Football’s tsars: proprietorship, corporatism and politics in the 2010 FIFA World Cup

Abstract

This essay explores the political economy of the 2010 World Cup as it is defined by the major commercial, corporate and political forces that have come to be prevalent in the organization of the FIFA finals. It examines the interchange between international and domestic processes of sport corporatization, commercialization and general trends of sport politics, and the resultant current features of tournament preparation. It contends that the wider political economy of global sport will exercise a modulating and a potentially restraining influence on many of the objectives set by South African authorities. Pre‐event preparation is marked by the involvement of large commercial actors that hold proprietorship over the central – and most lucrative – aspects of the tournament, such as its branding, promotion and mediatisation, and the dissemination of tickets. Driven in the main by neomercantilist impulses, and the ambitions of a global class for whom the commercial stakes are very high, the 2010 World Cup is highly unlikely to yield the gains – for South African football and society – that are popularly expected from it.

Notes

1. I am grateful to Peter Alegi, Chris Bolsmann, Steffen Horstmeier, Janis van der Westhuizen and Paul Dimeo for their valuable feedback on an earlier draft of this essay.

2. Amis and Cornwell, Global Sport Sponsorship; Gratton and Solberg, The Economics; Guillianotti and Robertson, ‘The Globalization of Football’; Sandvoss, A Game of Two Halves.

3. Sugden and Tomlinson, FIFA; Roche, Mega‐Events and Modernity.

4. Cornelissen, ‘Scripting the Nation’; Alegi, ‘“Feel the Pull”’.

5. In classical political economy, neomercantilism or economic statism, which refers to a policy to maximize exports and minimize imports as a protectionist measure, is usually attributed to states. As used in the context of this essay, neomercantilism refers to the increased state‐like influence of major transnational corporations in the world economy and describes aggressive market‐securing and protectionist behaviour which many such corporations engage in. The prefix distinguishes the new form of state and non‐state mercantilism in the contemporary international political economy from historical antecedents during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. See, for instance, Gilpin, Global Political Economy, and Hettne, ‘Neo‐mercantilism’.

6. Roche, Mega‐Events and Modernity.

7. SAFA, South African Football. In the run up to the Confederations Cup, which was held as a pre‐World Cup tournament in South Africa in June 2009, Danny Jordaan, the head of the 2010 Local Organizing Committee even expressed concern that the Confederations Cup will generate very little interest among the country’s football public, and that the organizers would have to devise strategies to prevent ‘empty stands’ to avoid the view that South Africa is not a footballing nation (‘Jordaan Admits to Challenge of Filling Stadiums’. Business Day, November 19, 2008).

8. See for example Amis and Cornwell, Global Sport Sponsorship; Sugden and Tomlinson, FIFA.

9. For instance, Irvin Khoza, one of the most powerful men in South African football and owner of Orlando Pirates is currently the vice‐president of SAFA, the chairman of the PSL and the chair of the 2010 LOC. Khoza also serves on the board of the South African Sport Confederation and Olympics Committee and several other FIFA and CAF subcommittees. Kaizer Motaung, the founder of Kaizer Chiefs, serves on the governing board of the PSL and SAFA.

10. See Cornelissen, ‘“It’s Africa’s Turn!”’ and Cornelissen, ‘Sport Mega‐events’ for overviews of South Africa’s bid processes for the 2006 and 2010 finals.

11. ‘Major Interest in Sport Sponsorships’. Financial Mail, April 4, 2008.

12. Shandu, ‘The Business of Soccer’, 37.

13. SAFA, South African Football.

14. Kunene, ‘Winning the Cup?’

15. ‘PSL Scores in the Move to Sell Broadcast Rights to SuperSport’. Business Report, June 18, 2007.

16. ‘Outrage as SABC Loses Broadcast Soccer Rights’. Business Day, June 15, 2007.

17. ‘Christmas Bonuses for SAFA Officials’. Daily Dispatch, December 4, 2007.

18. ‘Khoza: PSL Board Members Deserve Large Bonuses’. Mail and Guardian, November 6, 2007.

19. Abrahams, ‘Developing the Game’, 74.

20. ‘Eurosport Seeks TV Rights to Local Soccer’. Business Day, December 19, 2008.

21. Kunene, ‘Winning the Cup’. See also Alegi, ‘The Political Economy’.

22. ‘Freeze SAFA Vote, Says Blatter’. City Press, September 20, 2008.

23. According to Molefi Oliphant, SAFA president, for example, ‘(SAFA) had agreed to follow our constitution, which states clearly that elections must be held every four years’. Ibid.

24. ‘South African Football Coach Parreira Resigns’. The Citizen, June 9, 2008.

25. With apologies to Philip Roth. Set in wartime America, one of Roth’s characters in The Great American Novel depicts as lamentable the entry and seeming control of baseball by unscrupulous profit seekers, both corporate and individual in form, and the way in which this has corrupted America’s most cherished sport. He adds a cautious note of admiration however, for how such ‘mongers’ have succeeded in translating deep emotional attachments by loyal fans for the sport into revenue yields for themselves (Roth, The Great American Novel).

26. Cornelissen, ‘Scripting the Nation’.

27. Roche, ‘Mega‐events and Modernity Revisited’; Silk, Andrews and Cole, Sport.

28. Spa, Rivenburgh and Larson, Television in the Olympics.

29. Nash and Johnstone, ‘The Case of Euro 96’.

30. Satyam Computer Services, the fourth largest software company in India was also appointed as the official information technology provider for the 2010 and 2014 FIFA World Cups. In early 2009 its two co‐founders were arrested for fraud and embezzlement, casting doubt on the role the company will play in the two events.

31. Nash and Johnstone, ‘The Case of Euro 96’.

32. ‘FIFA‐driven By‐laws Vague, Embarrassing’. Cape Times, September 3, 2008.

33. Horne and Manzenreiter, Japan, Korea, 195.

34. See for example Jennings, Foul.

35. Manzenreiter and Horne note that Japanese corporate linkage to international sports marketing has been long‐standing, with one of Japan’s largest advertising agencies, Dentsū, owning a 49% stake in ISL; Manzenreiter and Horne, ‘Playing the Post‐Fordist Game’.

36. Gerhard, ‘Analyse der Zuschauerakzeptanz’.

37. Roche, Mega‐Events and Modernity.

38. Organisationskomitee Deutschland, FIFA Fussball‐Weltmeisterschaft.

39. These figures were announced during the official launch of MATCH AG’s 2010 tour operator and hospitality programme at the end of 2007.

40. ‘2010 Tickets for Africa: World Cup Will be Shared Spectacle’. Sowetan, November 4, 2008.

41. Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism and South African Tourism, Tourism Supply‐Side Diagnostic.

42. FIFA, ‘Media Briefing’.

43. ‘Council Urges Industry to Support MATCH’. Business Day, November 8, 2008.