As countries with questionable human rights records buy overseas teams and vie to host global tournaments, MATT MCDOWELL speaks to Matt Elton about the rise of ‘sportswashing’ – and whether sport and power have always gone hand in hand
BEHIND THE NEWS
Matt Elton: The term ‘sportswashing’ has been in the headlines a lot recently. What does it mean?
Matt McDowell: The aims of sportswashing are similar to those of propaganda, public relations and soft power – to launder the reputations of nations, institutions or organisations deemed to have liabilities in terms of human rights, free speech, lack of electoral processes and so on.
Certain nations tend to be accused by western commentators of sportswashing, such as Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Qatar, which famously hosted the 2022 Fifa men’s World Cup, has been heavily criticised for its labour rights, LGBTQ [lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer] rights, and treatment of migrant workers. It’s also bought teams in other countries, such as the French football club Paris Saint-Germain in 2011.
What Saudi Arabia is doing is a bit more ambitious. It bought Newcastle United Football Club in 2021, and last year started a golf league, LIV Golf, to rival the long-established PGA Tour; a merger between the two has since been announced. So its international influence is huge.
The fact that specific nations tend to be accused of sportswashing by the west means that we should be cautious about our use of the term. In the west’s rush to judgment of such nations, it’s possible to overlook the fact that they may genuinely be aiming to develop domestic sport in an effort to improve public health outcomes – reducing levels of obesity, for instance.
When were the first accusations of sportswashing levelled?
The idea is quite new – the term ‘sportswashing’ first emerged in the news media in 2015, and it’s still much debated in academic circles. But politics has been linked with sport since the games of ancient Greece, when city states put money into hosting contests and helping their athletes win. Much like the modern games, the ancient Greek Olympics were about political positioning as much as sport. So the idea that sport and politics – and, indeed, governments – have a close or even symbiotic relationship isn’t new.
When did sport first become connected to image management in the UK?
Modern sports culture developed from the mid-19th century with the foundation of association football, which was a game of the working class in terms of
