You murdered 3 people and it's all over the news, if you’re a prominent figure in society what do you do? Overwhelming the media with sports is the most popular answer for larger corporations, countries, or individuals with influential power. People have the tendency to care more about sports than pressing societal issues, allowing for these groups to look benign. Searching for sport washing techniques is an evergoing attempt to help consumers realize what they are truly consuming. Sports washing is a highly used technique for countries with human rights injustices, military focus, and other large media flashing issues.
This is a common occurrence in countries that were targeted by the media for their human rights issues, including Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia was recently receiving a severe amount of backlash for the lack of rights that women had amongst the country. With the media becoming flooded they resorted to a backup plan- purchasing sports leagues and companies. The most talked about sports introduction of theirs is the Saudi Gold League, also known as the LIV. Phil Mickleson, a prominent figure in the golf industry who was aging out of the PGA tour (the most popular tour since the 1960’s), recently said, “yes, the Saudis ‘execute people over there for being gay’ and have ‘a horrible record on human rights,’ but that he was engaging with LIV anyway in an attempt to strongarm the PGA Tour,” (Rosenberg 2022). It is commonly acknowledged that what the Saudis are doing is wrong, but the amount of money they are offering for the prizes and the appearances of popular golfers is irresistible. Multiple sports athletes including the golfer, “Bubba Watson recently praised [Saudi Arabia's] efforts to support women's golf, completely ignoring the fact that, until last summer, women needed permission from a male guardian to live alone,” (Kirshner 2023). Their attempts are evidently working, with important figures in the golf industry ignoring the red flags for a good opportunity to cash in after their glory days are over.
Saudi Arabia is not the only country using this technique as Russia’s Vladimir Putin had the fantastic idea to host a FIFA tournament. Putin has expressed that, “...sport has always provided powerful symbolism. Drive and excellence, either at the national or individual level, are held up as an antidote to the perceived decadence and flabbiness of the Soviet Union’s post-Cold War collapse,” (Martinez 2022). The reputation that Russia had developed for itself had become negative to the point where Putin wanted to cover the reputation using the most popular technique- sports washing. Sports are also a huge financial source meaning that Putin has extra motives to search for funding for the Russian regime. The goals that Russia had to use the financial and coverage lead to, “IOC, FIFA, and plenty of other federations that have abandoned Putin in the face of universal outrage will continue to engage with – and profit from – plenty of unsavory and deep-pocketed partners,” (Martinez 2022). The lack of actual enjoyment of the sports they have been hosting led to a rebellion of the organizations, preventing Russia from competing and hosting.
Saudi Arabia's treatment of women and the Russian attempts on Ukraine have been publicized all over the news, but to stop the spread, the most popular and fan favorite attempt of sports washing was used. Many people use sports as an escape from the real world, meaning that sports washing is many times successful. It is the consumers job to look into what is going on behind the scenes before they consume the product and promotion. If the news cover ups work, countries are enabled to get away with more negative and dehumanizing actions. Saudi Arabia and Russia are two of the most popular users of this technique, making it easy to realize for those countries, but what other countries also use a sports washing technique?
-Annika
Works Cited
Kirshner, Alex. “How the PGA Tour Is Beating Back Its Saudi Revolt.” PGA Tour vs. LIV Golf: Saudi Arabia's rival league is floundering (again)., 21 February 2023, https://slate.com/culture/2023/02/liv-golf-pga-tour-rivalry-tv-tiger-rory-phil.html. Accessed 1 May 2023.
Martinez, Andrés. “Russia's Ukraine Raid Ends Putin's Sportswashing.” Global Sport Matters, 9 March 2022, https://globalsportmatters.com/opinion/2022/03/09/russias-invasion-ukraine-ends-vladimir-putin-global-sportswashing-campaign/. Accessed 3 May 2023.
Rosenberg, Michael. “Is 2022 the year of peak sportswashing?” Sports Illustrated, 29 December 2022, https://www.si.com/olympics/2022/12/29/sportswashing-olympics-world-cup-daily-cover. Accessed 14 April 2023.
This was a very interesting blog. I especially liked your hook, which presented the issue in an easy-to-understand yet jarring way. I've never thought of how sports have such an effect on people and how countries will take advantage of this. You used nice examples and I especially liked the Russia one because of how recent and relevent it is.
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