Farewell 2022. We’ve had far better years, but at least our Lionesses and men’s T20 cricket teams shone brightly.
Let’s be honest though, it’s not just one bad year. Britain has been under pressure since the flame went out at London 2012. In my book, All to Play For: How sport can reboot our future I call it the toxic alphabet of the last ten years: Austerity, Brexit, Covid, Debt and the Environment - then 2022 added Fighting in Ukraine.
So how does the dodgy decade impact sport? I’ve spent 2022 discussing issues of sport ranging from the International Olympic Committee to secondary schools, Formula One to volunteer coaches and Team GB to parents on taxi duties for sporty kids. I think the future is exciting if we get it right. It’s about time.
Here are my six resolutions for sport in 2022:
1) Listen up or get out of the way
Of all the groups I’ve spent time with this year, my favourite was the younger end of the millennial group (born late-80s to mid-90s). When they started consuming sport there were hundreds of channels, not just three, and mobile highlights not just a vidiprinter. Yet the irony is that so many can’t seize their broader horizons. This generation won’t easily be able to afford their mortgage repayments next year, let alone a skiing holiday.
No surprise then that they don’t really tolerate us oldies (the ones with houses, cars, jobs, no student loans and even perhaps time to follow a Test match lasting five days) telling them how to consume sport. Millennials are now the largest population in the British workforce. Their views carry commercial as well as moral weight. They like the Hundred even if you don’t.
Nobody owns cricket, or golf, or football. We need to build games newer generations want to play because they won’t play by our rules. Listen up or get out the way. Change or be changed.
2) Help athletes help us
Communications agency Edelman believes that to trust somebody we need to believe they are both ethical and competent. The agency’s latest annual data suggests the British believe NGOs are ethical but incompetent and corporates competent but likely unethical. But when it comes to media and government? Neither of the above. Britain today reeks of distrust.
I see my son look to unconventional role models as a result. When England footballer Marcus Rashford talks about food poverty, my son sees competence on the pitch and ethics built from lived experience.
But just because Rashford has a view on something, he should not feel pressure to take a view on everything. The sport industry’s job should be to help athletes talk about those issues they care about while shielding them from the glare of political debate.
3) Knock down walls
When I started working in sport, it was an old boys club. Pale, stale, male and very often full of ale. Guess what? Most of the attention went to men’s football, cricket and rugby.
Finally, things are starting to improve. We start next year with Alison Brittain as Chair of the Premier League. Britain’s sporting corridors of power are just starting to represent the communities they serve more closely, although there is plenty more to do.
It has taken new organisations to break new ground, too. The brilliant Black Trail Runners - founded to increase the access of black runners to trail running - recently signed sportswear giant adidas as its lead partner.
But it’s still an uphill battle: social unrest has seen racism on the rise across the streets – and terraces – of England. Supporters high on drink and drugs broke their way into Wembley for the Men’s Euros Finals last year. No sign of trouble at the Women’s final this year, mind. Sport remains a mirror of two-track Britain.
4) Rethink London sport
When I came to live in London in the late 1990s I chose Holloway Road - cheap, close to decent shops, a bus ride from my office and a great selection of pubs.
But my son doesn’t see the need for offices, shops online and doesn’t yet show much inclination to spend his entire weekend in the pub. So what happens to any city in a post-retail, post-office, post-booze environment?
Sport can play a big role in keeping our urban environments vibrant. In a world where experiences increasingly trump things, London could offer the ultimate Instagram and doctor-friendly sporting weekend.
As for the 9 to 5, give me a Copenhagen-style cycle superhighway over the District Line and you might see me in the office a bit more, too.
5) Spend to shorten waiting lists
Reframing London also makes business sense. We know that £1 spent on physical exercise saves the NHS £3.91. Our leisure centres should be mandatory service for local authorities to try to reduce pressure on a cash-strapped NHS.
Sport England is doing a fine job exploring social prescription as a means of shortening the queues. People who haven’t exercised for thirty years don’t need a piece of paper to tell them to ‘start running or else’, they need an outstretched hand, a gentle wander and a coffee stop with a crowd of friendly people. No wonder parkrun was an early exponent.
6) Sport or society? Both
Are we solving sport by understanding society, or solving society by understanding sport? Both really.
As the Hundred cricket culture war, Rashford’s social progress, Edelman’s trust equation, London’s deserted streets and our GP waiting lists demonstrate, there is opportunity in both. This year I’ve spoken to thousands of people, all of whom care desperately about getting it right. There really is all to play for.
Matt Rogan has built award-winning businesses in sport, music and consulting. His second book, All to Play For: How Sport Can Reboot Our Future (Ebury Press), was nominated for a Sunday Times Sports Book Award.
