International Sporting Performances by Countries - Essay Example

International Sporting Performances by Countries: The Role of Socio-Economic Determinants 0 Introduction: Sports and physical activity play an important role at the individual, community, national and global levels. In the case of an individual, sport enhances the personal abilities, general health, and self knowledge. For a country as a whole, sport contributes a lot towards growth of the economy, improvement in public health and also enhances cultural values by bringing various communities together. The people of a nation, otherwise remaining marginalized by social, cultural or religious barriers due to gender, disability and other discriminations are brought closer to experience the feeling of oneness by breaking up of such barriers resulting from access to and participation in sports events. Studies have revealed that in the international sporting performances, the effect of economic, demographic, cultural and climatic factors can not be excluded. The Olympics, the World Cup matches in the sports of cricket and football (Soccer) are few of such world sporting events which are strongly influenced by the socio-economic conditions prevailing in the participating countries. For the purpose of the study of this paper the world cup football is taken for consideration. With the game of football in the background, this paper provides a critical report on the relationship of sports and culture in the countries of Brazil and China, and the interaction of sports policy issues under different cultural contexts. The paper also details the patterns of and rationale behind the state intervention in sport. 2.0 Football and Culture: Several studies have been undertaken highlighting the complex interrelationship between foot ball and culture. The important papers have been presented by writers like Archetti (1999), Giulianotti (1999) and Lever (1995). More than anything else, the main reason for the popularity of football as a sporting event is the cultural make up of a country. Within a country the popularity of a sport is usually substantiated by the aesthetical and physical aspects the people attribute to the particular sport. A typical example is the cricket being played by Australia. The sports has become rather an obsession to each Australian in that the country does its best in every match they play and tries to win all the matches. Hence cricket has become a culture for Australia. Similarly foot ball for Brazil has assumed a broader significance within the culture of that nation. "For instance, football has in some countries served as a platform for religious or regional rivalries, to express nationalist sentiment or political aspirations". (Robert Hoffmann, Lee Chew Ging. Bala Ramasamy 2002) Hoffmann et al. in their paper have stated with empirical data that commonalities of some extraneous factors like religion and language have had their impact in the success of some nations in winning the world cup. Although, this opinion can purely be treated as based on a sheer coincidence, we cannot rule out the impact of such cultural aspects in the sporting performance of different countries. The sport is after all a physical ability and the culture of a country would have a lot to affect the physical abilities. Another cultural attribute claimed to have effect on the winning chance for the football cup, by Hoffmann et al. is the hosting of the tournament itself. According to them, eleven out of seventeen past championships, the host nation came among the top four. Again as in the case of Australia, football has been a passion for these countries and there is no wonder that these countries have reached the top four. Hence it may be stated that instead of cultural aspects impacting the sporting performance of a country, sports like football and cricket have become a culture of some countries. 3.0 Sports Policy Issues under Different Cultural Contexts influenced by Socio-Economic Determinants: "Sport can cut across barriers that divide societies, making it a powerful tool to support conflict prevention and peace-building efforts, both symbolically on the global level and very practically within communities." (UN Report 2003) With its social power, Sports can be used as a convenient communication tool to promote social integration and foster tolerance among various social and cultural groups. While deciding on the sports policies it is imperative that the policies take into account the cultural contexts and such policies result in the development of social, economical and cultural advancement of a nation. Sports policies must be based on a "sport for all" policy ensuring that all groups are given equal opportunity to participate, particularly those who gain additional benefits like, women, persons with disabilities and young people. Sports policies should generally be drawn to bring out the excellence of core skills and competencies available on a regional basis as well as on national basis. For the analysis of the impact of the socio-economic determinants on the sports policy issues in general and the sporting performance in particular this paper reviews the performance of Brazil from South American Continent and the country of China. 