 Hello and let's talk about sport and the US elections. We're talking of course of two fields in life where there's a lot of money and as can be guessed there's a great nexus as well. Now sports persons across the world and from the US have also been in the forefront of many causes. We know the role of iconic sports persons such as Maum Madali and the Black Power Salute given by American athletes Tommy Smith and John Carlos in the 1968 Olympics. In recent times we've seen basketball players for instance take a stand following the murder of George Floyd in May, the basketball players were demanding justice. But this is just one side of the story. The role of sports and politics would be incomplete without discussing the role of owners of sports teams who are often very rich of course and the supporters of the establishment upholding it and often very much a part of it. Now this is true as much of the US as of India and many other countries in the world. And so out of the US elections we talked in news clicks Leslie Xavier on the situation with the sports establishment in the US and also the scene in India when it comes to politics. So the US presidential elections are scheduled to be held tomorrow that's November 3rd and it's a very important election as far as the country is concerned even the world all of us sitting even in India. And we do know that sports persons especially over the past few years they've been in the news for a lot of political reasons as well even before the elections there was Coran Kaepernick, Megan Rapinoe and the US football team, the basketball players who during the peak of the Black Lives Matter movement were actively involved. So with this election cycle happening both for the presidential election and for Congress are sports persons getting involved so what's been happening there? That's a beautiful narrative right? Democracy at play and everybody has a voice unmuscled and the sports persons are standing up for what is right and making a social stance and everything is lovey-dovey over there, democracy is healthy and elections are free and fair and only in America they say. But yeah there is a larger picture to this, larger powers at play which has come out in a nice and detailed way ESPN has brought out a six-part coverage or story series on this who are the real power brokers in American sport and the impact that they have in everything I mean not just the sporting arena but as you can see how the sports persons have a reach within the society and how they're making sense obviously the businesses would have a larger reach and so that's it's actually a pretty I mean a few pretty damning revelations are there in those stories but before getting into that of course sports persons have made their stance last I mean it is actually very hard to see because it's something that we don't see across the world and especially in India we don't see at all that kind of a social or political stance being taken by our sporting, sporting heroes as well and they have realized their worth, they have realized their value and they also realize their responsibility to society I mean so all these things are great but beyond that how American sport works is of course we call it professional sport we call it the economy of the idea of quality in sporting arena plus the business and the money making side of it it has changed lives of these athletes who are there at the pinnacle for sure but then it is it is capitalism at play it is so with that comes that idea of pushing one's businesses using whatever means that is available if they call it enterprise when we can call it depending on where we stand we can call it different means so most of the team owners in American professional sport happen to be Republicans or Republican sympathizers, Trump sympathizers mostly because they feel that Trump can protect them with with all these benefits like taxation wise or rules wise I mean to aid their business and we are talking about business trends into I mean it's it's multi-million billion dollar industry it's sporting industry and I mean in the US we are talking about NBA, NBA is not actually the biggest over there major league baseball and football NFL these two are these two are bigger than NBA WNBA the motorsport leagues NASCAR etc so it's it's huge and so these these owners have a huge say obviously because such an industry it's like it's like any any I mean lobbying done by any industry for that matter gun lobby or realistic lobby or whatever so everybody's involved in that election that's how American electoral system works and so there are set rules by which these these people or these entities can put in money contribute money to the campaigns and that is a legit system by which the US works but beyond that there are these under the table deals as well where they bypass the loopholes in the system to to put in money the funding without without it being out in the public domain without it being obvious so in one of the ESPN stories there has been a source has been quoted as saying a source who was within this circle of team owners of the NBA specifically NBA the 30 most richest people in American sport and obviously the NBA so they all feel I mean so of late there have been a lot of political discussions at this and so so this source provided some insight on how things work so for instance if someone has to put in money which which he doesn't want to come out in the open or come in the IRS radar so they can use organizations which need and reveal the source of the I mean the the person who is giving that money and then in turn that organization can give it to another organization which will be directly linked to the campaign or directly be funded into into Trump or Joe Biden for that matter and this is not exactly a Trump president this has been there so I mean Trump is probably using it the best way possible after lazy businessman more than a politician or a statement so and so that's that's that's a very murky picture that is that has emerged from from the picture that is not portrayed at all in the in the major narrative that comes comes out as far as sport and US politics and US society is concerned so what is coming out is these sports persons being woke and being active and being openly campaigning against Trump and hopefully that is going to sway the votes and all that but from the other side the real power dealers who probably has a larger say in it because they are pumping in the money they are hopeful that they understand obviously that Trump is not exactly a great guy to have but they also so in that sense they are hoping that for the country for the they are hoping that the Democrats will have a majority in both houses but at the same time Trump remains at the at the helm so that he can block things that go anti anti to the I mean against their interests so that is that is real democracy if you ask me that's actually on par with any of the democracies any of those I mean celebrated democracies including ours with I mean sadly so so that I mean it's it's it's actually very murky and it's also what the real state of the world is at present nothing is clear and the real real players who keep on swaying things in their interest in their favor they keep on playing and there's no check or there's no way to stop this I won't call the system entirely corrupt but the system is hardwired to incline towards corruption so that's how it is that's that's the reality absolutely right yeah so in this context it's