Calacus Weekly Hit & Miss – Sponsor rebels & the Houlihan case
Every Monday we look at the best and worst communicators in the sports world from the previous week.
HIT – EURO 2020 SPONSOR REBELS
Athlete activism is a major talking point in sport.
We’ve spoken a lot recently about the role that stars have been playing in raising awareness for social issues, such as football continuing to take a stand against racism and Naomi Osaka prioritising mental health awareness.
This week, Cristiano Ronaldo had his moment, as his rejection of Coca-Cola bottles that were placed in front of him during a EURO 2020 press conference in Budapest showed. It left sponsors and organisers working frantically to limit the damage caused to sponsorship deals.
Ronaldo, who became the first person to reach 300 million followers on Instagram in June, is the most famous athlete in the world. Everything he does is watched carefully by his fans.
His gesture coincided with a $4bn fall in the share price of the drinks company and led to a similar action from Italian midfielder Manuel Locatelli during Euro 2020, while France’s Paul Pogba moved a bottle of sponsor Heineken out of shot at his press conference.
While these actions highlight the influential power of sports stars, it also undermines the value of sports sponsors who provide a stream of revenue that is so vital for the funding of sport.
In fact, the 12 top-tier sponsors for EURO 2020 have contributed a revenue purse of almost €2 billion for the tournament. Without the backing of major sponsors, competitions like EURO 2020 simply could not exist today in the same format.
In a statement regarding the incidents, UEFA warned players that they may face fines in future and added: “UEFA has reminded participating teams that partnerships are integral to the delivery of the tournament and to ensuring the development of football across Europe, including for youth and women.”
In such uncertain times, as we’ve seen during the pandemic, sponsors play an incredibly vital role in helping to ensure that sporting competitions and grassroots projects can continue to take place, as well as giving players a platform to engage with fans. Sport needs their continued support.
To their credit, Coca-Cola have not demanded any form of compensation for the snub, instead responding by saying that “Everyone is entitled to their drink preferences based on their tastes and needs.” The fact that the water that Ronaldo drank was also a Coke product did little to help their image though with the damage already done.
Of course, Ronaldo is well-known as being a champion of healthy eating and living, in a world where physical health and obesity issues are rife.
But even he has had a long list of sponsors that bear the names of all sorts of companies, including the likes of Coca Cola and Kentucky Fried Chicken in the past.
Tim Crow, a sports marketing consultant who a former football advisor for Coca-Cola, said: “It’s obviously a big moment for any brand when the world’s most followed footballer on social media does something like that.
“Coke pays tens of millions to be a UEFA sponsor and as part of that there are contractual obligations for federations and teams, including taking part in press conferences with logos and products. But there are always risks.
“People are saying this is about athlete activism and there is some truth in that. Athletes are taking a more activist view, we are seeing that, most recently in press conferences. And we will see it again.”
This whole affair on the surface undermines the way that major companies like Coca-Cola brand their products through sport.
Brands give athletes a platform to address real social issues that can help to bring about meaningful change to people’s lives.
Ronaldo’s actions will likely provoke other stars to take anti-endorsement actions, so don’t expect this story to go away.
MISS – THE HOULIHAN CASE
Avoid Mexican food, learn more about banned substances and listen to all the evidence.
That’s the lesson from the latest sorry doping episode to taint US sport as Olympic hopeful Shelby Houlihan was handed a four-year drugs ban which will see her miss Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024.
The American record holder in the 1,500m and 5,000m events tested positive for the banned substance nandrolone in December and the Athletics Integrity Unit has confirmed that she was handed the ban by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, backdated to January 14.
The result of the case shows both strong communications from Houlihan and her team and the doubts that the process has prompted as well as the USOPC’s own mis-judgement in initially allowing her compete in trials after the guilty verdict.
In a statement on Instagram, Houlihan stretched credibility by claiming that she had not even heard of nandrolone and claimed that the adverse test was the result of eating a pork burrito.
She said: “I had to …google what it (nandrolone) was that I had just tested positive for. I had never even heard of nandrolone.
“I have since learned that it has long been understood by WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) that eating pork can lead to a false positive for nandrolone, since certain types of pigs produce it naturally in high amounts. Pig organ meat (offal) has the highest levels of nandrolone.
“In the following 5 days after being notified, I put together a food log of everything that I consumed the week of that December 15th test. We concluded that the most likely explanation was a burrito purchased and consumed approximately 10 hours before that drug test from an authentic Mexican food truck that serves pig offal near my house in Beaverton, Oregon. I notified the AIU that I believed this was the source.
“I did everything I could to prove my innocence. I passed a polygraph test. I had my hair sampled by one of the world's foremost toxicologists.
"Wada agreed that test proved that there was no build up of this substance in my body, which there would have been if I were taking it regularly. I feel completely devastated, lost, broken, angry, confused and betrayed by the very sport that I've loved and poured myself into," Houlihan said in a statement on social media.
Houlihan’s coach, Jerry Schumacher, spoke out against the way the Athletics Integrity Unit and CAS handled Houlihan’s case.
Schumacher said: “Shelby was treated unfairly at every step of this process. The AIU refused to charge her for months, despite no additional evidence being presented, opting to leave her in a provisionally suspended state until they were forced by Shelby’s legal team to charge her and agree to a hearing before the CAS so that Shelby could compete at the Olympic Trials. I believe if this had been USADA handling her case it would have been handled differently. At the very least, I’m confident she would have been treated fairly.”
There have been other recent incidents that may suggest Houlihan has a case.
In 2017 Ajee Wilson set an American record in the 800m but after she tested positive for banned substance zeranol, the result was annulled.
The US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) did not ban her and concluded that the positive test was caused by eating tainted beef, concluding that “Wilson ingested [zeranol] without fault or negligence.”
Jarrion Lawson, the US long jumper, also had a ban overturned last year.
Lawson was suspended after testing positive for epitrenbolone but claimed course was most likely to be contaminated meat and CAS confirmed that Lawson’s ban had been overturned, ruling that he “bears no fault or negligence” for the anti-doping rule violation.
Certainly the Houlihan case suggests that there is a level of inconsistency which undermines the process and confidence in the fight against doping.
Late last week, USA Track and Field (USATF) said that Houlihan would be allowed to compete at the US Olympic trials despite the ban, saying: “Given there is an active appeal process, USATF will allow any athletes to continue competing until the process is completed.”
World Athletics voiced its concerns with USTAF over Houlihan’s selection for the Olympic trials and a spokesperson said: “All Member Federations must respect CAS decisions under the WADA code. We are talking to USTAF”
The Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) echoed that view and wrote to the USATF reminding them that the 28-year-old's participation was "strictly prohibited," advice the USOPC later confirmed: “The U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee, together with USATF, can confirm that we will adhere to the WADA Code and any CAS decisions that govern athlete participation in sanctioned events."
It was a major mis-judgement from the USATF and one which undermined the position of American sports as arbiters of clean sport.
Whether Houlihan knowingly or unknowingly took nandrolone remains to be seen but she is determined to clear her name. She added in her statement: “I want to be very clear. I have never taken any performance enhancing substances.
“I’m going to continue fighting to prove my innocence. I will not sit down and accept a four year ban for something that I did not and would never do. I absolutely respect and whole-heartedly support the fight to catch athletes who disrespect the sport by cheating and doping. But I am not one of them.”
This story is likely to run and run.