I didn’t know that sportswashing had been coined, never mind studied. I suppose a happy side effect of having no interest in sports is that it’s ineffective.
Edit to add: It does seem to be fairly new term:
The first usage of the term "sportswashing" may have been applied to Azerbaijan and its hosting of the 2015 European Games in Baku.
I’ve heard people use the term since at least 2012 in football mostly in regards to UAE based ownership of Manchester City, but also Qatari ownership of PSG. Definitely been used more and more recently though.
Honestly most of the time I feel like it is classic eurocentric/racist stuff because the term is basically only ever applied to ownership or funding that is not from EU/UK/US.
I’m sure there is some genuine “sportswashing” going on that could be studied but I find it hard to believe that the Saudi Public Investment Fund decided to buy Newcastle or spend billions on golf competitions because they want random sports watching westerners to have a better opinion of the monarchy, which seems to me to be what the term sportswashing suggests
