sportswashing

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These examples of sportswashing – a term coined by Amnesty International in 2018 to describe authoritarian regimes using sports to manipulate their international image and wash away their human rights record – highlight the lengths the Saudi monarchy is willing to go to in order to rebrand themselves in the wake of recent atrocities.

Sportswashing: how Saudi Arabia lobbies the US's largest sports bodies Karim Zidan 2019
There’s a term for using sports to soften a cultural perception of something in need of an image overhaul: sportswashing.

How the NFL Sells Flag Football to Bougie Parents Anne Helen Petersen 2025