When your favorite sports team makes a big new signing or builds a new stadium, have you ever stopped to think where the money to make all this happen comes from? More often than not, you are so invested in the news occurring on your television screen or the headlines popping up on your phone or computer that you do not even stop to think about how this entertainment empire runs. On top of their ability to entertain the masses, sports have influenced people from all around the world for generations and over the past half century they have become a lifestyle and an obsession, sometimes even dictating our day to day moods. With this much power over so many fans in a single entertainment sphere, there is a perfect opportunity open for governments and organizations to step in and enhance their self image. The official term for such a practice is “sports washing,” which is the process of using sports to improve a country’s reputation. The term found its roots in the Sports for Rights campaign in 2015 which led an opposition movement against the government of Azerbaijan and the government's attempts to cover up the nation's human rights violations by hosting several sporting events. Although modern day sports are one of the most uniting forces in the world and continue to raise the spirits of multitudes of people in all pockets of the globe, the general public would be well served to temporarily suspend our blind allegiance to the sports entertainment industry in order to challenge the incessant corrupt organizations and governments around the world who hide behind our beloved sports teams. While this is easier said than done, the issue of “sports washing” is a true test of where our values lie, and how far we are willing to go to maintain these values.

Even though the term “sports washing” has recent origins, the practice dates back to the first Olympics. In 416 B.C.E, an Athenian named Alcibiades purchased several chariots in the Olympics to guarantee an Athenian victory. This allowed the Athenians to present themselves as a dominant force despite recent failures in their war with Sparta. In more recent times, the Nazis used “sports washing” in their favor during the 1936 Berlin Olympics, using propaganda at the event to present Germany as an optimistic and open minded nation, despite the country’s recent racist and discriminatory policies.

Even today the Olympics have remained a prime stage for “sports washing” nations. This past winter Beijing hosted the 2022 Winter Olympics, but whether they had a right to do so led to much disputation. Leading up to the Olympics it had become more and more clear that the Chinese government was guilty of, or at least accountable for serious human rights violations, including the mistreatment of thousands of Uyghurs and other Muslims in China. These allegations received such significant press coverage and validity that many major western governments including the United States, Sweden, and Germany decided to boycott the event. However, while their government officials would not attend, their athletes still competed. While the event had many positive memories, especially for the multitude of athletes and fans, one has to look no further than the torchbearer for China to see the forces of “sports washing” at play. The Chinese chose a Uyghur cross country skier to be China’s torchbearer - an obvious piece of propaganda which resembles the removal of discriminatory signs towards Jews during the Berlin Olympics. This is not to say the Chinese and Nazi’s are one and the same, but they seem to share similar methods of deception.

A similar event to the Beijing Olympics will happen this winter, making it clear that “sports washing” is not only alive and well, but is becoming more widely practiced around the world. The event in question is the World Cup, which will be held in the Middle Eastern nation of Qatar this year. For soccer fans around the globe, this event has been on our calendars since the conclusion of the 2018 World Cup in Russia (which had its own “sports washing” implications). For soccer sports fans, the World Cup is the pinnacle of athletics and the BleacherReport rated it as the largest sporting event in the world – above both the Super Bowl and the Olympics. The tournament has the power to bring people together from around the world together and create a spectacle of joy for a full month. One has to look no further than the recent 2020 European Football Championship to see the power of international soccer. Despite having to comply with strict Covid-19 regulations, UEFA and all European soccer fans were eager to start filling stadiums again for the 2020 Euros. The hope is that this lively atmosphere will return during the Qatar World Cup, but the nation funding such a festive and highly anticipated event does not seem worthy of such a responsibility. It has recently been exposed that more than 6,500 migrant workers have died in the process of building the brand new soccer stadiums in Qatar. This is stacked on top of a long history of human rights issues in Qatar, especially within the sphere of the treatment of migrant workers. Qatar has revolved around a system called the “kafala”, which is a sponsored-based employment system and deprives workers of the ability to change jobs, challenge their employers, or female workers to live outside the workplace. So, as you turn on your TV to tune into the festival of fùtbol this winter, it must not be forgotten that those brightly lit and beautiful stadiums are also the gravesites of thousands of workers.

“Sports washing” is clearly not going away any time soon – in fact it may be at its peak.  However, will boycotting ever be enough to counter the effects of sportswashing? To come to a compatible conclusion, we must first look at past attempts. Earlier I spoke on how most western democratic nations boycotted the Beijing Olympic Games in 2022. While this may have seemed like a strong stance by the diplomats of these nations at the time who were protesting the Chinese treatment of Uyghurs or Muslims in China, not much has changed. The Uyghur crisis shows no signs of slowing down and Chinese leadership remains practically the same and just as prominent on the global market. So, these world leaders boycotted the Olympic games but they did not boycott China itself.

Therefore, the true solution lies not just in boycotting sporting events, but in a true reassessment of our values and power structures. It needs to be understood that despite the current power of the sports industry that is not the main issue or an issue at all. Sports are not going away and the money within sports will remain potent for the foreseeable future, but we just have to look past the veil to see the true issues at hand. The sports industry already has regulatory powers and institutional changes in programs such as FIFA (Federation Internationale de Football Association) and the IOC (International Olympic Committee) will not result in major change because they have little power over the actual laws and decisions of certain nations. 

Similar to other forms of getting involved, becoming educated and speaking out against the governments and corporations that commit these atrocities is the first step towards solving the problem. Boycotting is a start, but to boycott an entire nation or corporation is close to impossible and has no real evidence of working. We as the protesters must look at why we would be boycotting a sporting event in the first place and see who is truly to blame. Then it is up to us as members of a powerful electorate to push the US government to take a stronger stance on these issues. We must voice our opinion to those who have the power to make change not because of their possession of this power, but because they are using it incorrectly. To protest the sporting event is a waste of time and a publicity stunt, but to protest the issue is a step towards meaningful change. In many cases like with the United States and China during the Olympics, tensions may be too flared for actual action to be made without risking further problems, but sometimes making sure the government is doing all they can is our duty as citizens.

It is clear that sports have helped pull us out of the doldrums of the pandemic and other difficult times, so why get rid of them when we do not need to. You did not allow these corporations to take over and you are aware of the atrocities they are committing, so they have failed to fool you. While this may feel like it is ignoring the profits which these inhumane and corrupt organizations are receiving from viewers, but most of their efforts in sports are around investing for the purpose of masking their misdeeds rather than profits.