Prince Nasser bin Hamad al-Khalifa: Commander of Bahrain's armed forces and National Olympic Committee. A divorce between sport and politics?
By James M. Dorsey
Taken at face value, a rare acknowledgment by International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach that sports and politics are inextricably intertwined should be a first step towards radical reform that offers a proper structure to govern the relationship. That is nowhere truer than in Middle Eastern, North African and Asian soccer where political domination of the game is dominant despite insistence by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) and world soccer governor FIFA that sports and politics are separate.
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