War Minus the Shooting? The politics of sport in Lebanon as a unique case in comparative politics

Abstract

In the literature on sport and politics the potential of sport to unite fragmented societies is emphasised. Lebanon is a counter example. Sport does not unite but further divides people. Confessionalism, the political system of this ‘mosaic state’ with 18 state-registered sects, produces conditions that only allow for competition within sects. The sport sector, especially the professional men's teams in football and basketball, serves as a tool for competition within and between sects. In a middle-income country with only four million inhabitants, club revenues from ticketing and broadcasting are almost non-existent. Therefore professional sport teams are completely dependent on sponsors. Within a patron–client relationship system, political leaders finance the clubs but expect complete loyalty from the teams, implemented through such practices as choosing their party colours as team colours or posting large pictures of themselves in the arenas. While national sports teams often have the potential to unite societies, in Lebanon this can only happen if first steps from a sectarian to a secular state are taken. Then a common national identity (including general support for the national sports teams) might gradually develop and later transform the confessional subsystems such as the media, schools and sports clubs towards non-sectarian entities.