interesting to look at India also where this kind of professional sport has been picking up over the past few years in the sense of the leagues and the big money coming in the big sponsorship deals of course and that actually entering almost every tier of sports so to speak and we do have examples like the IPL where big business is very closely entrenched with big sport earlier it was just one sponsor for the national team maybe so we had a Sahara sponsoring the Indian cricket team for the longest time but now there are obviously so many more players who are business players who are in the picture so how do we see the situation in India I can we can we can just define it in one sentence if you ask me if you just try to understand who exactly owns big Indian sport so first let's start with football and the Indian super league it's it's the stakeholder is fsdl which has direct I mean it's directly owned by Reliance IMG so I'm just laughing because all these big big companies in India they all have a huge stake in Indian sport and the professional sport as such understandably it's business so business interests businessmen and there is money to be made over here one reason why if you look at football specifically there are the European clubs coming into town they want ISL clubs they want to start academies it's not academies that they're interested it's not to develop Indian football assets but it's to develop that ecosystem where where they could sell their merchandise they could sell their brand over here they could they could make money out of it it's it's it's pretty simple the dynamics and they bring in value of course and as far as their expertise and these academies might be helping young talents etc but but ultimately that that is how the business is run and it's owned by one of the biggest companies in the country right and the same if you look at IPL DCC I own said but then the stakeholders are many in it the from from I mean the sponsorship deal apart the individual franchise owners I don't I mean franchises are all owned by big businesses like tennis super kings and India Siemens Mumbai Indians and Reliance again so and couple of Bollywood superstars owning owning companies body of group owning one team so it's it's and so when when these contracts are signed with these players they have obviously bound and bound to to to the interest of that company that's how contracts work that's our employment contracts work as well so it's I mean normal employment companies not such sports persons so they're they're they're they're falling line and these companies of course these all these business houses houses you know how I mean the lobbying system is not not by by law supposed to happen in Indian democracy that way compared to the US but then we all know I mean fund collections it starts from right from the local level where I remember as a young sir buckets going around and funds being collected and then of course the buckets are larger and bigger and much more I mean the scope is much bigger when it comes to the national pollution so all these big firms I mean they put the pump in money for into the government and so the players that who I mean which are under directly under these companies they obviously they can't stand against the government because it's the connection of the lot is pretty pretty obvious and simple just as nobody talks about it exactly so when we we have been critical in our discussions as well when we talk about every dark only not standing up and talking against atrocities happening against students in the JNU for instance or the Jamia instance or the Delhi program so of course he can't because he is he's entrenched in this he's he's shackled in it he doesn't probably realize it so if a person like like a Koli or who can sell thousands of Nike jerseys because he endorses I'm just giving an example I'm not sure whether Virat is a Nike ambassador but whatever brand if he if he if he can sell that imagine the kind of space that he has among people but he won't because he is he's tired and without even realizing he's shackled into the system by the system so and that's one side of it where we are just speaking about the business side of it but when you look at administration in sport that's another part all together and it's in that regard probably US is better because in the US politicians have little say in how the sport is run the sporting of body the US Olympic Association or the US football football federation it's it's it's I mean of course you can't say it's completely independent as such but then there's no direct involvement right that way but here if you look at it all the sporting bodies all the sporting foundations right at the helm two three runs it's all politicians and state bodies the state level politicians so again a football or a athlete or a wrestler or a boxer they obviously can't can't talk about anything remotely political or remotely social because everything is connected here remotely religious or whatever because at from the top the order will come and you will never see see the national team again after that it's as simple as that the the payback or the the punishment is right will be direct and direct and huge and it will they will kill their career all together absolutely that's that's that's that's other side so in the Indian scene is why our athletes are silent of course this is the reason why they're silent and I collect the effort if it comes from the athletes together I don't know whether they will be able to break the system at all because the system is so so interesting this and again in this context I'm just I mean it's a very recent I mean it's an ongoing thing that is happening in Nigeria the protest against police atrocities over there the I mean ironically the the police unit is called SARS and so there one footballer John Oghu who is a midfielder who is with the national team set up but not exactly the playing eleven kind of a player but he is there so even in in the midst of the protest he said that the national team should boycott the upcoming which is on the 13th there is a Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against Sierra Leone happening in Nigeria the national team shouldn't play because all these national team players who play there across Europe in big leagues they've all been tweeting they've all been making their stands against these atrocities against the government on social media so he said that we shouldn't play for the play this match and we should boycott it as protest and then this week this happened last week and this week he just backtracked he not even backtracked he apologized saying that at the heat of the moment he made that comment and I hope and like I mean it's I mean I'm sure you can guess what the reason what branding has happened but so he has been branded as uh unpatriotic a different word for anti-national so so it's it's it's the same across country if you look at in US there is a different version of it and it happens underlying and the control is always there here here of Nigeria or many other countries the control is much more direct and despite the stratum I'm just doubting whether anybody any of these celebrated athletes are free absolutely they are all slaves to the system they happen to be slaves to the system absolutely right thank you so much Leslie for talking to us that's all we have time for today we'll be back tomorrow with more news from the country and the world until then keep watching news click