Brief #150 – Foreign Policy Brief
by: Reilly Fitzgerald
As the Paris 2024 Olympic Games commence, the event is already overshadowed by criminal activity, doping scandals, and significant missteps in representation, raising serious questions about the integrity of the Games. With the Seine’s murky waters and security threats looming, this monumental celebration of sport finds itself at a tumultuous crossroads between tradition and modernity.
Brief #166 – Social Justice Policy Brief
by: Reilly Fitzgerald
In the murky world of sports betting, a $330 billion industry teetering on the edge of legality, the line between fair play and corruption is becoming increasingly blurred. As leagues, athletes, and law enforcement grapple with the pervasive influence of sports betting, the integrity of competition hangs in the balance.
Brief #140 – Foreign Policy Brief
by: Reilly Fitzgerald
In 2024, Paris is gearing up to host the Olympics. It’s a massive undertaking, blending sports, culture, and politics. Recent months have seen some challenges emerge, including venue concerns, security issues, and citizen reactions to the Games’ impact on daily life beyond just sports. With the games set to kick off at the end of June, preparations are in full swing despite these hurdles.
Brief #103 – Foreign Policy Brief
by Reilly Fitzgerald
Sports are known to be contributors to pollution, and thus to climate change. Sports, such as ski racing are outdoors. As much as it contributes to climate change, and it does contribute, it also is a victim of it too.
Brief #87 – Foreign Policy Brief
by Reilly Fitzgerald
The hijab is an article of clothing that has sparked debate for years due to its connections to the Islamic faith for some…
Brief #83 – Foreign Policy Brief
by Reilly Fitzgerald
Saudi Arabia is attempting to invest in areas that will allow them to maintain their financial status in the world, after the planet has moved away from fossil fuels and oil.
Brief #78 – Foreign Policy
by Reilly Fitzgerald
Triathlon has a fairly short, when compared with the likes of cycling and running, history of doping. As the sport really was not founded until late in the 1970s.
Brief #176 – Foreign Policy
By Reilly Fitzgerald
The North American Soccer League was a league developed in the mid-1960s and lasted until the mid-1980s. It was a VERY poor league when it started, in every sense of the word. It did not have a lot of money, as soccer was not a major athletic interest in the United States (even though it was being played in Europe and around the world since the late 1800s). The quality of play in the sport was severely lacking, so much so that the immigrant communities in the US were not interested at all, according to an article from The Conversation. Also, European players who attempted to come and play in the United States were quickly frustrated and didn’t even consider it to be the same sport as European football. To address this lack of talent, and quality, the NASL decided to try and tempt high quality players from under-represented countries, in world football, to come to the United States to play.
Brief #173 – Foreign Policy
By Reilly Fitzgerald
The UK government has been debating the idea of having more oversight in regards to the finances of Premier League clubs. Over the past few years, the world has seen unprecedented amounts of money on individual player transfers, team acquisitions by actors within foreign governments like the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund (PIF) among others, talks of teams entering into new leagues across Europe at the exclusion of other teams, and so much more.
Brief #167 – Foreign Policy
By Reilly Fitzgerald
The Fédération Internationale de Football Association, more famously known as FIFA, is the global face of football (or soccer, for Americans). They make the rules of the sport, they can sanction players and teams for misconduct on the pitch, they decide the when and where of major tournaments, they decide the TV rights for tournaments, and they also decide where to take bribes from.
Corruption and global sports have always been entwined; just as sports and politics have been. In regards to the most recent world cups in Qatar (2022), Russia (2018), and Brazil (2014), there has been a consistent documented pattern of corruption in which individual executives and corporations have been banned, imprisoned, sanctioned.