Politics in Business: Lesson From Soccer For All Companies

Many business leaders want to focus on business—providing customers with good value at reasonable cost—rather than politics. But political issues are difficult to avoid. Google (GOOG, GOOGL), for example, recently asked employees to not let political discussions distract from business. The challenge of disentangling politics from business is illustrated by the recent soccer protest in Portland.

Major League Soccer this year updated its guidelines regarding fan behavior to prohibit “Using (including on any sign or other visible representation) political, threatening, abusive, insulting, offensive language and/or gestures, which includes racist, homophobic, xenophobic, sexist or otherwise inappropriate language or behavior.”

That may sound benign except for the “political” label, which the league believes applies to the Iron Front symbol. In Portland, the Timbers organization explained, “Despite its origins dating back to fascism opposition in World War II-era Germany and elsewhere, today most of the broader public are unaware of the Iron Front and its historic meaning. Instead it is widely associated with its frequent use by antifa, often in the context of violence at protests or counter protests.”

After the Timbers followed league guidelines and banned Iron Front flags, the major fan group protested. The Timbers Army was silent for the first 33 minutes of a match, 33 being a reference to 1933, when the Nazi party took to power. (In an unusual show of solidarity, visiting Seattle Sounders fans agreed to also remain silent.) Soccer games have a pronounced home field advantage, due largely to fan noise, so going silent against the team’s biggest rivals was a major sacrifice. The Timbers lost 2-1.

Back to business in general, stores and restaurants don’t want political shouting matches on their premises. Employers want their workers focused on jobs, not political controversies. And companies want the communities in which they are located to like them, not oppose their politics.

“Politics” poorly delimits an subject area that is out of bounds. Following the Timbers soccer game protest, fans of the women’s team under the same ownership, the Thorns, brought a sign saying “Human Rights Are Not Political.” That sentiment is appealing at first blush but calls up a host of difficulties. Same-sex marriage is thought by many to be a human right—and I’m not arguing otherwise—but marriage has been defined by law for many years, and laws are enacted by legislators politically elected.