Understanding the Sportswashing–Disempowerment Nexus

This paper considers the intersection, or nexus, between sportswashing and disempowerment in contemporary global sport. Sportswashing is commonly understood as being the strategic use of sporting events, alongside sponsorship and investment, to enhance international reputations. However, there are other implications relating to power and visibility that also need to be considered. Our paper discusses how strategies to enhance reputation often intersect with structural inequalities and the experiences of communities impacted by sporting mega-events. The findings indicate that, in addition to being a reputation-building tool, sportswashing is also a mechanism that shapes whose narratives are heard, whose interests are prioritized and whose voices are marginalized as a result. The consequential disempowerment that can occur may take many forms including the displacement of communities, the exploitation of the labor force, the suppression of protest and resistance, and the erosion of collective agency. We argue that sportswashing and disempowerment are in fact mutually reinforcing processes, and so we conclude by proposing a conceptual model for understanding the core elements of this important and potentially dangerous relationship.