When Senegal won the African Cup of Nations in 2022, and qualified for the Football World Cup of 2022 in Qatar, Senegalese flags flew all over the country, and national pride reached a peak. In 2026, Senegal will host the Youth Olympic Games in Dakar. These sporting achievements and the hosting of the Youth Games are directly linked or even ingrained in world politics. To explain this, the concept of soft power and its connection to sports is crucial.
For instance, during the 2022 Olympic Winter games, host country China saw increasing abstention by political leaders from Western Europe and North America. The reason behind this diplomatic means of pressure were the internationally criticised human rights violations against the Chinese Muslim minority of the Uighurs. It’s no coincidence politicians used the Olympic Winter games for this cause: International sport events are a major opportunity for the host country to gain soft power and extend their influence in front of an unmatched worldwide audience. Soft power is a means to gain power and improve a country’s image in a cheap and efficient way.
Soft power is unquantifiable power that is gained through influence by a state, an organisation or even by an individual actor. This soft power can mostly be gained through either economic or cultural influence and actions. Soft power has been defined by academics such as Joseph Nye as “non-material capabilities such as reputation, culture, and value appeal that can aid the attainment of a state’s objectives”, meaning that states also gain diplomatic and trade power through this soft power.
Another way of seeing soft power is by considering it the ability to affect others through attraction rather than payment – through art, sports or culture. Hence the importance of discussing the influence of soft power during mega sporting events such as the Football World Cup or the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Olympic games.
Soft power is another way of earning power cheaply, without the use of hard power (military). Therefore, soft power is something that is very searched for by governments from every country in the world, that seeks to gain power.
Soft power is a means to gain power and improve a country’s image in a cheap and efficient way
The key to soft power though is that it comes through civil society. Governments cannot create soft power without their societies, as they are the main spreaders of the influence that is soft power, through spreading welcome, warmth and joy.
Why is soft power so key during mega sporting events?
Mega sporting events have a reach which is matched by no other event or occasion in the world. For example, according to the IOC, the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games (which ran in 2021 because of the pandemic) was watched by more than 3 billion people, which is 37,5% of the world’s population.
Even more people are attracted by major football events. FIFA estimated that 3.5 billion tuned in to watch the 2018 World Cup in Russia with an estimated 1.12 billion speculators for the final. This makes these mega sporting events an enormous window of opportunity to gain soft power, by demonstrating yourself or your nation watched in an orchestrated way by big parts of the world’s population.
Given the overall positive image that sports have, it’s the perfect chance to align with this image.
Hosting a mega sporting event also requires a lot of money, and a lot of organisations. For example, FIFA sources say that Brazil spent 11,6 billion dollars on hosting the World Cup in 2014. This means that a country can expose its economic power on the world stage with fancy stadiums, infrastructure, which could show off a country’s talent in terms of hosting a mega sporting event.
Although this comes at a high economic cost, the soft power potentially gained from these competitions is unmatched. The cost of other ways of gaining power, notably through hard power and military operations, is considerably less economical. Not to forget the human cost which is also considerable.
Qatar also gains soft power through its acquisition of the French football club PSG (Paris-Saint-Germain), as it puts Qatar on the map. This is much cheaper than doing so by buying missiles and imposing one’s power on the world.
Given the overall positive image that sports have, it’s the perfect chance to align with this image
Therefore, even though it cost Qatar 1,076 billion dollars over five years to buy the club, this soft power comes cheap.
Hard power can also be counterproductive, as it tends to generate hate, while soft power is more likely to generate respect and love.
Sports events as a strategy to soften the impact of hard power
Two prime examples of this are the 2014 Winter Olympic Games and 2018 football World Cup. Both hosted by Russia, they show how such events are used by a nation, and in this case, one man, to gain soft power and even go so far as to attempt to change the whole image of a nation.
Russia used the Games and World Cup to change the image of Russia from that of an authoritarian closed nation, to that of an open one which welcomed the World in 2014 and 2018.
At the same time, Russia was notably preparing the 2014 annexation of Crimea. Putin thus attempted to limit the damage of potential hate due to this hard power by lighting Russia’s image before implementing some hard power.
For the 2018 event, Russia lightened its visa policy. Anyone who bought a ticket obtained a visa through the “Fan-ID” system. This initiative was so successful in attracting visitors from around the world that the Kremlin prolonged the initiative for an extra year following the World Cup to welcome more tourists to the country. The light image the country and its President gave of Russia and of Putin himself were positive/a clear success for Russian diplomacy and soft power.
