Sportswashing: Money Over Culture
A Look into Sportswashing in the English Premier League (EPL)
Sports are an international language traversing cultures and creeds for the love of competition and camaraderie. However, the highest levels of professional sports have turned into lucrative businesses with another construct that knows no bounds--money. The flowing abundance of investment in players and teams often grows the respective game internationally for the better in most athletic competitions.
As lucrative business ventures, sports--especially, the world's most popular in soccer--are seeing an influx of notable investors.
Celebrity Investors in Soccer
Ryan Reynolds & Rob McElhenney
Wrexham FC
LeBron James
Liverpool FC
Ciara
Seattle Sounders FC
Elton John
Watford FC
The flow of money in the English Premier League (EPL), arguably the most popular top-flight soccer league in the world, is beyond abundant (e.g. Liverpool's LeBron and Watford's Elton John investment ties). As shown below in the interactive visualization, the likes of Manchester United, Liverpool, and Manchester City have higher market values than that of two of America's most acclaimed professional basketball teams.
The below viz depicts the top spending clubs throughout the history of the league. Notice the Chelsea and Manchester City spending spikes come the 2000s and early 2010s--a direct result of investing from rather mercurial ownerships described later in this work.
≈ $1.38 trillion
Approximate spending on players in the EPL since 1992
As profits are being reaped in the ever-growing capital of the EPL, foreign business interests are growing their stakes in the league. The EPL has seen a rather remarkable jump in foreign ownership as all ownership remained domestic British interests in the 2000-2001 season.
75% of clubs in the Premier League have some form of foreign ownership
'Sportswashing'
A practice of casting a reputation in a favorable light through sports despite the presence of some dubious features (Fruh et. al, 2023, 102-03)
Due to prideful colonial past and general Euroscepticism (i.e. identifying as English rather than European; Brexit), the English cherish British success and community in the EPL--which is often packed with nativist xenophobia towards foreign interests infiltrating the sport. However, many supporters are turning a blind eye to some of the shady dealings of their newfound foreign ownership in promotion of success on the pitch.
EPL Sportswashing Incidents
2003
Roman Abramovich
A Russian oligarch and Putin confidant, Abramovich brought Chelsea out of financial disarray and made them one of the most dominant EPL sides in the 21st century
2008
Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan
Sheikh Mansour, majority owner of the Abu Dhabi United Group, is a royal and politician from the UAE known to be friends with Syrian despot Bashar al-Asaad
City has won 8 EPL titles in its history
6 have been won during the Mansour-era
2021
Mohammed bin Salman
MBS has been praised for progressing Saudi society as crown prince and lambasted by the international community for committing war crimes and extrajudicial killings simultaneously
Newcastle United enjoying their best spell in the EPL in years
|
Season |
Position in the Table |
|---|---|
|
2022-2023 |
5 |
|
2021-2022 |
11 |
|
2020-2021 |
12 |
|
2019-2020 |
13 |
|
2018-2019 |
13 |
2023?
Al Thani Royal Family
Manchester United, Liverpool, and Tottenham Hotspur have all been linked with a buyout from Qatar's Al Thani family--a royal administration known for their clear violation of labor rights regarding the 2022 FIFA World Cup
At least 6,500 migrant workers died constructing the stadiums for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar (Pattison et. al, 2021)
Within the states these investing actors represent, their human rights and civil liberties lag tremendously compared to the rest of the world. Many of these actions towards stripping human dignity from a populace are direct consequences of the actions of these particular soccer owners mentioned above.
Foreign investment in the EPL need not be filled with corruption, illegality, and sportswashing. Ownership can be benevolent and rebuild a powerful culture of community as is the case in King Power.
Albeit hailing from the poor human rights records of Thailand, businessman Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha held no political affiliation with the ruling Thai monarchy. The CEO of the King Power duty-free company purchased Leicester City in 2010. The middling club reached the Premier League in 2014--the first time in 10 years.
5,000-to-1
Preseason odds for Leicester to win the EPL in 2015-2016 (Shooler, 2016)
Rather than buyout the competition to form super teams akin to Chelsea and Man City, Leicester built their club with excellent player recruitment and shrewd transfer business (e.g. the signings of Jamie Vardy, Kasper Schmeichel, N'golo Kante, and Riyad Mahrez) to see their well-coached side win the EPL as historic underdogs in 2015-2016.
