It described the theory as straightforward. "So I think it’s good that we talk about it, and I think it’s good that we raise it." How does sportswashing work?Īnother human rights group, Grant Liberty, released a report on Saudi Arabian sportswashing efforts in 2021. "Our knowledge as a global community of this apparent phenomenon is relatively immature," he said. He feels the term is used too "liberally and simplistically" – often by Western countries, toward those in the Middle East and Asia – and needs to be better defined by researchers.
Though other countries likely employed elements of sportswashing long before then.Ĭhadwick said there is a dearth of academic research on sportswashing, though he believes the term was first popularized several years ago by human rights organization Amnesty International. One of the most commonly-cited examples of sportswashing is the 1936 Summer Olympics in Nazi Germany, which Adolf Hitler viewed as an opportunity to both burnish the nation's image and spread its antisemitic ideology. The term has only been commonly used in the past six years, but the strategy itself is hardly new.
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LIV Golf claimed that its goal is to "holistically improve the health of professional golf" and "help unlock the sport's untapped potential." But critics have said the league is part of a broader political effort by Saudi Arabia to buy legitimacy and polish its global image.Īs the two tours work out the details of the merger, here's a look at what we know about sportswashing, how it's employed and the role that sports investments play in Saudi Arabia's broader political strategy. On Tuesday, however, the two entities announced a blockbuster merger in which both tours will operate under the same umbrella, with the same primary funder: The PIF. Human rights groups say LIV Golf is just the latest example. Bankrolled by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, the upstart league offered astronomical sums to a handful of the sport's biggest names – including Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson – to poach them last summer from the PGA Tour, which initially suspended the defectors. "In essence, sportwashing is about diversion," said Simon Chadwick, a global professor of sport at Emlyon Business School in France.
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PRO GOLF WILL NEVER BE THE SAME PGA Tour sold out to LIV Golf and the Saudis But the strategy it represents has been employed by governments around the world, in some form or fashion, for a century or more.įor world leaders, it is a way to improve their nation's reputation by hosting a prestigious sporting event, or financing a popular team.
That term – "sportswashing" – is still relatively new. "Isn't there a danger," one reporter asked Phil Mickelson, "that you're also being seen as a tool of sportswashing?" Over the past six years, the term has been used to describe everything from the 2018 World Cup in Russia to a 2019 heavyweight boxing match in Saudi Arabia to the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.Īnd at a news conference ahead of the Saudi-funded LIV Golf league's first event last summer, it came up twice. It has been updated to reflect Tuesday's announcement that LIV Golf is merging business operations with the PGA Tour and DP Tour. Editor's note: This story was originally published on June 10, 2022.
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