53 authors from 17 different countries contributed to a special edition of “Sports & Politics” magazine about the life and journalism of Andrew Jennings, who died earlier this year. At the same time, the magazine provides a fascinating insight into the rise of sports policy journalism over the last 30 years.
In 2011, investigative journalists Andrew Jennings and Jens Weinreich received the Play the Game award for their work in “documenting and publicizing the enormous levels of mismanagement and corruption in the world’s major sporting organizations”, as they put it. Numbering.
It was fitting that the two of them got the award together. They were close colleagues and friends, and when Jennings died at age 78 in January 2022, Weinreich mobilized his shared network of journalists, academics and sports executives, friends and some enemies, to contribute in a few weeks to a grand written tribute to a a man who everyone agrees was a formidable journalist and a force for change in the world of sports governance.
The tribute is published as a special 81-page issue of Weinreich’s magazine “Sport and Politics” with texts by 53 authors from 17 different countries.
The cover of the special issue of ‘Sport & Politique’
Weinreich writes in his opinion piece that it was not the intention to produce an exhaustive account of Jennings’ work, but he believes that anyone who wants to understand the revolution in sports policy investigative journalism and the importance of Andrew Jennings in the 30 years since then ‘The Lord of the Rings’ was published by Jennings and co-author Vyv Simson should read the texts carefully: “More than 50 pieces of the puzzle fit together to form a great whole.”
Not only do the pieces form a whole, but it is also a multidimensional puzzle, which Weinreich put together with the help of people who knew Jennings well and admired him, as well as people who benefited from his journalistic attention, such as the former president of the FIFA. Sep Blatter.
“With his books and articles he showed us a mirror, and although I disagree with much of what he wrote, I take my hat off to him,” Blatter writes, adding: “When I look at what is happening at FIFA today, it would be happy if Andrew Jennings was still around.
How to get the documents
The magazine not only allows those who knew Jennings well to reminisce, but also gives new readers the opportunity to enter the intertwined worlds of Jennings and sports politics through well-written and often entertaining articles detailing some amazing stories that Jennings discovered on his own or helped others. to find out.
The magazine also contains many stories about Andrew Jennings as a man, a friend, a mentor and, above all, as an uncompromising journalist who avoided press conferences and media documents.
His journalistic approach and methodologies are addressed in several articles that highlight his insistence on obtaining the incriminating documents that have always been the basis of his work. And how do you do that? The magazine reprints an article Jennings wrote for “The Global Investigative Journalism Casebook” published by UNESCO where she explains his methods in that personal style that has ruffled quite a few pens over the years:
“Go to a press conference hosted by Mr. Big & Nasty. Don’t dress as fancy as the press kit. Silk ties are a career killer. be a killer Stand up and accuse Mr. Big of anything that comes into your head; bribery, pedophilia, the list is yours to write. You send a message to the employees that if Mr. Big is as bastard as you suspect, working for him will be a sordid nightmare. He intimidates men and sniffs women… You point out that you don’t give a fuck… his big p…, you only came because you want a fight. … If you performed well, the documents should start arriving.
The importance of journalism.
The documents circulated under Jennings’ direction for many years, where he painstakingly collected and organized them, patiently extracting and publishing stories about the sport’s villains that ultimately led to the downfall of many corrupt FIFA officials.
One of the magazine’s articles is written by Special Agent Steven Berryman, who led the US Treasury Department’s global investigation into taxes, international money laundering and corruption in sports governance within FIFA. For him, the investigation began when he read a 2011 article by Jennings on corruption at FIFA and culminated in late May 2015 with indictments and arrests of several FIFA officials in Switzerland and other countries in South America, Central America. and the Caribbean.
“Know that much of this would never have come to light without the tenacious and dedicated research and reporting conducted over decades by investigative journalists around the world, which is especially true of the late, but never forgotten, Andrew Jennings,” Berryman writes.
At Play the Game 2022, Jennings and investigative journalism will be celebrated as conference attendees are invited to “An Evening with Andrew Jennings.” Here, stories about his life and career will be mixed with discussions about how best to support and grow investigative sports journalism for years to come.