Sport can be a strong tool to protect people’s rights - Philipp Lahm

Sport is politics.

There is no question about that at the beginning of a year when the Winter Olympics are taking place in Beijing and the World Cup in Qatar.

You only have to open the newspaper these days. The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, the Guardian, the Polish Gazeta Wyborcza and other quality media, which gather many voices to report on the world, deal on their sports pages with the diplomatic boycott of the Olympics by the USA, Great Britain and other countries, the silent diplomacy of the IOC and workers’ rights in Qatar.

There was one news item that received particular attention worldwide.

Out of concern for the life of Peng Shuai, the former world number one in doubles, the women’s tennis players’ organisation, the WTA, has suspended all tournaments in China.

Continue reading this article on SportsDesk, the sports website of the Times of Malta