begović was engaged within various state institutions (advisor for international affairs and high-performance sport), consultancy-based position within National Olympic Committees and held elected positions within the Council of Europe (Task Force on Good Governance in Sport; Gender Equality Rapporteur and Bureau member). He is a former professional tennis player and member of the Davis Cup team of Montenegro.

Tamás Dóczi

Tamás Dóczi was born in 1978. He has an MA in Sociology (2006), and an MA in British Studies (2005), and a PhD in Sport Science (2011). He works as an associate professor at the University of Physical Education, Budapest, Hungary and is a guest lecturer at the National Taiwan Sport University. His research areas include sport and globalization, the relationship of sport and national identity, the legacy of sport mega-events, football fandom, and social inclusion in and through sport. In these topics, he has published several journal articles and book chapters, delivered over 30 conference papers in Hungarian and English, and participated in a number of Hungarian and international r&d projects. He is also the co-author of the first Hungarian sport sociology course book, and the member of the Advisory Board of the International Sociology of Sport Association. He is the PhD supervisor of the first author.