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Sport washing
- Thread starter Cityfan1977
- Start date
Another thing that gets me about this is what is the end game?
Let's say ( just for argument's sake) City fans en masse were to either boycott or demonstrate to the point where they forced Sheikh Mansour to sell up, what exactly will have been achieved?
Let's say ( just for argument's sake) City fans en masse were to either boycott or demonstrate to the point where they forced Sheikh Mansour to sell up, what exactly will have been achieved?
roxy
Well-Known Member
What I don't get is how this sportwashing thing is supposed to work. You buy a football club to project a better image of your country and to cover up internal & external issues. Then every man and his dog, most of who couldn't find the UAE on a map, become human rights experts and do nothing but give you shit because you bought a football club to better your image.
SebastianBlue
President, International Julian Alvarez Fan Club
- Joined
- 25 Jul 2009
- Messages
- 51,598
Foolproof strategy, yeah?What I don't get is how this sportwashing thing is supposed to work. You buy a football club to project a better image of your country and to cover up internal & external issues. Then every man and his dog, most of who couldn't find the UAE on a map, become human rights experts and do nothing but give you shit because you bought a football club to better your image.
I cannot believe the amount of **** I am getting off mates, acquaintances, opposition players (Saturday league), and randoms about this, though. Some of it is at vitriolic levels, without exaggeration. For instance, here is a message I actually got off a Swazi-American United supporter that I play football with occasionally (another league team), after I provided a comprehensive (lengthy) response to him saying City should be held responsible for the human rights issues in the UAE. The last bit is especially interesting, given that is exactly what he seems to want me (and all City supporters) to do. I told him as much in my response to this and also called out the absolute hypocrisy of supporting United whilst holding these positions.
And this was actually one of the more “reasonable” arguments I’ve had recently. If the UAE were looking to “sportwash” their image they’ve failed miserably.
I don't disagree with your arguments. UEFA,FIFA are all corrupt... they are not in the best position to punish Man City. I also don't like Abramovic for his connections to the Russian state. He deserves as much criticism.
The way I think about evil informs my feelings about the Gulf bosses. They seem to have engaged on a different scale of human rights abuses. Same thing with Abramovic, his friend Putin, who probably has covert money parked in Chelsea, has done some nasty things across the board. I feel very strongly about this kind of wrong doing.
The Glazers, John Henry, Shad Khan, Kroenke are imperfect or even evil. Some of them own NFL teams that IMO have damaged heads of young men for generations. I am morally opposed to the NFL owners for this reason. However, I see clear distinctions between this type of owner and the Gulf Sheikh or Russian Oligarch. Take the NFL owners for an example, while they haven't contributed positively to player brains (being polite), the players have had a choice in this. In fact they have gotten handsomely rich and will set up their kids for generations. I suspect that maybe the calculation for some of the NFL players. This is very different from what I see (frankly I would argue slavery) in the Gulf. Construction workers have their passports confiscated, are thrown in jail for complaints, are put in squalor conditions, etc. Its just evil, more than any other wrong doing the Glazers, Kroenke, John Henry, etc have done.
While we should all appreciate City's good football, we should call them out for their accounting/financial, or owner human rights transgressions. Those two actions can happen at the same time. I don't think fans are that invested in City's accounting standards anyways... the club just needs to clean up its act, period. Same thing on the sexual abuse history at clubs like City, Chelsea, Newcastle, etc...the clubs need to clean that up.
I just don't see how fans can excuse these behaviors. Pointing to problems at different clubs is a diversion tactic and an attempt to minimize the wrong doing that happened in the first place...these clubs, United included, have to be called out.
You will never hear me defend Woodward or the Glazers. I apply the same principle on Swaziland. I don't have to defend other people's wrong doing.
Cityfan1977
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- 5 Mar 2010
- Messages
- 976
The only example where sportwashing has worked is Liverpool.
Haysel ,
Standard Chartered anyone ?
