Sportswashing in football
Written on January 31st , 2023 by {"login"=>"jcbphc21", "email"=>"f20181005@hyderabad.bits-pilani.ac.in", "display_name"=>"Journal Club, BPHC", "first_name"=>"Journal Club", "last_name"=>"BPHC"}As the popular saying goes,“ The world is ruled by power and power is obtained from money”. In the recent few years the world has noticed how money has been used to whitewash the crimes of the rich. And when sports are used as a medium to save a state’s or organisation’s reputation in front of the general public, this process of whitewashing is often termed as “sportswashing”. Under sportswashing, wealthy states ‘buy’ or bribe their way to the hosting rights of a major sports tournament or rich corporations sponsor a large franchisee or a national team to launder their falling reputation. One of the earliest cases of sportswashing dates back to 1936 when Germany hosted the eleventh edition of the Olympic games, where they tried to sway world’s attention away from their poor human rights record.
When it comes to sportswashing there is no better sport than football to facilitate this propaganda. With over a billion fans around the world, football is the easiest way to tune in the most viewers from across the globe to bring some positive publicity. The last few years have seen some of the biggest sponsorship deals and sports contacts in the history of football. It’s not that football suddenly got famous, but it’s because states have realized the effectiveness of sportswashing. One of the most recent examples is the FIFA World Cup 2022 held in Qatar. In 2010 Qatar won a famously controversial bid to host the 2022 World cup when it was already seen as a tyrannical state. The next 12 years weren’t easy for Qatar as they had to build huge sporting infrastructure to host one of the biggest sporting events on this planet. Many migrant workers were brought from southern Asia to meet the infrastructure requirements. In this process, hundreds of those workers lost their lives. The reputation of Qatar was spiralling downward. When it was finally time for the World Cup, football fans all around the world came together, enjoyed and reveled in the spirit of football. By the end of the World Cup, Lionel Messi, Champion of the La Albiceleste finally realized his dream of being a world champion. Post the conclusion of the FIFA mega event, Qatar was now suddenly receiving praises from around the world for the successful hosting of the World Cup despite not being a football superpower. However, what happened to the discussions about Qatar’s history with Human Rights? It was all conveniently forgotten by the masses with their recency bias. All the criticism turned into praise, but the fact that people lost their lives to make this happen cannot be changed.
This trend is taking all over Gulf countries, and next comes to the list is Saudi Arabia. In the last few years Saudi Arabia has hosted quite a few tournaments or matches that should have never been hosted there. For instance, the 2018 and 2019 edition of the Super Cup of Italy, Supercoppa Italiana was held in Saudi Arabia. A tournament which is local to Italy, is somehow not taking place in Italy but in some other foreign land. It was again the money that brought the super cup to Saudi Arabia, as it offered much more money than any other logistics could have and the Italian Federation ruled in favour of it. In the end it was just an attempt to bring some positive limelight towards Saudi Arabia. A similar example is the Spanish Football Federation, RFEF signing a 10-year deal with Saudi Arabia to bring the Spanish super cup, Supercopa de Espana to the Arabian land. The financial condition of football boards around the world are also a key factor in these decisions, with domestic clubs in hundreds of millions of debt, the football federation didn’t mind taking the super cup away from their own country if it meant a betterment in their financial condition using the huge sponsorship money from Saudi Arabia.
Apart from states, various corporations have also funded football clubs to improve their public image and whiten their track record. Qatar Airways, which comes under the government of Qatar, has sponsored clubs like FC Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Boca Juniors etc. Gazprom, which is a Russian state owned oil company, sponsors the UEFA Champions League. They also sponsor Schlake 04, a team in the German League, Bundesliga. Al Nassr, a football club based in Saudi Arabia, having close ties with the Saudi crown prince, recently offered Cristiano Ronaldo a huge contract of $214 million/year, the likes of which had never been seen before in football.
Some might argue that the reason behind these huge sponsorships from various states might be to grow football in their native countries. Many people also argue that the huge sponsorships from middle eastern countries are in fact a way to exhibit their power and aura in front of other Arab countries. Well, these arguments aren’t completely wrong, but there is indeed a huge correlation between the lack of human rights and attempts to improve the reputation destroyed by misconduct of the states by constantly running propagandas whether by sportswashing or any other means.
Lastly, we the fans need to make sure that we must not get carried away by the merry surrounding a sports tournament. A successful tournament doesn’t solve existing problems. We must keep questioning the government and hold them accountable for their wrongdoings.