Isomorphism in sport diplomacy: examining the nexus between international law, sportswashing and the contested role of mega events owners

This paper discusses Isomorphism in sport diplomacy by examining the contested role of mega event owners. This paper offers a conceptual analysis and adds to the extant literature in three main areas, a) analysing the difficult nexus between the role of events owners in promoting SME competitions b) contributing to the emerging debate around the relationship of international law and sport diplomacy and c) it offers a novel contribution on key issues through the lens of institutional theory; specifically, isomorphism and mimetic isomorphism. We discuss the contested role of mega event owners in sportswashing by arguing that there is a lack of balance in the critical discourse around the illiberal state’s projection through sport. Secondly, illiberal nations will ignore their sportswashing and human rights abuses in favour of presenting more positive news stories related to hosting the Games. Therefore, by drawing on the nexus between international law and sportswashing, we opine that international law is non-binding in terms of human rights and allows sports organisations like FIFA and the IOC to award illiberal countries accused of human rights violations to host mega sports events. Finally, we draw from the concepts of isomorphism and mimetic isomorphism. For mimetic isomorphism, sports organisations like FIFA and IOC are increasingly resembling political institutions. Isomorphism in this context would be seen as forced conformity when politics muscle sports organisations. Therefore, we argue and contribute to a paradigm shift in how sports institutions are analysed, taking into consideration the analysis of the move from the theory of isomorphoism to institutional work.