Sports authorities have long persisted with the myth that sport and politics don’t mix, using their rule books to sanitise venues against the world outside and invoking their enforcement powers against players who dare to step out of line. That position – itself an ideological one, of course – buttressed the bottom line by keeping sponsors happy and helping avert splits in the global fan base.
Politics and sport have always been inextricable, the idea that they were parallel worlds a convenient fiction that allowed governing bodies to exclude only the political ideas they disliked. This pretence was maintained because players and fans tolerated it. But that's changing. Before their World Cup qualifier in Gibraltar on Wednesday, Norway's football team wore T-shirts that drew attention to human rights abuses in Qatar, whose treatment of migrant workers has drawn global criticism. The following night, Germany's players staged a similar protest. The World Cup is due to take place in Qatar next year, and ground-up campaigns are under way in Norway and elsewhere to force a boycott of the tournament.
Fifa bans players from displaying "any political, religious or personal slogans", but it says it will take no action against this week's protesters. It knows that the tide is turning. Across so many sports, from Megan Rapinoe and Marcus Rashford to LeBron James and Naomi Osaka, players have found their voice. That has encouraged others and has adjusted public expectations. Where once sponsors would baulk at the commercial repercussions of speaking about human rights, now they must reckon with the cost of staying quiet. Nike and Adidas have both raised concerns about the alleged use of forced labour to produce cotton in the Xinjiang region of China.
Slowly but unmistakably, the criteria for sporting greatness are shifting. Perhaps all the applause for Rashford and Rapinoe prefigures a time when real star status will fall not only on those who excel on the biggest stage but on those willing to use that stage to speak up. They play a good game; now let’s hear them talk one too.