What is "sportswashing"?

#1

grisx23

From my understanding, its Saudi promoting itself as sports country. And whats wrong with it? Like every other country does it?

#2

Yistyy

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I think it stems from using sports to cover up controversy.

#3

Liem

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Saudi trying to make people forget about the bad human rights situation by hosting big sport events i think

#4

Nef0r0

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so that when you google saudi arabia you get : Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, Sauri Arabian football league, Saudi Arabia Esports world cup pop up and not ''saudi arabia violation''

#5

chrlxz

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this is the best explanation

#6

Kimchidestroyer

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Its ironic because the the world cup they hosted, stadiums they built to COVER UP the shady stuff was build using basically slavery. They arent even covering up stuff that well

#7

Nef0r0

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yeah but then everybody talked about messi's historic win, ronaldo's biggest loss, marocco in top 4, japan shocking germany, no one bats an eye on those who died

#14

GambleNats

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wrong country

#15

Nef0r0

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point still stands, they operate on the same basis of improving their image thru sporting events. qatar hosted world cup 2022, saudi will host 2030, qatar hosts an f1 grand prix, so does saudi

#8

Liwus

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Damn, when did Saudi Arabia host a World Cup?

#10

PP12123213123

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1992

#11

Liwus

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Who won?

#20

PP12123213123

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Yugoslavia

#9

Ryuukami

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think you're talking about qatar but yeah still holds up

#12

Liwus

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How does it "still hold up" when blud dont even know which country hes talking about 😭😭?

#19

Ryuukami

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you only needed surface level critical thinking to understand it but alr

it "still holds up" because it's still a valid case of sportswashing in the same region that uses imported slaves (Kafala System, go educate yourself) to do the hard labor

also "blud" in 2025 🥀 grow up

#13

Syed_Ahamed

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Bro what, people are delusional, that's a completely different country 😭😂

#16

1One1

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US using fancy words as always
.....phobia
Anti.....
....washing
Etc

#17

Neonfreak

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Anti and washing are complex words?

#22

column1

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Its a vlr user, washing is a foreign concept

#21

edgno1fan3

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omg an english speaking country using more nuanced english suffixes/prefixes, what a shocker

#23

1One1

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on worldwide media, no on exclusive english speaking media

#18

TM06Nick

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Sportswashing is the Saudi government/royalty paying money to other countries and organizations and individuals to talk good about their country through Sports events to make the country seem like a good destination. The goal is to boost Saudi tourism as that is how they can attract more popular figures and companies to want to be in Saudi. They want to put on a front that Saudi has this big bustling culture of sports when its not the case at all. they wanna be the sports country and not the hacksaw war crime genocide country