Srivaddhanaprabha tragically passed away in a helicopter accident in 2018. His legacy of stellar leadership in the Leicester community was cemented with the display of thousands of flower wreaths from supporters in mourning of his death (Olsen, 2018).
In spite of the rise of sportswashing attempts in the EPL, the trend can be combatted with concerted efforts from you, the supporter.
Boycott Clubs
Although known for espousing hatred and xenophobic ideations in the sport, Reddit serves as a platform that can actually rally boycotts against the likes of sportswashing ownership
Support Independent Regulator of English Football (IREF)
Established in 2021, there were hopes the IREF could positively safeguard the league from dubious actors investing in clubs; however, a recent ruling from the IREF states they will not overrule the issue of state ownership of EPL clubs
Switch Club Allegiances
An extreme case for the most ravenous fans, you can perhaps root for smaller clubs who have formulated success from positive ownership, player recruitment, and coaching like that of Leicester, Brentford, and Brighton.
References
Delaney, Miguel. 2023. “New Independent Regulator Won’t Intervene on Issue of State Ownership.” February 23, 2023. https://www.yahoo.com/now/independent-regulator-won-t-intervene-170840747.html.
Freedom House. 2022. “Countries and Territories: Global Freedom Scores.” Freedom House. Accessed March 2, 2023. https://freedomhouse.org/countries/freedom-world/scores.
Fruh, Kyle, Alfred Archer, and Jake Wojtowicz. 2023. “Sportswashing: Complicity and Corruption.” Sport, Ethics and Philosophy 17 (1): 101–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/17511321.2022.2107697.
Has_dodgy_legs. 2022. “[Sam Cunningham] Newcastle Supporters Are Planning a Protest against the Club’s Owners When They Host Chelsea at St James’ Park.” Reddit Post. R/Soccer. www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/yfw1rr/sam_cunningham_newcastle_supporters_are_planning/.
Mark, Skip, David L. Cingranelli, and Mikhail Filippov. 2022. “CIRIGHTS: Human Rights Index.” CIRIGHTS. 2022. https://cirights.com/.
Olsen, Robert. 2018. “Thai Billionaire Owner Of Leicester City Dies In Helicopter Crash After Premier League Match.” Forbes. October 29, 2018. https://www.forbes.com/sites/robertolsen/2018/10/29/thai-billionaire-owner-of-leicester-city-dies-in-helicopter-crash-after-premier-league-match/.
Ozanian, Mike, and Justin Teitelbaum. 2022. “The World’s 50 Most Valuable Sports Teams 2022.” Forbes. September 8, 2022. https://www.forbes.com/sites/mikeozanian/2022/09/08/the-worlds-50-most-valuable-sports-teams-2022/.
Pattisson, Pete, Niamh McIntyre, and Imran Mukhtar. 2021. “Revealed: 6,500 Migrant Workers Have Died in Qatar since World Cup Awarded.” The Guardian, February 23, 2021, sec. Global development. https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/feb/23/revealed-migrant-worker-deaths-qatar-fifa-world-cup-2022.
Rigby, Stephen, and Alex Willis. 2020. “Legal Report Examines the Rise of Overseas Investment in English Premier League Football.” May 2020. https://www.nortonrosefulbright.com/en-gb/news/7cd3cd20/legal-report-examines-the-rise-of-overseas-investment-in-english-premier-league-football.
Shooler, Andy. 2016. “Premier League 2015/16: How Odds Changed as Leicester Claimed Title.” Sky Sports. May 3, 2016. https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11712/10261535/premier-league-2015-16-how-the-odds-changed-as-leicester-claimed-the-title.
Transfermarkt. n.d. “Premier League - Club Market Value.” Accessed March 2, 2023. https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/premier-league/marktwerteverein/wettbewerb/GB1/plus/?stichtag=2018-12-15.
Transfermarkt. n.d. “Premier League - Transfer Income and Expenditures (Detailed View).” Accessed March 2, 2023. https://www.transfermarkt.us/premier-league/einnahmenausgaben/wettbewerb/GB1/plus/1?ids=a&sa=&saison_id=&saison_id_bis=&nat=&pos=&altersklasse=&w_s=&leihe=&intern=0.
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