'With less competition, we win more medals': The politics of hosting the Commonwealth Games

Alex Salmond has offered repeated public assurances in the months leading up to the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, which opened on Wednesday evening, that the sporting spectacle will not be turned into a political battlefield over Scotland’s continued membership of the United Kingdom, with the decisive referendum looming in just under eight weeks’ time. Correspondence from the 1970s, however, shows that British diplomats have long considered the act of hosting the Games in Britain to be inherently politicised, as organisers strive to maintain delicate balances within the Commonwealth.

In a series of papers buried in a Foreign and Commonwealth Office file discussing “visas for sporting and cultural groups from Formosa (Taiwan)”, we see that, in 1979, proposals were on the table for bids to host firstly the Commonwealth Games in England in 1986, and secondly the Olympics in Britain in 1988. Mr T. O’Neill of the Cultural Relations Department saw a fantastic opportunity for a morale boost at home, expressing his view that

"the Commonwealth Games are more manageable than the Olympics and are probably more prestigeous [sic] for Britain (the number of sports are more limited, and with less competition, we win more medals)… England last hosted the Commonwealth Games in 1934; since then Wales have held the Games, and Scotland in 1970. The 1974 Games were held in New Zealand, and the 1982 Games are due to be held in Brisbane. England could therefore be a serious contender for the 1986 Games, although Nigeria (Lagos) are also likely to make a bid."

Diplomat Robert Dewar, however, expressed reservations. Primarily, he feared the implications of being seen to maintain sporting links with South Africa’s Apartheid regime. He suggested that Nigeria may indeed be a more politically correct choice of host, taking some of the scrutiny off Anglo-South African relations, and also helping avoid accusations that the Commonwealth continued to be dominated by its “old” countries: New Zealand, Canada, and Australia would have hosted the previous three Games.

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Although O’Neill was right to be optimistic about the 1986 medal haul – England topped the table for the last time at the Commonwealth Games (Australia have dominated every one since) – Dewar’s forecast proved most salient. The Games were ultimately held not in England, but in Edinburgh, and 32 of the 59 Commonwealth countries, mostly African, Asian, and Caribbean nations, boycotted them; as Dewar predicted, the South African question was the point of contention. The Games ran up a deficit of £4.3m, which was not paid off until 1989. Perhaps it’s thus little wonder that Alex Salmond wants to keep politics out of the Games as they return to Scotland.

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