A Taiwanese Flag at an Australian Football Pitch

In early December, in the southern Australian city of Geelong, the Australian women’s football team played what should have been a regulation international match. Yet in a scene that would otherwise be reminiscent of an overtly sensitive authoritarian regime, two supporters of the opposing team were expelled from the venue for raising their country’s flag.

Given the multicultural nature of Australia, other countries' flags are prominent features of all international sporting events. Despite such visuals being upsetting to narrow-minded nationalists, it’s not something that most Australians, game officials, or indeed governments, care about. It’s part of the beauty of modern Australia.

However, the team Australia was playing against was Taiwan, and under FIFA rules Taiwan’s flag – or the Republic of China flag – is banned from all officially sanctioned matches. This makes it incredibly difficult for Taiwanese supporters to go about the very normal act of supporting their team.

FIFA has this rule because it is under intense pressure from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to sideline Taiwan as much as possible from international organizations. Beijing expects the rule to be policed, and Australia, wishing to maintain its place within FIFA, also feels an intense pressure to comply. To not do so would risk Australia’s ability to participate in international games and tournaments.

FIFA obviously sees China as a great untapped market for football. However, while the elite European leagues are incredibly popular in the country, the sport’s popularity hasn’t translated into success for China’s national teams. Since 1999, the men’s team has only qualified for the World Cup once, while its women’s team has never progressed beyond the quarter finals. In October, FIFA President Gianni Infantino visited China to discuss plans to develop youth football in the country – with the hope of building it into a football powerhouse.

Despite China’s lack of weight as a footballing nation, FIFA’s eyes on the sport’s future in the country means that it is unlikely to rescind its ban on the Republic of China flag at FIFA-sanctioned matches. But given the Taiwanese people’s immense pride in their nation, it is likely that scenes like those in Geelong will continue. Given that this was the second in a two-game series, the Australian public didn’t get a chance to defy FIFA’s rule by turning up en masse to a following game with Republic of China flags – giving game officials, FIFA, and the CCP an enormous headache.

Such a response may occur in the future, as sporting culture is incredibly important to how Australians see the world. Sportsmanship embodies what is often described as Australia’s national ethos – the “fair go.” The “fair go” is epitomized by consistent rules that apply to all participants, fans included, with mutual respect between them. This is part of an egalitarian sentiment within the country that believes that social structures should treat people with respect and fairness – equality of opportunity, political rights, decent wages, a strong safety net, a suspicion of concentrated power, and a general reasonableness.

To most Australians there was nothing reasonable about expelling people from a football match for raising their country’s flag. It was an act driven by an overly-sensitive foreign power, an unfair sporting rule, and an overly compliant local administration.

It is with regard to this compliance that the incident is most troubling for Australia. As the CCP’s power continues to grow its demands that other countries tip-toe around its “sensitivities” will become more pronounced. It sees the everyday freedoms of countries like Australia as threats. The things that are normal and natural to Australians are deemed unacceptable to Beijing.

Nothing is as normal and natural to Australians as sport. The nature of sport as fair competition is deeply embedded in the national psyche. More than any other aspect of human endeavor, sport is where Australians will recognize rank unfairness. This unfairness extends beyond just supporters being expelled from a stadium for waving a national flag, it goes to the heart of Taiwan’s lack of normalized status within international institutions.

Taiwan, of course, had to play these games as “Chinese Taipei” – an indignity that Beijing forces upon them. Yet, some media outlets in Australia reported the game using “Taiwan” instead, a small act of defiance that sends a strong signal. Given the absurdity of the couple being expelled from the stadium in Geelong, it is likely that next time a Taiwanese sporting team visits Australia the signals will be stronger.