The politics of sports

The letter of the law of FIFA, the international soccer association, stipulates that any instance of political intervention in local soccer will bring a heavy punishment in its wake. This usually takes the form of the offending country's exclusion from international activities. Political intervention can include even the ouster of corrupt senior officials by a sports minister who's brimming with good intentions. It was just such a move that almost cost Poland the opportunity to co-host the Euro 2012 Championship with its neighbor Ukraine.

Still, as the old song goes, sports and politics go together like a horse and carriage. Sports are an excellent means for generating headlines and public debate, and also involve plenty of power, so they are always a magnet for politicians and functionaries. Israeli sports have always gone hand in hand with politics and have been influenced by it in many ways.

The murder of 11 members of the Israeli delegation to the Munich Olympics in 1972 is perhaps the cruelest example of this. And the 1991 Gulf War, in which Israel was only passively involved, nevertheless paralyzed sports activity in the country and compelled the Maccabi Tel Aviv basketball team to play home games abroad. This was the same Maccabi team which in the 1970s entered the pantheon of champions by defeating CSKA Moscow in Virton, Belgium, after the Soviets had barred Israelis from entering the USSR.

Seven years ago, the Hapoel Tel Aviv soccer team reached the height of its glory when it was drawn to play Milan in the UEFA Cup quarter-final. A week and a half before the game, three civilians were killed in a terrorist attack on a Tel Aviv restaurant, when three Hapoel players happened to be dining there. In short order UEFA canceled all games scheduled to be played in Israel.

"We had the feeling that no one wanted to help us," recalls Moshe Teomim, one of the club's owners at the time. "Israel did not have a respectable place in UEFA back then. The chairman of the Israel Football Association, Gavri Levy, had no way of knowing what was going on behind the scenes and so he could not help us. It was a tough blow for us. Within four days we had to organize a game outside Israel."

"We had leased the Tel Aviv Trade Fairgrounds so that we could use all the ticket windows - we wanted to open all 12 simultaneously. The sports minister at the time, Matan Vilnai, came to our aid and flew immediately with the owner, Sami Segol, to Switzerland, but we were treated disdainfully there. The state was ready to meet all the security arrangements, but that attempt fell through. We were like a bone in UEFA?s craw. We became disliked and it was hinted that the big clubs had decided not to let us play in their countries. We were removed from Europe by procedural means, which meant a loss on a scale of NIS 15-20 million."

Arab countries that have no diplomatic ties with Israel usually boycott games scheduled as part of world championships and the Olympics. Ironically, however, a Maccabi Petah Tikva game played as part of the UEFA Cup in 2004 was canceled because of a strike at Ben-Gurion International Airport, which prevented the rival Dutch team from entering the country. In February 2009, Israeli tennis player Shahar Peer was barred from entering Dubai for political reasons.

"We registered for the tournament and then we applied for a visa," Peer's brother Shlomi explains. "The Women's Tennis Association and the tournament organizers promised us that a visa would be issued, but two days before the flight, we were suddenly informed that Shahar would not get a visa to Dubai."

"There was nothing to be done. It's sort of like an Iranian athlete not getting a visa to enter Israel and thus being unable take part in a tournament being held here - it was a decision from above. We were in touch with top officials at the WTA, but even they weren't able to help."

Peer's rejection gave the Emirates a bad name and also cost the tournament's organizers a $300,000 fine. Because of the international furor, Israeli tennis player Andy Ram received a visa to play in the men's tournament in Dubai a week later.

Sports and politics will always be mixed doubles.