It has become a regular ritual: as soon as a major sporting event looms in a country that scores low on democracy and human rights, calls for a boycott are heard from all quarters. The two top events of 2022, the Winter Olympics in Beijing and the World Cup in Qatar, are no different.
Top athletes are invariably asked whether they should not bring up the abuses in the country that forms the backdrop for their medal hunt. Since the cameras are pointed at the stars for a few weeks and their statements are heard by millions, such questions are understandable. At the same time, it is unfair: athletes have no influence on the allocation of their tournaments. The decision on ‘Beijing 2022’ was made in 2015 by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), while next year’s World Cup was already assigned to Qatar in 2010 by the world football federation FIFA. Matthijs de Ligt was eleven years old at the time.
The uneasy feeling about sports in controversial countries will increase. Numerous sports federations, organizers of major events and clubs prefer big money over principles. Countries like Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, China, Russia and Azerbaijan spend billions to win sports tournaments. This goes much further than the World Cup or the Olympic Games: from Formula 1 to golf, from athletics to swimming or gymnastics. It’s a remarkable move of international sport eastward, following in the footsteps of the moneylenders of the 21st century.
Human rights organizations point out that such states use sport to improve their bad human rights record, summarized under the term sports washing. The same is happening in the football world: European top clubs are being taken over at a rapid pace by investors from Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the Emirates. Most recent example is Premier League club Newcastle United, now owned by the Saudi Public Investment Fund. Fans and club officials are eager to drop their concerns about where the money came from in view of the successes their club may face, as players see their salaries grow to dizzying heights.
The fact that Formula 1 driver Lewis Hamilton recently used his fame at the Grand Prix in Qatar, where he appeared on the track wearing a rainbow-coloured helmet to draw attention to the rights of the LGBTQ community, is to be applauded.
But he is a loner. And the problem is deeper. Changes can only occur if sports federations become stricter on club takeovers and tournament allocation, for example with demands on democracy, human rights, equality and labor rules. In this regard, the initiative of 23 European sports ministers is to be commended, who shortly before Christmas in an open letter called on the international sports federations to make demands on countries applying for a major tournament.
The influence of European countries may be limited, but a more critical attitude towards sportswashing is a start. In any case, a stricter choice in the allocation of tournaments is preferable to a diplomatic or sporting boycott of an event that is about to start.
A version of this article also appeared in NRC in the morning of December 29, 2021
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