3.1 Football and Brazil: This section of the paper proceeds to analyse the sporting event of football as performed in Brazil under cultural, social and economic conditions and the effect of these factors on the performance of the sports by the country. Cultural Factors: Three things are regarded as basically synonymous with Brazil; Guitar Music, Carnavals and Soccer (football). Although all the three variables are of different origin than Brazil, these have become the cultural blood of Brazil. Since 'swing, flexibility and the surprise element' being the basic nature of Brazilians, they have easily and naturally adopted the game of football as their live wire which essentially carries all these attributes with it. Although Brazil is a multiracial country with a mixture of mainly Portuguese and African and many other countries, football had united all of these into one. For Brazilians, football is much more complicated; it's the thrill of the chase, plus ritualized war, plus having fun, plus ritual as an art form. Socio-Economic Factors: "The political, economic and cultural uses of football in Latin America including Brazil are summarized: As a device in the quest for national identity; as an arena 'constructively' manipulated by politicians and generals; as an agent of political, socio-economic, and cultural elites in order to stunt working-class and popular consciousness and revolt; as a rare potential 'bottom-up' medium of challenging dominant, hegemonic perceptions in order to create more suitable psychological and cultural conditions for social change; and As a bodily, psychic, and spiritual extension of the individual and community senses ... the dominant orientation of Latin American football, especially at the professional level, has been towards a nationalistic, authoritarian, class-based, and gender-specific manipulation of the sport by political, military, socio-economic, and even cultural elites". (Bar-On. T 1997) Professional football has rarely entered into a sustained and 'authentic' political dialogue with emerging social movements or the larger Latin American society about the most pressing issues of the age and region, be it environmental destruction, the breakdown of communities and identities, unemployment, mass starvation, government corruption, or a de facto corporate and military rule. Foot ball and Brazilian Economy: Brazil is the most highly industrialized country in Latin America and in the year 2000 was the world's largest eighth economy. For years the country had been carrying the largest foreign debt. Brazil's service industry employs over 65 percent of the working population. As a result of 30 years of high inflation, the banking system is highly sophisticated and the Sao Paulo stock exchange has been one of the fastest growing in the world since the mid 1990s. It is worth noting that only in Brazil there is at least $ 1 billion in World Cup related promotion floating around with Ronaldinho, the football star leads more than 12 publicity campaigns for different products ranging from soft drinks and ice creams to mobile phones and cartoon network. Huge multinationals like, NIKE, ADIDAS, PUMA have one of their best markets in Brazil due to the ubiquitous presence football in the country. However the football in Brazil seems to be struggling in the midst of the politicians who took advantage of the game's popularity to make money and collect votes and on the other hand the multinational companies which are suspected to have taken advantage of the struggle to launder money of more than dubious origin. 3.2 Football and China: Cultural Factors: Football in a society reflects to some extent and is affected by its predominant values and assumptions concerning the nature of society and culture. In the case of China also the reason for the country not performing well in football may lie in the fact that by nature Chinese players lack aggression. China was and is a nation that pays a lot of attention to saving face. Moreover Chinese players are afraid of failure and even fans are afraid of failure. "It is a cultural artifact and reflects dominant social structures and social values of the society in which it exists. Therefore it is necessary to loom hard into the Chinese culture and its influence on football to understand the tardy nature of international success." (D.Jinxia and J.A. Mangan 2001) Nationalism and Football Performance in China: It can well be stated that football is meshed with national and international politics. This is true of China also. When the country was victorious in some matches, the people were stimulated with an intense nationalism and felt elated. However, when defeats followed the Chinese people were unwilling to take it sportive. Hence the game with estimated fans more than 150 million people has become a haunted one waiting to take off in all earnest. Socio-Economic