Tuesday 22 February 2011

Politics Invades Sport

Over the years many disasters or conflicts have disrupted sport, the obvious being the World Wars. Recently it's been the troubled area of Palestine and even more recently the terrorism in Pakistan. But over the past month the 'revolution' has taken place in North Africa and the Middle East. It started off in Tunisia before spreading to Egypt, after Egypt's successful dismissal of President Mubarak, Algeria, Jordan, Yemen, Syria and Lebanon have all now started their uprising leading to amassed violence. It has even started to spread to Europe with Albania also in a state of political upheaval.

But the main sporting issue with these uprisings is the one in Bahrain. They have also started to riot and it has lead to many casualties and even some fatalities. So how does this impact on sport? Well the Formula One season was due to begin in Bahrain early next month and due to the uprisings the Bahrain government and the FIA have wisely decided to postpone the event. It hasn't been totally cancelled as Bernie Eccleston hopes to reschedule the grand prix later in the calender. This means that the Formula One season will now begin in Melbourne, Australia on March 27th. The final testing that was due to take place in Bahrain will now take place in Barcelona.

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