Sportswashing as a geopolitical discourse: its production, interpretation and consumption in academia

The term sportswashing is used to criticise attempts of states whose human rights and democracy records are thought not to be very clean to improve their image by hosting sports events, purchasing sports clubs, or sponsoring them. It has started to emerge in academia during a period characterised by a shift in the awarding of hosting rights for major sporting events from the global north to the global south. Scholars began engaging with the term conceptually or through case studies. The main question of this article is how the concept of sportswashing has been produced, interpreted and mobilised in academic literature, and with what geopolitical effects. In this context, scholarly articles released in peer-reviewed journals, scholarly books and book chapters are analysed through Fairclough’s CDA from a critical geopolitical perspective. The analysis reveals that while sportswashing as an action is a reality, identifying this action with certain geographies is an effort to construct a political reality. The political context in which this construction occurs is a process of restructuring in international politics in which non-Western powers are searching for rising influence. Taken together, the findings suggest that the prevailing scholarly interpretation of sportswashing mirrors wider geopolitical conflicts regarding the arrangement and significance of global space.