Haysel ,
Standard Chartered anyone ?
mexico1970
Well-Known Member
The term 'sportswash' means nothing to anyone other than people with too much time on their hands or an agenda to push, modern nonsense.
I think it is a "sport washing".
However, what they fail to mention is most if not all owners are also guilty of "sportwashing". When Agnelli family bought Juventus, they spent ton of money at the time to be successful. It was without doubt beneficial for them and their image. Nowadays, they are even using the club to advertise brands from their group (Jeep).
At Marseille, the previous owner Robert Louis-Dreyfus bought the club because he owned Adidas. He needed to keep a "big club" in every big league (they are still keeping this strategy to this day) and Adidas was an historical partner of OM football club. He then benefited from owning that club by promoting his several companies (Direct Energie, Neuf Telecom) which were sold later on for an hefty profit. Before him, Tapie was also the owner of Adidas and owner of OM. Being a successful president of the club definitely helped him directly or indirectly in his political rise. The new owner of OM, McCourt seems to use the club as his Trojan Horse for his real estate ambition in the city.
I used those different examples to show that owners in football have many (financial, political, branding) interests when they decide to own a club on top of their love for the game. City owners are not that different. Their business model with the City Football Group is a testament of that vision (they are actually doing a great job in both financial, political and branding department) by building a global football group with the easily recognizable "City" brand. Same with PSG owners who have permeated the important sectors (political and business) while owning the only big club of an highly centralized country. The talk about buying clubs like Leeds/Roma/Malaga seem to indicate that the "City group" approach seem interesting for them.
People are only equating City and PSG as "image washing" because the owners are also monarchs. However, they are also businessmen and treat their investment with that in mind. The reality is just that any sponsor/brand (western, chinese, russian or for middle east) wants to be associated with sports because it appeals to the people. Hence why Olympics or World Cup are so appealing for countries which are ended up bidding insane money and engaging in corruption to win the organization.
However, what they fail to mention is most if not all owners are also guilty of "sportwashing". When Agnelli family bought Juventus, they spent ton of money at the time to be successful. It was without doubt beneficial for them and their image. Nowadays, they are even using the club to advertise brands from their group (Jeep).
At Marseille, the previous owner Robert Louis-Dreyfus bought the club because he owned Adidas. He needed to keep a "big club" in every big league (they are still keeping this strategy to this day) and Adidas was an historical partner of OM football club. He then benefited from owning that club by promoting his several companies (Direct Energie, Neuf Telecom) which were sold later on for an hefty profit. Before him, Tapie was also the owner of Adidas and owner of OM. Being a successful president of the club definitely helped him directly or indirectly in his political rise. The new owner of OM, McCourt seems to use the club as his Trojan Horse for his real estate ambition in the city.
I used those different examples to show that owners in football have many (financial, political, branding) interests when they decide to own a club on top of their love for the game. City owners are not that different. Their business model with the City Football Group is a testament of that vision (they are actually doing a great job in both financial, political and branding department) by building a global football group with the easily recognizable "City" brand. Same with PSG owners who have permeated the important sectors (political and business) while owning the only big club of an highly centralized country. The talk about buying clubs like Leeds/Roma/Malaga seem to indicate that the "City group" approach seem interesting for them.
People are only equating City and PSG as "image washing" because the owners are also monarchs. However, they are also businessmen and treat their investment with that in mind. The reality is just that any sponsor/brand (western, chinese, russian or for middle east) wants to be associated with sports because it appeals to the people. Hence why Olympics or World Cup are so appealing for countries which are ended up bidding insane money and engaging in corruption to win the organization.
Something that's important to note is that only Arabs sports wash. Nobody else.
The term's got crossover value too. I know a few people into watching WWE. The WWE have had dealings with Saudi Arabia recently and my friends tell me journos across the pond have started to use the term sportswashing to express their equally faux outrage over it too.
The term's got crossover value too. I know a few people into watching WWE. The WWE have had dealings with Saudi Arabia recently and my friends tell me journos across the pond have started to use the term sportswashing to express their equally faux outrage over it too.