A 2022 New York Times opinion piece labelled the Qatar FIFA World Cup as “peak sportswashing,” describing the “propagandistic use of athletics by a government to launder its tarnished reputation.” It wasn’t the first time a Middle Eastern state had been accused of sportswashing, and it certainly wouldn’t be the last. With nearby Saudi Arabia spending big to host several recent and upcoming high-profile sporting events, sportswashing is back in the headlines.

In February, the International Olympic Committee announced its inaugural ESports Olympic Games will be held in Saudi Arabia in 2027. Two months earlier, FIFA confirmed that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia had won the rights to host the 2034 men’s World Cup.

These announcements have shone a spotlight on Saudi Arabia’s human rights record, and reignited debate around the role and responsibilities of global sporting bodies and athletes.

Today we’ll explore the issue of sportswashing — unpacking what it means, and why sports fans should care.

Sportswashing is “the practice of an organisation, a government, a country, etc. supporting sport or organising sports events as a way to improve its reputation,” according to Cambridge University.

Kieran Pender is a sports journalist, lawyer and legal academic at the ANU Law School. He told TDA, “When any nation, state, or commercial actor gets involved in sport, we should think about what their motives are.”

The World Surf League (WSL) has come under recent scrutiny over its decision to hold an event in Abu Dhabi — a UAE city with strict anti-LGBTQ+ laws. Two-time world champion, Australian Tyler Wright, had expressed discomfort about competing in Abu Dhabi, as the only openly gay surfer on the world tour. However, Wright ended up participating in the comp, after she said “the appropriate teams in the UAE” and the WSL “assured” her it would be safe to do so.

The incident raised questions about why the WSL would schedule a competition in a region where homosexuality is illegal, potentially threatening the safety of its athletes, and risking reputational damage.

In a recent report from The University of Manchester, Dr Vitaly Kazakov described sportswashing as, “a catchy term, but it is not a new phenomenon – sport has been used for political and social goals for centuries.”

Many sources refer to Hitler’s 1936 Olympics in Berlin as the first significant example of modern sportswashing.

After the Games, American journalist and foreign correspondent William L. Shirer wrote in his diary that he feared the event had been a successful exercise in propaganda. He described the Nazi-run Games as putting on a “very good front” on a “lavish scale” to impress athletes and visitors.

And that is the essence of sportswashing — it can take advantage of the inspiring and celebratory nature of sport to distract from bigger political, social or human rights concerns.

Sportswashing is most commonly associated with jurisdictions accused of committing serious abuses of human rights. However, the term is broader than that. Whenever any nation, state, or commercial actor becomes involved in sports it is important to consider the motives behind that action, Pender says.

In the lead-up to the 2022 men’s football World Cup, Qatar was criticised for its treatment of migrant workers and its human rights record in general. Qatar spent $US200 billion preparing for the tournament. It was a big investment, and one that Pender argues could have backfired. However, not all international sporting events are equal, and he points to a certain inevitable success that comes from hosting the football World Cup.

“ There was a lot of attention on Qatar's human rights record and violations in relation to the construction of the World Cup.  But then once the [event] gets underway, sport is such an irresistible thing in our society that is so compelling and so gripping… A lot of that wider context drops away.”

“As we saw, by the time Argentina was winning the World Cup in Qatar, we weren't talking about the underlying human rights position. We were talking about Messi winning,” Pender said.

He suggests that while it’s important to scrutinise countries widely known to have poor human rights records, it is equally important to consider the reasons why any country puts its hand up to host a major sporting event. Ultimately, no matter the intention of an actor becoming involved in sport, that involvement presents a powerful branding opportunity, he claims.

It’s hard to have a conversation about sportswashing in 2025 without discussing Saudi Arabia, a place Pender said “has a really troubling human rights record… in terms of minority rights, LGBTQ+ rights, women's rights, civil and political rights. Saudi Arabia is a really concerning case in that respect”.

Most notably, the country has invested heavily in football (soccer) and boxing opportunities, as well as golf, funding a breakaway league (LIV Golf) where players are promised significant prize money regardless of performance. The country has been accused of further attempts at sportswashing after winning the rights to host the inaugural Esports Olympics in 2027 and the 2034 men’s soccer World Cup.

