The sportswashing fatigue is real

As PSG finally lay their hands on the Champions League trophy, chalk up another victory to the art of sportswashing.

Not many words have become as overused and bastardised in recent years as much as “sportswashing”.

An honourable few fight the good fight putting the motivations and scheming of government states into question, highlighting how despots and billionaires are using sport for reputation and image control, whilst several excellent books have been written on how the likes of Saudi Arabia and their Gulf neighbours have hijacked sport for soft power and image laundering.

But the word has lost so much of its punch. When sportswashing gets thrown about it’s becoming harder and harder for your eyes not to glaze over in total resignation. The reality is the vast, vast majority of sports fans, casual or otherwise, do not give a crap about who owns what in sport, who is pulling the strings, or why. They just want to watch sport. And really, who can blame them?

A tale of two departures

Sportswashing fatigue is real. And Paris Saint-Germain’s Champions League success at the weekend is the latest chapter of the whole endeavour beating many of us into submission.

Because frankly, in a football sense, PSG were tremendous. Truly excellent, from start to finish. Inter were poor, no doubt, but PSG made them look like a third round cup minnow and gave them the greatest beating the European final has ever seen. They have a star-studded squad of largely likeable players, including the immense 19-year-old and man-of-the-match Désiré Doué. Khvicha Kvaratskhelia is just a phenomenal footballer. Vitinha is a joy to watch and the heir apparent to Luka Modric. Ousmane Dembele has shed his early career narrative and totally reinvented himself, becoming an integral cornerstone of a Champions League winning side.

And Luis Enrique, of course. I mean, how could you possibly cheer against him? All in all, PSG are a young team void of ego with a likeable manager, all the ingredients of a team that should warrant people’s support.

But at the root of it all is the phenomenal Doué, the young French starlet putting his name in the same category as the greatest young players in the planet, cost PSG €50million from Rennes. They were able to move from a position of strength to sign Kvaratskhelia in January, in a deal that will cost them the guts of €80million. They had the league wrapped up months in advance which allowed them to ease into this game whilst Inter, an aging side at the end of its cycle, ran out of steam coming down the home stretch in Serie A, relinquishing the title to Napoli.

Rio Ferdinand, in thankfully his last call on TNT Sport, extolled this as a “win for football” on commentary. One last piece of mealy-mouthed nonsense before he departs for something new.

No, this is a victory for Qatar and Nasser Al-Khelaifi, at the helm of the Parisian club since its acquisition by his country's sovereign wealth fund 14 years ago. It is another footballing accomplishment for the state that somehow landed a World Cup where upwards of 6,500 migrant workers died in order to fulfill it. It is the long awaited dream for Al-Khelaifi, the head of the European Clubs Association where he used the flopped Super League as a chance to step into the immeasurable amount of power he wields in European football. He was in the middle of the celebrations on Saturday night, held aloft by his devoting players giving him the moment he craved.

But as I write all that, I’m alarmingly aware that people not only don’t care, but that many others just can’t find the energy to care anymore. I’ve had several conversations with people that celebrated PSG’s performance where even myself, totally fatigued by it all, just has to admit that they were pretty good, well done to PSG.

But PSG’s success is just the latest in the incessant machine of sportswashing. Saudi Arabia oversaw Newcastle ending its long trophy drought in this season’s League Cup campaign. While we still come to terms with the fallout of the Qatar World Cup in 2022, we prepare for a MAGA World Cup in 2026 and this summer’s Club World Cup bonanza, as Gianni Infantino schmoozes with Donald Trump and Arab leaders.

On the horizon is the 2034 World Cup in Saudi Arabia, the jewel in the crown of their grand sporting endeavours.

In the Premier League, we approach a US majority of ownership groups. While easier to digest than Gulf-state influence, these groups are far from benevolent. Private equity, leveraged buyouts, and shadowy consortiums carry their own forms of moral murkiness.

As Qatar’s image was criticised amid reports of thousands of migrant worker deaths, restrictive laws on LGBTQ+ rights, and limited free expression, PSG have, eventually, climbed to the top of the sporting pyramid in football. They’re likely to stay many more years with the wealth of talent and new found appreciation for the collective over Galactico vanity and harbouring high-paid mercenaries and primadonnas and players past their best.

And the sportswashing train rolls on, undefeated and accelerating. So much confliction of thought and cognitive dissonance as we are left tied up in knots, unable to keep up with it all in total moral exhaustion. Sometimes its just easier to watch good teams, enjoy great goals and appreciate football and sport for its beauty. PSG have done that and delivered their first ever Champions League trophy in the process.

But let’s not pretend this is just a story about Paris, or Qatar, or even football. It’s the latest reminder that the spectacle will always win. That if the football is good enough then almost anything can become blurred.

Because in the end, sportswashing doesn’t need your approval or even your critcisms. It just needs your attention. If you’re watching, if you’re sharing the stories or the celebrations, if you are getting beaten down and fatigued by it all, it means the project is working.