Consideraions: In quite contrast to Brazil, football in China is only in the developing stage as a performing sport. While China is posing a strong threat to other nations, Athletics and games like Table Tennis, the football has not grown very well. However "With a cumulative TV audience of over 2 billion for the three matches played by China in last year's World Cup dwarfing all other markets, the profile of football in China has never been higher and the potential never more obvious." (Neil Eaves, Nigel Empson and Dan Fletcher) The economic expansion and the associated opportunities will usher China as a football-playing nation posing a tough challenge to all other nations in the near future. The disappointing performance in the recent world cup will only act as a morale boosting factor for the country's football performance. With the rapid growth of the economy and the size of the country it can be said that China would use its performance in the sports as another tool for its economic success by offering a high potential market for the football related business including media coverage. With a large number of TV viewers it would easily be possible for China to make this an opportunity for increasing its revenues through selling the media rights for the football match coverage. The holding FIFA womens world cup in China in 2007 will provide the multinational brands a powerful platform to appeal directly to China's huge and growing group of middle class consumers. "In turn, economic and social transformation resulted in a widely pervasive competition, commercialistion and consumerism. The sports community was at the forefront of China's shift toward a more commercial, competitive consumer culture." D.Jinxia and J.A. Mangan 2001) Economic Reforms and Football in China: The transition to the market economy and swift changes in the economy also affected the sports policies, strategies and plans of china. With the increase in the requirement of funds for promoting football, the game was gradually changed from a centrally planned sport to a market oriented one. Moreover the salaries for players also went high. Despite the problems the football clubs flourished and western-style professional football league matches came into being. By the mid-1990s in China, entrance fees, promotion and advertising had become integral part of sports competitions. This had given to rise to a sizeable contribution to the consumer market with more and more multinationals entering the country. With more flow of foreign direct investments the purchasing power of the people increased. 4.0 Conclusion: From the foregoing discussions it becomes evident that sports can be treated as a significant economic force, providing employment and contributing to local development. Especially in developing countries like Brazil and China, the game football has contributed well to the development of the social and economic conditions. In China in spite of the country exhibiting commendable performances in other sports like gymnastics, swimming and table tennis, the country has not been able to break the barriers and make resounding victories In football, due to reasons which can not be predicted with accuracy; However the development of the game has contributed much to the economy of the country as such. Similarly in Brazil the football has become a part of the culture of Brazilians. But the game is put to achieve wrong ends by the politicians and the multinationals by sheer exploitation of the people in the name of the game. The practice of sports is vital to holistic development of young people and hence needs to have a re-look to foster it with true goals of achievement. Reference List: 1. Bar-On. T 1997 The Ambiguities of Football, Politics, Culture, and Social Transformation in Latin America Sociological Research Online Vol. 2 no. 4 [Online] Available from: http://www.socresonline.org.uk/2/4/2.html Accessed on: 18th February 2007 2. D.Jinxia and J.A. Mangan (2001)Football in the New China: Political Statement, Entrepreneurial Enticement and Patriotic Passion Routledge, Part of the Taylor&Francis Group Vol. 2 No. 3 [Online] Available from: http://www.pierretristam.com/pdfs/wc8.pdf Accessed on: 18th February 2007 3. Neil Eaves, Nigel Empson and Dan Fletcher Football in China Sport Business [Online] Available from: http://www.sportbusinessassociates.com/sports_reports/football_china.pdf Accessed on: 18th February 2007 4. Robert Hoffmann, Lee Chew Ging. Bala Ramasamy 2002 The Socio Economic Determinants of International Soccer Performance Journal of Applied Sciences Vol. 5 No. 2 [Online] Available from: http://redalyc.uaemex.mx/redalyc/pdf/103/10305205.pdf Accessed on: 18th February 2007 5. UN Report 2003 Sports for Development and Peace: Towards Achieving the Millennium Development Goals Report from the United Nations Inter-Agency Taskforce on Sport for Development and Peace [Online] Available from: http://www.worldvolunteerweb.org/fileadmin/docs/old/pdf/2003/03_09_16_USA_SportDevelopment.pdf Accessed on: 18th February 2007 Read More