So, what are the motives behind Saudi Arabia’s investment in sport?

Pender suggests that countries use sportswashing as an image-polishing exercise, “often when that image has been tarnished”.

Hosting major sporting events certainly draws more attention to human rights concerns, but Saudi Arabia’s investment in sports has generated a financial benefit for the country.

Saudi Arabia’s ruler, Mohammad Bin Salman, famously told Fox News in 2023: "If sportswashing is going to increase my GDP by 1%, then we'll continue doing [it]."

Not only has investment in sports increased the country’s GDP, but it’s a way of diversifying its revenue streams, as part of efforts to become less dependent on natural resource wealth (e.g. oil).

Kieran Pender acknowledges  that greater investment in sports can be a really positive thing. “It's just so unfortunate that in a lot of these cases, that comes at the expense of a principled position, whether that be on human rights, climate change or other really significant issues of our time,” he said.

Pender told TDA the issue of sportswashing shouldn’t revolve around “ singling out any one country.”

“Every country that's seeking to use major sporting events to [improve] their image should face scrutiny and Australia is no exception…Every country has human rights failings. I'm not suggesting that Australia and Saudi Arabia are in the same position from a human rights perspective, but Australia has many of its own human rights challenges that we need to confront,” Pender noted.

He describes these challenges as, “in relation to our First Peoples, in relation to refugees and people seeking asylum here, and in relation to human rights protections.”

“Australia doesn't have a federal human rights act,” Pender notes.

But, who should be responsible for taking action against sportswashing?

The stakeholders with the most power to stand up against sportswashing are often governing bodies or sports administrators.

Pender told TDA: “Sporting bodies, clubs, and teams can and should do much more to assert a desire for international sport to be conducted in a human rights-compliant way.”

One form of action governing bodies can take is to stage boycotts. Sporting boycotts have been used as an effective form of protest against the political actions of certain governments for several decades.

For example, in 1968 the United Nations called for a sporting boycott against South Africa to demonstrate opposition to the racial segregation policies of Apartheid.

More recently, Cricket Australia has refused to play against Afghanistan in any cricket series because of “the deteriorating human rights for women and girls in the country under Taliban rule”. However, that policy has been criticised because Australia will still play against Afghanistan if they are drawn against each other in a tournament (as they did on Friday night at the ICC Champions Trophy).

To avoid this criticism altogether, Cricket Australia would have to boycott international tournaments completely or the International Cricket Council would have to ban Afghanistan from participation in international cricket.

Pender believes that it’s often the athletes doing the most to draw attention to sportswashing.

“It's noticeable that there's been more and more player concern… and I think that reflects the fact that the federations and the teams are lagging behind the position of their most valuable asset.”

A significant example in Australia was seen in October 2022 when the Diamonds netball team refused to compete after Netball Australia signed a sponsorship deal with Hancock Prospecting, a mining company owned by billionaire Gina Reinhart.

The boycott saw the corporation withdraw its $15 million funding investment. The move was a clear message from the players, who would rather risk their own financial security than be affiliated with a company at odds with their values and ethics.

Netball Australia was able to find a new sponsor, but the challenges of sportswashing can put athletes in a complicated position.

Pender says athletes should be able to take moral stands without risking their livelihoods, but these decisions are so often out of the hands of individuals.

Pender says the athletes caught up in sportswashing, “don't want to be put in these sorts of invidious positions where they have to choose between participation and taking a stand about human rights.”

What about the fans? Do we have a role to play in helping to make sure our favourite sports are engaging in ethical conduct?

Well, studies show that sports fans will prioritise supporting their team over concerns about social responsibility - and as we know, that’s why sportswashing works.

But thinking about the motives behind actors involved in sport, and knowing what it means when an event is described as ‘peak sportswashing’ might be a solid start.

Conversations about sportswashing go beyond borders and politics, shining a light on human rights concerns that may otherwise go unnoticed or unchecked by sports fans. Remembering the power of sport as “a form of international diplomacy, a form of international branding,” as Keiran Pender puts it, is an important lens to consider.

As fans become more informed, sportswashing concerns will surely become harder for global sporting bodies to ignore.

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