It is not new that authoritarian governments host sporting events with the aim of trying to demonstrate power and gain prestige: just remember that Nazi Germany hosted the 1936 Olympic Games, and the Soviet Union the 1980 Olympics.
However, in recent years, the accumulation of major sporting events in autocratic countries and the acquisition of European football clubs by funds linked to governments with this profile led to the creation of the term sportswashing – which designates this attempt to clean up the image through sport .
Notorious human rights violators, China and Qatar are now coming in with more focus on the press, athletes, federations and NGOs because they will host the two most important sporting events of 2022, respectively the Winter Olympic Games, in February, and the World Cup of the Soccer World, between November and December.
Qatar began to be criticized shortly after the announcement that it would be the first country in the Middle East to host the Cup, mainly due to the degrading working conditions in the construction of the stadiums where the matches will take place.
Earlier this year, British newspaper The Guardian reported that more than 6,500 migrant workers from India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka have died in Qatar since the country won the right to host the 2010 World Cup. The total numbers are probably much higher, as deaths of workers from other countries were not counted.
However, these deaths would not only have occurred in the stadium works, since other large ones (roads, hotels, public transport, a new airport and even an entire city) are also being carried out in the country.
In a statement released this month, Amnesty International noted that, after many complaints, Qatar has passed laws to end restrictions that prevented migrant workers from leaving the country or changing jobs without their employer’s permission.
“If applied properly, they would have the potential to reach the heart of the kafala system (common in Arab countries, whereby unskilled workers have a sponsor in the country, usually the employer, responsible for visa and legal status), which continues to link migrant workers to their employers, but workers told Amnesty International that they still face significant obstacles in changing jobs and resistance from disgruntled employers,” the report noted.
Amnesty International also recalled that Qatar has implemented changes to benefit migrant workers, such as a law regulating the workload of domestic workers, labor courts to facilitate access to justice, a fund to guarantee the payment of unpaid wages and minimum wages. . It also ratified two international human rights treaties, albeit without recognizing the right of migrant workers to join trade unions.
However, according to Amnesty International, the exploitation largely continues: for example, the NGO cites that although Qatar has revoked the requirement to obtain an exit permit and a certificate of no objection for most migrant workers, allowing For them to leave the country and change jobs without seeking the consent of their sponsors, problematic elements of the kafala system still persist – such as abusive employers that prevent migrant workers from changing jobs and control their legal status.
The Danish football federation, one of the European teams already classified for the World Cup, said that during the Cup in Qatar it will replace sponsors’ brands on uniforms with messages in support of human rights. In addition, it will not participate in actions to promote the country.
This month, seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton wore a rainbow-colored helmet during the Formula 1 stage in Qatar, a symbol of the LGBTQIA+ movement: homosexuality is a crime in the country.
Countries consider diplomatic boycott of Beijing Winter Games
Beijing will become, in 2022, the first city in history to have hosted both the Summer (2008) and Winter Olympic Games. However, last week, US President Joe Biden said he was considering the possibility of a diplomatic boycott of the event due to human rights violations in China – American athletes would participate in the disputes, but no government official would go to the capital. Chinese. Other countries, such as Canada and Australia, assess the same measure.
At the same time, the siege of China has increased with an international campaign to discover the whereabouts of Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai, who has been unknown since she published a text in which she accused a former top member of the Communist Party of China of sexual assault.
To show that the tennis player would be okay, Chinese state media released an alleged letter from Peng to the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) and images of her that would be recent, but the confederation suspected coercion and threatened to cancel the tournaments that performs in China.
The president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Thomas Bach, reported on the organization’s website that he made a video call with Peng Shuai and was accused of “publicity stunt”.
Turkish pivot Enes Kanter, of the American basketball team Boston Celtics, has specialized in campaigns against the Chinese dictatorship, denouncing thorny issues such as the repression of Tibet and forced organ harvesting in China. In apparent retaliation, a Chinese streaming service stopped showing Boston Celtics games in China.
Creator of the term sportswashing believes the situation has worsened
In an article published this week, British portal iNews speculated that the term sportswashing would have been used for the first time in 2015, when the European Games (a scaled-down version of the Olympics) were held in Azerbaijan’s capital, Baku. The idea would have arisen from a brainstorming session by Padraig Reidy and Mike Harris, from the London advertising agency 89up.
“The Azerbaijani regime was not only hosting the European Games, but also looking forward to making Baku a regular presence on the (Formula 1) Grand Prix circuit. Global sport was clearly the main public relations focus to cover up the government’s terrifying record of imprisoning journalists and human rights activists,” Reidy told iNews.
Over the years, the term has also come to encompass the purchase of European football clubs by Arab autocracies, such as the recent acquisition of Englishman Newcastle by a public fund in Saudi Arabia.
Despite the creation of a specific term to denounce the practice, sportswashing is going full steam ahead – much to Reidy’s disappointment. “Since we coined the term, the practice seems to have become increasingly prevalent, with international sports organizations becoming accomplices,” he lamented.
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