The official Olympic motto is “faster, higher, stronger.” This phrase parallels the growth of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to a tee.
The IOC rose from borderline bankruptcy in the 1970s to a multi-million dollar global edifice rivaled in stature only by the Fédération Internationale de Football Association
The Olympics are rivaled in cost and viewership by the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) World Cup (pictured). (Photo by Mariya Butd)
(FIFA), the global organization that governs soccer and organizes the World Cup. The parallel with FIFA is especially instructive and the links between the two organizations are deep and entrenched.
The Olympics and FIFA
FIFA was also in the midst of a budgetary crisis in the 1970s and pivoted towards a model premised on corporate sponsorship and financialization. The President of FIFA who oversaw this transition was Joao Havelange. He was also a member of the International Olympic Committee from 1963 to 2011. He finally stepped down amidst swirling corruption allegations. He was good friends with Juan Antonio Samaranch – the President of the IOC from 1980 to 2002, who was also implicated in a number of corruption scandals.
Havelange was a pioneer. He had a new vision for international sporting organizations. After the success of the 1970 World Cup – the first broadcast in colour – he realised the potential of television and marketing and doubled down on these new sources of revenue. He also firmly established a system of patronage that defines both FIFA and the IOC to this day. Havelange used the influx of money, aided by FIFA’s tax-exempt status in Switzerland, to provide disbursement payments to the national associations that make up the FIFA congress. Samaranch soon followed suit.
The parallel with FIFA is especially instructive and the links between the two organizations are deep and entrenched.
This shift in the 1970s is critical to understanding the IOC (and FIFA by extension). The fundamental ethos of the organizations changed. No longer governed by idealistic humanitarian impulses, the lords of international sport doubled down on hyper capitalisation and greed.
Havelange (rightly) realised that his position as president was dependent on dispersing enough money to each member of the IOC Congress. Much like a dictator would enrich his inner circle, or a mafioso would pay off his underlings, Havelange understood the criticality of paying off the right people. Samaranch, once an official in Franco’s fascist Spain, also understood this and established the system of disbursement at the IOC.
Neither the IOC nor FIFA were transparent about the sources of their revenue from the 1970s until the early 2010s.
A funding solution… for some
The IOC is a purposefully nebulous international organization; there is no global body to regulate it. Unlike multinational corporations, which at least have to adhere to the rules of the World Trade Organization and national economic laws, the IOC operates with impunity. It has leveraged its position as the guardian of sport for personal financial gain. The IOC own the Olympics, which gives it power over entire nations.
Pierre de Coubertin, founder of the International Olympic Committee. (Photo by Dutch National Archives)
Funding the Olympic Games itself has long been a thorn in the side of the Olympic Movement, going all the way back to Pierre de Coubertin and his attempts to secure enough private funding for the first ever Olympic Games in Greece. Hosting the Olympics is not cheap. In the modern era, the host city pays for infrastructure upgrades, generally with public funds, while the IOC covers the administrative costs of running the event.
These costs are incomparable, especially if the Olympics are held in a city that does not have the necessary infrastructure to host hundreds of thousands of guests for three weeks. This was especially apparent with the Rio Olympics and the World Cup in South Africa. In the bidding process, the IOC and the winning National Olympic Committee submit a budget to their local governments for approval. Since the 1960 Games in Rome, every single Olympics has gone over budget.
Tomorrow we will look at the costs of hosting the Olympics and try to understand why a city (or country) would be willing to undertake such a massive project.
By Rashid Mohiddin
Rashid Mohiddin is Chief Executive with Pressed Magazine, a society and culture magazine in Toronto, Ontario.
This is the fourth article in #OlympicOpinions, an Opinions takeover week that explores everything about the Olympics.
Please note that opinions expressed are the author’s own. They do not necessarily reflect the views and values of The Blank Page.
