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Sportswashing: An Introduction


 "Sportswashing is the practice of laundering one's reputation through sports, whether through team ownership, hosting a major tournament, or sponsorship. A country or politician gets involved, hoping that some of the sport's popularity will improve their image.." This is how the internet defines the term "sportswashing," and in a literal sense, it is correct, but the story and truth behind it are much deeper.

This phenomenon is affected and influenced by history, politics, international relations, and the economy of the person or state involved. One might use one of these aspects of sports to improve his/her or a nation's reputation. Nazi Germany's hosting of the 1936 Berlin Olympics games was one of the first examples of "Sportswashing".


In recent times, the involvement of politics in sports is visible everywhere. It's the greed that attracts politicians and leaders to sports; the greed for a good reputation, money, people on their side, etc. However, the increased awareness among citizens is now assisting us in preventing the actions of big business people and politicians in the field of sports.
Capitalizing on sports in a harmful way can affect the loyalty and honesty behind it, because honesty and loyalty are the foundations of sports. 
 
Examples of sportswashing involve-Russia hosting the 2018 FIFA World Cup, Beijing hosting the 2022 Winter Olympics, and the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, as the Qatar Football Federation has been accused of violating human rights by abusing the labourers working in the stadiums being prepared for the World Cup. Lots of protests are being held around the world against it, and some of the players are also aware of the situation and are in solidarity with the violations of human rights, but as of now, the tournament will take place.


Some of the takeovers of sporting clubs by big industrialists can also be counted in this. Manchester City was taken over by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan's Abu Dhabi United Group (ADUG) in 2008; Chelsea Football Club was bought by Roman Abrahmovic, a Russian Oligarch in 2003; and recently, Newcastle United was bought by a Saudi-led consortium, a Public Investment Fund. We saw people protesting against the European Super League, funded by capitalist leaders just to make their own profit. The protest was a success and a true showcase of the people's power. I would love to write about these in detail, but in this blog, I just wanted to give the readers an introduction to Sportswashing.
 
 
The thing we learn from this is that "Sports are by the fans and for the fans."









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Comments

  1. AnyoneButVartik12 May 2022 at 19:48

    My favorite blog by you. Would've loved to read about it in more detail. But still, got to know a new thing today... great writing

    ReplyDelete

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