ARD Forum Sport

The appeal of sport mega events from an athlete’s perspective

In the first session Britta Heidemann (Olympic gold medalist in fencing and member of the IOC Athletes Commission), Thomas Hitzlsperger (former German national football player and ARD football expert) as well as Tabea Alt (Olympic athlete and Gymnastics World Cup bronze medalist) described their experiences from the major sports events they participated in. „The most beautiful thing about the Olympic Games are the respect and the team spirit felt by everyone“, Alt described her lasting experience of the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. Hitzlsperger and Heidemann also felt that the thousands of fans created a unique atmosphere on the competition sites. Moreover, they mentioned that athletes are almost never confronted with existing protests and repulsion from citizens during the event.

Procurement processes of sport mega events

In the second session of the day, Sylvia Schenk (Head of the Working Group “Sports” at Transparency International Germany) and Jörg Schmitt (investigative journalist at the German magazine „Spiegel“) debated about procurement processes of sport mega events. Corruption was one key topic of the discussion. In Schmitt’s opinion the national and international sports associations are a fundamental part of the corruption problem that the international sports community has: „Neither FIFA nor the Germany Football Association have made any improvements. These associations are still being administrated like small villages. Even though the public interest in everything that has to do with football is extraordinary, the money that is being invested into European football by Russian oligarchs and sheikhs has to be better monitored“, states the Spiegel editor. Schenk considers the close relation between sports and politics as a major reason for corruption: „I would never speculate about the corruption of certain procurement processes without evidence. In my opinion, the driving force for corruption is the close link between responsible positions in sports and politics. However, sport mega events also bear chances for positive development.”

Sport mega events from the perspective of sports associations

Alfons Hörmann (President of the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB)), Siegfried Kaidel (spokesman of the Olympic and non-Olympic associations at DOSB and President of the German Rowing Association) as well as Thomas Weikert (President of the International Table Tennis Federation) discussed about the involvement of national and international sports associations in the planning and organization of mega events. A Key topic was the new concept for the „European Championships“, an event which is to be held in Berlin and Glasgow this year for the first time. All three participants find the concept promising: „The European Championships are a great idea. For years now the responsible parties have been looking for a way of translating the successful winter sports concept into summer sports“, stated Hörmann. „For us this project has a very high priority. So far, the sports we represent do not have a major platform on TV although exposure would help these sports gaining more popularity“, Kaidel added.

Sport mega events from a media point of view

Susanne Aigner-Drews (CEO of Discovery Networks Germany) and Axel Balkausky (ARD Sports Coordinator) discussed the effects of mega events on broadcasters and other media institutions. Balkausky considers the European Championships to be a unique possibility for those sports which are usually less in the focus of the media. A multi-platform approach where events are broadcasted on multiple channels has proven useful in the past. Marketing and selling sports broadcasting rights is seen as a major challenge by both experts since the market has become more complex over the last years. The experts also agree that competing broadcasters have to work closer together in the future to overcome this challenge.

The FIFA World Cup 2018 in Russia

This part of the discussion focused on freedom of press and the working conditions of journalists in Russia. Evi Simeoni (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung), Hajo Seppelt (sports journalist) and Christian Mihr (CEO of the German NGO „Reporters Without Borders“) talked about the challenging conditions for journalists in Russia. Seppelt, who has been threatened and denied access to Russia because of his critical work was not sure whether he would travel to Russia for the FIFA World Cup at that time. „The level of aggressions and threats I received from Russia have passed a threshold“, says Seppelt. Simeoni experiences similar aggressive reactions to her work. Christian Mihr pointed out that the FIFA World Cup also offers the opportunity to bring public attention to the situation of imprisoned journalists in Russia and thereby improve their situation for at least a short period of time.

The German bid for the UEFA European Championship 2024

Dr. Friedrich Curtius (Secretary General of the German Football Association (DFB)), also hopes, that the situation for journalists in Russia will improve during and after the FIFA World Cup. Moreover he stated: „We handed in an excellent application that should convince the UEFA that European Championships hosted 2024 in Germany would be very beneficial to European Football in general.“ Turkey, however, is seen as a strong competitor in the bidding process.

Olympic Games back in Germany(?!)

Alfons Hörmann supports the bid for the UEFA European Championships 2024, because he sees it as an opportunity to show what a good host country Germany is. Sport manager Michael Mronz and Thomas Geisel (Mayor of the city of Düsseldorf) are working on a bid for hosting the Olympic Games in the Rhein-Ruhr region. „We are convinced by the sustainability of our concept. 80 percent of the required sports facilities already exist“, Mronz explains. „We are trying to focus on topics like public transportation, digitalization and job creation in the future. It is a chance for all of the involved cities and the Rhein-Ruhr region“, Geisel says.

Outlook

In the concluding session Dr. Friedrich Curtius emphasized the importance of a cooperation between the German government and potential host cities for the UEFA European Championship. ITTF-President Weikert underlined the importance of paying more attention to less popular sports like table tennis: „It is natural that the public attention towards major football events is much bigger than towards any other sports event. It would be nice on the other hand if the structural support would be the same for other international sport events in Germany. Tax cuts are one example. The government’s lack of support for other sports than football is disrespectful“. In contrast, Alfons Hörmann was satisfied with the government’s support. Moreover, he was glad to see, that the Federal President and Minister of the Interior attended the Olympic Games in Pyeongchang.

The report on the 5th ARD Forum Sport can be read here.

The report on the 4th ARD Forum Sport can be read here.

The report on the 3rd ARD Forum Sport can be read here.

The report on the 2nd ARD Forum Sport can be read here.