Polluting companies and dodgy governments are trying to clean up their image by buying teams and sponsoring tournaments. We shouldn’t let them get away with it- Greenpeace.
Sportswashing is the new greenwashing; a PR tactic to make companies and often countries appear environmentally conscious without doing anything to help the environment. Companies have turned to sports now, because the use of greenwashing has been exposed, to improve their brand image.
The definition of sportswashing, according to the Cambridge Dictionary, “is the practice of an organisation, Government, or country organising sports events to improve its reputation.” Sporting institutions such as the Premier League are so popular across the world that it is no wonder football is the latest target for sportswashing. But why do companies do it? Sportswashing involves companies buying or sponsoring a sports club or a country hosting a major sports tournament. They do this to distract from their problematic actions by attracting the appeal and fan base of said sport.
This is a problem because, at the international level, it is believed that sportswashing has been used to direct attention away from poor human rights records and corruption scandals. “At the individual and corporate levels, it is believed that sportswashing has been used to cover up vices, crimes, and scandals.” (“Sportswashing as a justification for harm- INclusion INcorporated”)
Additionally, sports have been a way for governments, to highlight their countries’ assets to a global audience. China held the Olympics amid accusations of genocide, and Russia annexed Crimea weeks after hosting the 2014 Olympics. Human rights groups accused both states of sportswashing.
Manchester City, since 2008 the UAE has owned the club with the investors immediately signing big name players. This is happening increasingly often as the Premier League brought in 3.2 billion viewers in the 2019/20 season. The UAE criminalised free expression. Also, “the UAE has forcibly vanished and tortured prisoners in UAE-run detention facilities in Yemen. Child sex trafficking still exists in the UAE, and the country has done little to effect change for migrant workers, who face punishment for leaving their employers through the kafala system (a sponsorship system). The UAE also allows domestic violence and marital rape, among other violations of women’s rights, and criminalises same-sex relationships” (The UAEs “sportswashing” of Human Rights Abuses- Americans for democracy). Furthering their sportswashing tactics, they have set up their own cricket league, the International League T20, using big-name players such as Moeen Ali, Joe Root, and Ollie Pope.
Take Qatar hosting the men’s 2022 World Cup and a Formula 1 Grand Prix this is to swerve attention from their human rights abuses, such as laws discriminating against people from the LGBTQIA+ community, and women continuing to face discrimination as they need permission from a male guardian to study, travel, or marry. According to Amnesty international Despite the government’s ongoing efforts to reform its labour system, thousands of migrant workers continued to face labour abuses such as wage theft, having retaliatory measures placed against them by former employers and the authorities have failed to investigate workers deaths.Domestic workers, most of whom are women, continued to face some of the harshest working conditions and abuses, including verbal, physical and sexual assault. The authorities failed to implement measures to protect them.
Saudi Arabia is also a perpetrator that has an 80% stake in football club Newcastle United, a football league, a golf league, LIV golf, and Formula One Grand Prix (they even tried to buy F1). They have done this to divert attention away from criticisms of its policies, especially regarding human rights. “They increased their investments in sports after the assassination of Saudi journalist and U.S. resident Jamal Khashoggi in 2018, a crime that drew international attention and Western sanctions” (Saudi Arabia’s Investments Raise Questions of ‘Sportswashing- Council of Foreign Relations) after the U.S. intelligence community found that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman probably approved the operation. The Saudi government denied his involvement. They use these sports to cover up their many human rights abuses, such as killing journalists and discrimination against women and the LGBTQIA+ community.
The UK has also used these tactics two years after it invaded Iraq and after the 2011 riots, the use of sportswashing was acknowledged by Jeremy Hunt, the then Secretary of State for Culture, Media, and Sport, that they would use the Olympic Games to change the negative image the riots created as quoted in Reuters saying “to make sure that we can put the record straight after some of the terrible events that happened this summer, which created a negative image.” However, this admission should not downplay the negative effects of when a country employs sportswashing, as the coverup of human rights abuses often leads to the continued injustices we see today and countries getting away with them unpunished.
Sports should be a safe place for people to exist and bond with each other but how can this be if the very people who should be protecting these places are supporting human rights abuses through funding and distracting the people? This is still happening, recently the FA banned players and football staff from using the phrase “from the river to the sea” this is a phrase used by many activists in support of the Palestinian people who have faced illegal occupation from Israel for the last since 1967 and now are being mercilessly bombed. This is a current example of the unjust ways sports is used to silence and cover up human rights abuses. These unfair and unjust tactics shows why sportswashing is so horrific.
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Beth-y 
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