The (un)politics of ‘sportswashing’: what’s the problem?

To date, much of the focus on sportswashing has been trained on those allegedly intent on ‘cleansing’ their reputation. Some literature has also explored the responses of fans and spectators of clubs, competitions, and/or events associated with sportswashing activities. Despite recent calls for a more relational and ‘bidirectional’ approach to scholarship surrounding ‘sportswashing’, there has been little attention paid to how sportswashing activities are discussed and represented by politicians in countries where money and reputations are allegedly laundered through sports. This article examines UK politicians’ engagement with and discussion of the term ‘sportswashing’ (and its variations) from 2020 to the current date in the formal setting of the Houses of Parliament. With a particular focus on the first debate in the UK Parliament specifically about the term and the issue, it explores how politicians construct the problem of ‘sportswashing’ and what they think can and should be done about it. Drawing on Carol Bacchi’s ‘what’s the problem represented to be?’ (WPR) approach, and literature on ‘non-decisionmaking, the article examines how sports investment strategies of certain countries are constructed by politicians in the UK, and how the concept of ‘sport’ itself in constructed in relation to politics and political aims. Inconsistencies and ambiguities in the relationship between politics and sport are revealed, and potential courses of action and important stakeholders are identified. Particular attention is paid to what remains ‘silent’ or ‘unproblematic’ in the political debates.