Seb Coe is already marshaling the sporting establishment’s defence against the politicians
London Calling: UK Foreign Minister likens Russia World Cup to Hitler’s Olympics
UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson is known for breathtakingly stupid remarks. But even by his own standards of verbal omnishambling, yesterday’s comments were appalling. When he likened the 2018 World Cup to Hitler’s infamous 1936 Berlin Olympics, Johnson lost not only his mind but his credibility, and somewhat dangerously part of his country’s.
Vladimir Putin is many things; a tyrant, a despot, and a thug. There is no doubt either that the 2018 World Cup Finals present a propaganda opportunity for him. The successful Winter Olympics of 2014 in Sochi certainly did his reputation no harm at the time, although few then were aware of the extent of the doping by Russian athletes.
But one thing that Vladimir Putin is not is Adolf Hitler. And 2018 Russia is not Nazi Germany.
The USSR lost over 20 million lives in the Second World War fighting the Nazis. They were soldiers and they were civilians. They died from bullets and bombs, and they died from starvation and hypothermia. Without that sacrifice, the western powers could not and would not have triumphed against Hitler. There is barely a family in Russia who did not lose someone or know someone who perished in what they still call ‘the Great Patriotic War’.
To therefore compare the country that suffered and sacrificed more in the fight against Naziism with those very same Nazis is astounding. Although Johnson is an idiot in his own right, the remarks will doubtless be taken by the Russian people as indicative of Britain, and cynically used by their leader to widen the rift between the two nations.
Given the nature of the insult, Russia’s counter was mild. The comments were branded “totally irresponsible” by Alexander Yakovenko the Russian ambassador in London, adding “nobody had the right” to compare Russia with Nazi Germany.
He then went on to taunt the UK Government about England’s involvment in the World Cup:
“The British government is free to make a decision about its participation in the World Cup.
“But nobody has the right to insult the Russian people – who defeated Nazism and lost most than 25 million people – by comparing our country to Nazi Germany.
“That goes beyond common sense. And we do not think British war veterans – including those of the Arctic convoys [which shipped four million tonnes of armaments and essential supplies to the Soviet Union during World War Two]– would share this opinion.”
Johnson’s intervention in the spat will be met with dismay from those involved in football who may have been hoping to ride out the current war of words between the UK and Russia without threat to England’s participation. England are the only one of the home nations to qualify.
Earlier in the week and before Johnson’s blast, Sebastian Coe tried to put out the fires early. Coe represented Britain at Olympic Level winning golds, and went on to be the sports minister in the Conservative Government. In an article in the London Evening Standard, before Johnson’s Nazi jibes, he said:
“I don’t for a minute give any serious consideration to the prospect that an England team won’t be in Russia for the World Cup.”
A 1000 word article followed on the issue which somehow belied his claim that it wasn’t already a ‘thing’; a very serious thing.
Most of the article was bland and inarguable, at least until Coe wrote:
“.. we do know if we target sport, it will hurt only the players and the team.”
This is a huge leap. For decades, the UK and many others boycotted sporting competition with Apartheid South Africa. No one would have dared suggest only the Springbok players and their cricketing counterparts were affected.
Coe has experience with this issue. When the USA boycotted the 1980 Moscow Olympics over the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, he was vocal in trying to persuade the UK Government not to follow the USA and send himself and the other athletes.
In his article, he compared that to the South Africa boycott and admirably found a convenient line:
“I chose to go to the games in 1980 because I felt I was still able to compete against the very best in the world.
“I didn’t go to South Africa as their political system would have been closed to many of their best athletes at that time. I felt the two decisions were very different.”
He ends with an affirmation that England should be in Russia although his supporting line that ‘the show will go on’ anyway is hardly the rock hard foundation of a political principle.
However weak Coe’s arguments against a boycott may be, it is Johnson’s diatribe that will ratchet up the debate. Ironically, his remarks are so offensive to the Russians and indefensible in the UK, that sensible minds may run from his discourse to more moderate territory, and opinion will rally against a boycott.
However, as we will see in future articles, he has already picked up some unlikely allies.
London Calling