Hosting a mega sporting event also requires a lot of money, and a lot of organisations. For example, FIFA sources say that Brazil spent 11,6 billion dollars on hosting the World Cup in 2014
The number 1 of the Kremlin was seen many times on the pitch, with notably the French players chanting his name at the end of a game in their dressing room. Given the influence these players have over international public opinion, this could only be good for Putin’s public image.
Leaders of certain nations also used the World Cup as a catalyst to increase relations with Russia. French President Emmanuel Macron and Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović were seen having close conversation with Vladimir Putin during the final in Moscow.
Following the World Cup, Putin and Russia were given more credibility and saw an increase in positive public opinion. We can notably see this in Africa, in Mali and in the Central African Republic, where Russia’s popularity is at an all-time high and Russian influence is desired by important parts of civil society.
Looking back on these events, there’s no doubt that Putin was using the event to prepare the invasion of Ukraine. On the 24th of February 2014, Russia launched its attack, and an important number of ties and commercial deals between Russia and the West were frozen.
However, due to Putin’s influence on the world stage, partly gained through soft power thanks to the 2018 World Cup or the 2014 Winter Olympic Game in Sochi, certain countries could not take a position surrounding the conflict at the time… Thus, Russia used the World Cup to achieve a position of power, before attempting to launch military action.
How Dakar and Senegal could use the 2026 Summer Youth Olympics
Originally planned for 2022, the 2026 Summer Youth Olympics will be held in Dakar in Senegal. This is the first ever IOC organised event on the African continent. Senegal therefore has an opportunity to firstly show of itself an image of a modern West African nation with modern infrastructure, and secondly that it has the organisational capacity of hosting such an event.
Following the World Cup, Putin and Russia were given more credibility and saw an increase in positive public opinion
The Summer Youth Olympics in 2018 in Buenos Aires attracted a total audience of about 188 million people from 234 countries over two weeks. Even though this is not quite the same amount as the Football World Cup or the Olympic Games, the figure is still substantial, and Senegal can only gain from having such an audience watch events unfold in its capital.
If Senegal is successful in proving its capacities to organise the youth games and the quality of its facilities, this could lead Senegal to bid for bigger international competitions which have more opportunities of soft power.
As laid out above, civil society will have a large role to play in Senegal gaining soft power. Senegalese will have to show themselves in the best light by welcoming guests in a warm fashion showing the local culture which could lead to Senegal gaining influence on the world stage.
The games will also attract many tourists, thus creating the opportunity for Senegal to brand itself as a tourist hotspot in West Africa or even in all of Africa.
However, if Senegal were to fail in hosting the games (for example infrastructure or organisational problems), the country’s image could take a real blow, and international committees would move away from Senegal as potential future host for sporting events, costing Senegal dear on the world diplomatic stage. It’s a little over 1600 days to the first day of the event, so the pressure is on Dakar.
What works well abroad and what could work for Dakar?
Sporting events are also an opportunity for state-building. While sports, says Joseph Nye, are the biggest globaliser, they are also a large anti-globaliser as they can strengthen national identity through competitions under the national flag. Thus, Senegal and Dakar could use this event to further unite the population under the Senegalese flag. This was the case for the United Kingdom, following the London 2012 Olympic Games. Surveys following the games showed a boost in national pride and an increase in the overall happiness of the nation.
Senegal therefore has an opportunity to firstly show of itself an image of a modern West African nation with modern infrastructure, and secondly that it has the organisational capacity of hosting such an event
London 2012 did this by promoting the British flag and national pride in every event and on every occasion. As soon as a British athlete would win a medal, their local city or town would celebrate this under the image of Britishness. Athletes would regularly appear on television to say how proud they were to represent their nation in the competition.
Another factor which worked to not only increase pride, but also the performative level of the athletes, were investments. Prior to the game, the British government invested large amounts of money in basic and high-level training infrastructure to get youth involved in sports to raise the sporting level of the country to enable a higher level at the games in hope of gaining more medals.
Although this was mostly positive for the United Kingdom, it must be mentioned that the patriotism created by the 2012 London Olympics did help to lead to the UK departure from the European Union in 2016, which had devastating effects on the country socially and economically.
If Senegal is successful in proving its capacities to organise the youth games and the quality of its facilities, this could lead Senegal to bid for bigger international competitions which have more opportunities of soft power
Senegal could look at these practices and implement similar policies. Investment in the sporting youth of Senegal would increase the sporting level of the nation, to enable a higher amount of medal gain. This can concern youth who are already near the highest level, by providing them with better facilities. But it can also be done on the grassroot level to enable access to a large pool of youth to sports, to enable Senegal to train but also to spot future stars, with the 2026 Youth games in the mirror.
Winning more medals would therefore mean more respect and influence for the nation of Senegal, as good sporting achievement is seen as key to a “powerful” nation through the gaining of soft power.