Sportswashing: A Primer

above: Security guards stand by as workers refuel the Olympic flame in the Olympic Tower in Beijing (Zidan)

Recent events in the world of sports have created many questions. Why is there a Formula 1 race in Saudi Arabia? Why did the Saudi Arabian government buy Newcastle United Football Club in England? Why is Qatar hosting the 2022 FIFA World Cup? Does it not make more sense to host the World Cup with the necessary infrastructure instead of in Qatar where many new stadiums have to be constructed? The answer to these questions is the concept of  sportswashing. Sportswashing is a soft power tool in which authoritarian countries launder their tarnished international reputation by hosting large-scale international events. Sportswashing is not new, it is in fact a common tool used by authoritarian states, an example is the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin under the Nazi regime (Zidan). Regimes sportswash in an attempt to normalize the conversations about their country.

The modern international community has been an influx of sportswashing. A notable example is Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF). The PIF is one of the largest sovereign wealth funds in the world with estimated assets of $620 billion. In the past decade, the PIF has shifted its focus to investments in the US and Europe. On April 14, 2020, the PIF bought the English Premier League football club, Newcastle United FC for £300 million. Amnesty International UK classified the takeover as a “blatant example of sportswashing (Wintour).” Saudi Arabia is notorious for its appalling human rights record such as the assassination of critical New York Times journalist, Jamal Khashoggi, in March 2019 and its continued repression of dissidents and human rights activists. Another example is the introduction of a Formula 1 night race in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Formula 1’s popularity has skyrocketed since the Netflix documentary “Drive to Survive” aired in 2019. Saudi Arabia reportedly pays $55 million per year to host the race, the joint-highest fee paid by any venue to host a race (Leach & Seymour.). Karim Zidan of the Guardian said that Saudi Arabia is sportswashing to distract the international community from their human rights records and their war in Yemen. The more we talk about Saudi Arabia and sports, the less we talk about more substantial controversial issues.

Sportswashing is a propaganda tool. The media coverage of these large-scale sporting events provides an outlet for these authoritarian states to showcase how things are not that bad in their country. An example is the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia, where Russia portrayed its country as a wonderful modern tourist destination. Zidan identified Russia’s representation as a very calculated propaganda move in order to normalize conversations about Russia (Zidan & Florence). Russia wanted to show much they have changed for the better and how wrong the West is about them despite having recently invaded Crimea in 2014 and the widespread state discrimination against the LGBTQ+ community. Hosting such a large international sporting event provides a platform for authoritarian countries like Russia to present themselves in a positive light amidst their numerous political conflicts and controversies. 

Prior to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Russia was becoming a major player in the international sports scene, having hosted the FIFA World Cup, a Formula 1 Grand Prix, and plans to host the UEFA Champions League Final. However, the recent Russian invasion of Ukraine reversed the years of sportswashing that Putin has made. Russia since the invasion has been ostracized by the international sports community: the Russian soccer team was banned from participating in the World Cup, the UEFA Champions League Final was moved to Paris, and the Formula 1 race in Sochi was canceled (Martinez). Russia’s example shows the limitation of sportswashing. To the international sporting community, the invasion of Ukraine crossed the line. However,  misconduct on the part of the Saudi Arabian and Chinese government are still deemed acceptable and not overly egregious. It is unclear exactly where the line is and for how much longer sportswashing will be a viable tool for authoritarian states.

2022 is set to be a big year for sportswashing. Qatar will host the FIFA World Cup in the summer, the biggest quadrennial soccer tournament in the world. China hosted the Winter Olympics. The Olympics and the World Cup, two of the biggest sporting competitions in the world, are both hosted in repressive authoritarian countries in 2022. China has an extensive history of censorship, repression of free speech, and the poor treatment of Muslim Uyghurs in the Xinjiang region. Qatar’s human rights record is also equally concerning. A February 2021 investigation from the Guardian revealed that over 6500 migrant workers from Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka have died in Qatar since 2010 due to poor living conditions (Zidan). The World Cup and Olympics are shown to be bad investments from a financial point of view. No host has profited from hosting the Olympics or World Cup since Los Angeles in 1984. However, China and Qatar are still eager to host these events because of the ability to normalize conversations about their respective countries on the world stage. 

Despite Russia being boycotted in the international sports community, sportswashing efforts by other regimes such as Qatar, China, and Saudi Arabia show no signs of slowing down. With the winter Olympics in China, the upcoming FIFA World Cup in Qatar, and Formula 1 race in Saudi Arabia, 2022 is shaping up to be a very politicized sporting year (Zidan). 

Sources:

Leach, Tom, and Mike Seymour. “F1 Teams Expect Talks over Future of $55m-per-Year Saudi GP.” RacingNews365, RacingNews365, 26 Mar. 2022, https://racingnews365.com/f1-teams-expect-talks-over-future-of-55m-per-year-saudi-gp#:~:text=Saudi%20Arabia%20pays%20%2455%20million,to%20stage%20a%20Grand%20Prix.

Martinez, Andrés. “Russia's Ukraine Raid Ends Putin's Sportswashing.” Global Sport Matters, Arizona State University, 9 Mar. 2022, https://globalsportmatters.com/opinion/2022/03/09/russias-invasion-ukraine-ends-vladimir-putin-global-sportswashing-campaign/.

Wintour, Patrick. “Saudi Crown Prince Asked Boris Johnson to Intervene in Newcastle United Bid.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 15 Apr. 2021, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/apr/15/saudis-asked-boris-johnson-to-intervene-in-newcastle-united-bid.

Zidan, Karim, and Andrea Florence. “How Countries Use Sports to Improve Their Image.” NPR, NPR, 15 Mar. 2022, https://www.npr.org/2022/03/15/1086734716/how-countries-use-sports-to-improve-their-image.

Zidan, Karim. “Could 2022 Be Sportswashing's Biggest Year?” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 5 Jan. 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2022/jan/05/sportswashing-winter-olympics-world-cup.