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Sportswashing: Complicity and Corruption

Publication ,  Journal Article
Fruh, K; Archer, A; Wojtowicz, J
Published in: Sport, Ethics and Philosophy
August 2, 2022

When the 2022 FIFA Men’s World Cup was awarded to Qatar, it raised a number of moral concerns, perhaps the most prominent of which was Qatar’s woeful record on human rights in the arena of migrant labour. Qatar’s interest in hosting the event is aptly characterised as a case of ‘sportswashing’. The first aim of this paper is to provide an account of the nature of sportswashing, as a practice of using an association with sport, usually through hosting an event or owning a club (such as Newcastle United, owned by Saudi Arabia), to subvert the way that others attend to a moral violation for which the sportswashing agent is responsible. This may be done through distracting away from wrongdoing, minimising it, or normalising it. Second, we offer an account of the distinctive wrongs of sportswashing. The gravest moral wrong is the background injustice which sportswashing threatens to perpetuate. But the distinctive wrongs of sportswashing are twofold: first, it makes participants in sport (athletes, coaches, journalists, fans) complicit in the sportswasher’s wrongdoing, which extends a moral challenge to millions of people involved with sport. Second, sportswashing corrupts valuable heritage associated with sporting traditions and institutions. Finally, we examine how sportswashing ought to be resisted. The appropriate forms of resistance will depend upon different roles people fill, such as athlete, coach, journalist, fan. The basic dichotomy of resistance strategies is to either exit the condition of complicity, for example by refusing to participate in the sporting event, or to modify one’s engagement with the goal of transformation in mind. We recognize this is difficult and potentially burdensome: sports are an important part of many of our lives; our approach attempts to respect this.

Duke Scholars

Published In

Sport, Ethics and Philosophy

ISSN

1751-1321

Publication Date

August 2, 2022

Publisher

Routledge

Related Subject Headings

  • 5003 Philosophy
  • 5001 Applied ethics
  • 4207 Sports science and exercise
  • 2203 Philosophy
  • 2201 Applied Ethics
  • 1106 Human Movement and Sports Sciences
 

Citation

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Fruh, K., Archer, A., & Wojtowicz, J. (2022). Sportswashing: Complicity and Corruption. Sport, Ethics and Philosophy.
Fruh, Kyle, Alfred Archer, and Jake Wojtowicz. “Sportswashing: Complicity and Corruption.” Sport, Ethics and Philosophy, August 2, 2022.
Fruh K, Archer A, Wojtowicz J. Sportswashing: Complicity and Corruption. Sport, Ethics and Philosophy. 2022 Aug 2;
Fruh, Kyle, et al. “Sportswashing: Complicity and Corruption.” Sport, Ethics and Philosophy, Routledge, Aug. 2022.
Fruh K, Archer A, Wojtowicz J. Sportswashing: Complicity and Corruption. Sport, Ethics and Philosophy. Routledge; 2022 Aug 2;
Journal cover image

Published In

Sport, Ethics and Philosophy

ISSN

1751-1321

Publication Date

August 2, 2022

Publisher

Routledge

Related Subject Headings

  • 5003 Philosophy
  • 5001 Applied ethics
  • 4207 Sports science and exercise
  • 2203 Philosophy
  • 2201 Applied Ethics
  • 1106 Human Movement and Sports Sciences