Summary
Footballers and other athletes are standing up to the sponsors who subsidise them. Ed Butler speaks to Laurence Halsted, a former British Olympic Fencer who wrote about his concerns about the Games in Rio de Janeiro, in 2016. Sports marketing consultant Tim Crow says the involvement of people's politics in sport makes the usual bonanza for sponsors at events a lot more problematic. Martyn Ziegler, chief sports reporter at The Times, thinks the Olympics may find itself under growing pressure as players blur the messages that brands and governments are hoping to promote.
Produced by Benjie Guy.
(Picture: Portuguese footballer Cristiano Ronaldo at a Euro 2020 press conference. Credit: Getty Images.)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi there, I'm Ed Butler. Welcome to Business Daily from the BBC. Today, player power, how footballers and athletes are standing up to the brand sponsors who subsidise them. |
| 0:12.3 | We're seeing a distinct shift in what is possible for athletes to say. I mean, that old trope of just shut up and play is really being dismantled. |
| 0:22.4 | The athletes are standing up for what they believe in. |
| 0:24.5 | So, yeah, the brands are going to hate it. |
| 0:26.5 | From taking the need to climate activism, is it inevitable that sports are becoming ever more mired |
| 0:32.4 | in politics these days? |
| 0:33.7 | We all know that there is what people describe as a culture war going on and people are being |
| 0:39.2 | asked to take sides. |
| 0:41.1 | And actually it's very tough for brands now in that position because you are constantly |
| 0:45.8 | in the spotlight. |
| 0:46.9 | That's all to come in Business Daily from the BBC. |
| 0:52.0 | We did get some social media training and we were made aware of the rules around what you're |
| 0:58.7 | allowed to post commercially during the games and during the whole games period that you |
| 1:02.9 | couldn't tag sponsors and things like that. But other than that, just an acknowledgement that |
| 1:09.3 | we're in it together and that our actions can have an impact |
| 1:12.3 | on the others around us and especially your teammates and it could become a thing bigger than you. |
| 1:16.5 | That's kind of the main thing I remember. That's Lawrence Halstead. He's a former British |
| 1:21.3 | Olympic fencer who ahead of the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro went public about his concerns surrounding the event. |
| 1:30.3 | Around Rio specifically, it was just this burgeoning, vast cost of games at a time of |
| 1:36.4 | economic depression in Brazil. |
| 1:38.8 | And the locals, the nation itself, was going to have to shoulder the entirety of that burden. |
| 1:43.8 | On top of that, |
... |
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