There is a growing trend of athletes speaking up about controversial sponsorship deals, with the latest resulting in mining magnate Gina Rinehart reversing a $15 million Netball Australia sponsorship deal after players raised Hancock Prospecting’s track record on Indigenous issues.
Crikey took a look at sponsorships for key national sporting bodies and found fossil fuels and gambling companies featured heavily.
Netball Australia gets big money from Origin Energy, while Cricket Australia prefers Alinta and Bet365. Rugby Australia sticks with Santos. The men’s Wallabies have also got backing from Bet365. However, no big betting backing for the women’s Wallaroos. The men’s rugby AU 7s are clean (on a dirty money metric), but Santos still features in the women’s side. In the NRL, it’s Ampol and Sportsbet that continue to show up on jerseys.
The unspoken rule that “politics” has no place in sport is starting to slip as athletes are speaking out about the ethical implications of big money backing sporting institutions.
David Pocock, a former Wallabies captain and now an independent senator, said sport has a long history of “courageous athletes” willing to use their platforms to “stand up for what’s right”.
“It takes a lot of courage for anyone to tell their employer they disagree, even more when those views are likely to become the subject of national debate,” Pocock told Crikey.
“We hear people saying politics and sport shouldn’t mix, but it seems that’s only when athletes have a view. We’re very happy to let politicians make use of sport. And to let sponsors use sport for their own political advantage.”
In netball, Indigenous player Donnell Wallam said no to Hancock, given a 1984 TV interview in which Rinehart’s late father, Lang Hancock, went on the record to talk about sterilisation and termination of Indigenous people through contaminated water.
In cricket, Australian Test captain Pat Cummins last week raised issues with fossil fuel advertising, refusing to further endorse the multimillion-dollar partnership with energy giant Alinta.
In AFL, opposition is coming from fans too. A group of prominent Fremantle supporters sent an open letter to the club urging it to terminate a partnership with fossil fuel company Woodside Energy.
Pocock said athletes took their responsibility as role models seriously when it comes to issues like climate change.
“We shouldn’t silence their voices, especially when they’re asked to be human billboards.”
Echoing comments on twitter – if the fossil fuel companies contributed adequately to govt coffers (per Norway’s model), then perhaps govt could subsidise sport (and the arts) making them less reliant on grubby corporate cash.
What are the odds of that?
Thank you, Julia. We need to work out how we must change all this. I have left a comment on Michael’s article “why are professional athletes paid such huge amounts”?
Along with their administrators! I’d hate to think what the army of AFL, NRL, Cricket and racing codes are paid collectively for their meritorious services
It is woeful that our great sports-persons have to take the lead from our politicians on censoring the fossil fuel industry. Both Labor and Liberal allow Santos to pay NIL taxes, after Santos has donated millions of dollars to both Labor and Liberal.
Great article, and beautifully stated by David Pocock. Bam Bam was a champion on the rugby pitch, and hopefully his clear-headed and principled approach will have an even bigger impact on political discourse.
Fer Dogs sake!
Somebody has to pay for all the Beer and Circuses, no matter who or how.
Otherwise the peasants will start thinking about other things. And we can all imagine where that could lead.
At least until we get the security forces in full control. Then we can force them to pay more taxes and cover the costs of the B and Cs themselves. Which should shut them up again.