EDITORIAL Sportswashing sadly heading into dry cycle

• Published date: 04 May 2024
• Publication title: Daily Post, The (Rotorua, New Zealand)

According to the Daily Mail, Qatar’s Sovereign Wealth fund has offered World Rugby £800 million ($1.62billion) to host the Nations Championship four times over a period of eight years from 2026. It’s a surprise it has taken rugby this long to look at joining the growing list of sports to take Middle East money

On the face of it, playing any form of rugby in Qatar makes little sense. Qatar only played their first rugby international in 2011, a 26-8 win over Jordan. Since then, they have amassed a winning record of 88.24 per cent, greater than the All Blacks, playing the majority of their games in Division II of the Asia Rugby Championship. The nation is ranked 94th in the world — so you could argue there are 93 better options. But do any of those 93 nations have a spare $1.6b lying around?

The “growing the game” argument doesn’t wash. But wash is the operative word around the likes of Qatar and Saudi Arabia’s big-money investments in sport.

Sportswashing, simply put, is when nations, governments or corporations use the funding and hosting of a sports event to help improve a tarnished reputation. Both Qatar and Saudi Arabia have shocking women’s rights records but “hey, look over here at this shiny new stadium featuring some of the greatest names in sport”.

First there was Fifa, who in 2010 tiptoed around a moral line on which VAR would have made a speedy offside call, by awarding Qatar hosting rights for the men’s 2022 World Cup. That opened the door.

The Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund (PIF) then tore apart the fabric of professional golf by offering obscene amounts of money to multi-millionaire golfers to join the LIV Golf League. Talking of rich sportspeople, Lionel Messi is a brand ambassador for the Saudi Tourism...