Are major sports tournaments a political whitewash?

Many people are glued to their screens these days to follow the best footballers of the continent competing in the UEFA Men’s European Championship. This is a massive event since football is the most popular sport in the world. However, international sports tournaments that are in the spotlight at any given time have various aspects that are not always apparent. Some elements in sports are not just intertwined with culture but also with politics, and this is currently being researched at the University of Iceland.

“I am studying the political significance of major sporting events, such as the European and World Championships in football and the Olympic Games. My approach is to assess public memory regarding these events and their media coverage. My research spans events hosted by more than one country simultaneously, like the last men's Euros, or entirely by a single nation. In this context, I am examining events comparatively organized by both democratic countries and  authoritarian regimes.”

So says Vitaly Kazakov, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Iceland, about his intriguing research, which he is currently working on, involving sports and various political challenges. The research is conducted at the School of Humanities and is supported by RANNÍS.

Vitaly, born in Russia but raised in Canada, has a broad perspective on his subjects. He notes that major sports events generate enormous interest among the public and media, unparalleled by other events. These tournaments not only capture attention but also lead to significant expenditures and investments, alongside sparking intense political debates and even conflicts. Vitaly explains that sports and politics are intertwined in various ways, with mutual influences where politics impact sports and vice versa.

“When Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, one immediately saw calls in posts from news outlets like BBC and the Guardian in the UK to exclude Russian sports teams from international competitions and to relocate the Champions League Final from St. Petersburg.”

Sports, conflicts, crises, and politics interwoven

Vitaly mentions that despite the complexity when political challenges intersect with major sports events, there is a scholarly distinction between events interpreted to solely bring joy, like sports tournaments, and events that have an entirely political nature and are associated with potential challenges, conflicts, wars, or crises.

“It is thus very surprising that sports are often not taken seriously as an academic subject in political science and media studies alike despite their enormous appeal, public interest, and extensive media coverage.”

Vitaly says that reality is sometimes complex when examining both politics and sports. For instance, when the Icelandic men's national team knocked out the English team in 2016 from the European Championship in France, the  British and international reactions also included Brexit as an important political context for the embarrassing loss by the English team – as the Brexit vote and the famous match happened in the same week. Icelanders and many other nations attended the World Cup in Russia in 2018 despite the conflicts in Eastern Ukraine. Additionally, people travelled across the continent for the pan-European Euro 2020 tournament in the midst of a pandemic.

“Sports, conflicts, crises, and challenges are intertwined, as prominently evident in the media. We need to scrutinize this complex relationship to understand its significance. We also need to understand the actual political effects of major sports events and how they shape people’s understanding of the political world around them.”

“Sportswashing and soft power”

Vitaly is fully engaged in his project these days, with no shortage of material or motivation as sports tournaments are constantly in the media spotlight. Currently, not only is the European Championship taking place, but the best footballers of South America are also competing on the continent’s finest pitches at Copa America.

“I am looking back in time, examining the interplay between Iceland, England, and Russia’s fans and media personnel’s experiences during the 2016 European Championship, the Russian World Cup in 2018, and the Euro 2020. I am exploring how these significant sports events overlap with Brexit, the war between Russia and Ukraine, and the Covid-19 pandemic. I am excited to see how different political and media environments, along with experiences from these tournaments, shape public understanding of sports events on one hand and political challenges or crises on the other,” says Vitaly.

In his research, Vitaly uses concepts like “soft power” and “sportswashing,” the latter of which relates to the term “whitewashing” commonly used in Iceland and other countries. According to the Árni Magnússon Institute, the term “whitewashing” is most often used metaphorically to describe attempts to cover up mistakes or misconduct, or to clean up accusations of harmful or criminal activities. “Sportswashing” then refers to using sports to cover up something that should not be visible. “Soft power,” on the other hand, is not coercive but relies on diplomatic means to achieve success, where culture stimulates change rather than the use of force.