Sportswashing

Sportswashing or sportwashing is the hosting of a sporting event, or owning of a team as a means for a country to improve its reputation, particularly if it has a poor record on human rights.

For example, Amnesty International's UK branch criticised the choice of Azerbaijan as host of the 2019 UEFA Europa League Final on the basis of its human rights violations, calling the hosting of the final an "attempt to sportswash its image".[1]

Examples

• The Bahrain Grand Prix held since 2004.[2]
• The 2014 Winter Olympics and FIFA World Cup 2018 held in Russia.[3][4]
• The 2020 Dakar Rally held in Saudi Arabia.[5]
• The Qatar motorcycle Grand Prix held since 2004.[6]
• The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix held since 2009.[7]
• Abu Dhabi majority ownership of City Football Group, an entity which in turn owns Manchester City F.C., Melbourne City FC and Montevideo City Torque wholly and New York City FC, Yokohama F. Marinos, Girona FC, Sichuan Jiuniu F.C. and Mumbai City FC partially.[8]
• The 2019 BLAST Pro Series Finals held in the Kingdom of Bahrain.[9]
• The 2019 Nexus Arabia tournament organized by Riot Games held in the MENA Region.[10]
• Danish esports organization, RFRSH Entertainment and Riot Games both signing a deal to developed Saudi Arabia's NEOM project and boost esports in the region.[11] Riot ended up scrapping the partnership after facing intense backlash from fans and their employees.[12][13]
• The planned Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.[14]

See also

• Greenwashing
• Maplewashing

References

1. "Amnesty: don't let Azerbaijan hide human rights abuses behind football". The Guardian. Press Association. 22 May 2019. Retrieved 7 December 2019.
2. "Bahrain's grim human rights violations are behind the glamour of the Grand Prix". www.amnesty.org.
3. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/jan/02/sochi-2014-winter-olympics-political-tinderbox
4. "Explainer: Why human rights matter at the World Cup". www.amnesty.org.
5. "France raises human rights concerns as Dakar Rally begins in Saudi Arabia". RFI. 5 January 2020.
6. "2016 Qatar MotoGP Wednesday Round Up: Oppressive Regimes, Muzzled Speech, and Unknown Quantities | MotoMatters.com | Kropotkin Thinks". motomatters.com.
7. "End crackdown on critics ahead of Abu Dhabi Grand Prix". www.amnesty.org.
8. Explainers, Football (27 November 2018). "What is sportswashing?". Football Explainers.
9. Rondina, Steven. "BLAST Global Finals part of problematic Middle East esports push - CS:GO - News". WIN.gg.
10. Juras, Marta. "The Nexus is Riot's first official tournament in the MENA region - LoL - News". WIN.gg.
11. "BLAST announces controversial sponsorship with NEOM". Daily Esports. 30 July 2020.
12. Chalk, Andy (29 July 2020). "Riot scraps controversial LEC partnership with Saudi Arabia following fan backlash". PC Gamer.
13. Carpenter, Nicole (29 July 2020). "League of Legends' Saudi Arabian partnership criticized by Riot community". Polygon.
14. https://au.motorsport.com/f1/news/saudi-arabia-2021-sportwashing-amnesty/4900527/