DCU-led research investigates how fans legitimise the sportswashing of their club
A DCU-led study has revealed that a football club’s fans can be particularly significant contributors to, and actors within, sportswashing. The study examines in detail an under-researched area of longer term investment-based strategy of sportswashing, using English Premier League team Manchester City (MCFC) as an example. The study used Python programming to analyse thousands of comments from Manchester City fans in a popular online forum.
Dr Gary Sinclair said:
“Fans defending their club and de-legitimising those who criticise them is not new and frequently trivial. However, this becomes important when fans are put in the unenviable position, as they frequently are in modern football, of withdrawing their support or in some direct or indirect way endorsing regimes that are connected with human rights abuses. Football fan groups are highly influential. Hence, understanding how they are co-opted, resist or actively endorse these types of sportswashing projects is vitally important.”
In-depth research
- The research looked at a popular online forum active for more than twenty years
- Over 77,000 registered members in the forum
- Analysis of three key events
- 2019 FA Cup final victory and completion of domestic treble
- A Court of Arbitration for Sport ruling overturning UEFA sanctions in 2020
- Club announcement of record profits in 2022
- Analysis based on 12,500 user comments spanning four years
In the media
Dr Sinclair spoke to BBC News, Second Captains and The42.ie, while Dr Kearns appeared on The Pat Kenny Show on Newstalk. They have also co-authored an RTE Brainstorm article.
The study also found that fans undermine or ‘de-legitimise’ perceived opponents of MCFC or arguments against the ownership. Fans of rival clubs are commonly depicted as spoiled by the recent and historical success of their clubs, and their reactions to MCFC are therefore seen to be founded on jealousy and fear rather than on any substantive objections to the club's ownership or impact on the wider sport. Human rights abuses associated with the UAE government and the ownership are raised and dismissed through comparisons with other regimes, usually involved in some capacity with a rival club.
Dr Colm Kearns says:
“Fan support of the ownership of their club by a sportswashing regime shouldn't be taken for granted or overlooked. The history of football is replete with examples of fans resisting and protesting their club's hierarchy. That certain fans have not only embraced their club's ownership by a repressive state, but also adopted a hostile attitude to perceived critics of this arrangement, is a real concern for football fans, journalists and scholars alike.”
The study also found that fans undermine or ‘de-legitimise’ perceived opponents of MCFC or arguments against the ownership. Fans of rival clubs are commonly depicted as spoiled by the recent and historical success of their clubs, and their reactions to MCFC are therefore seen to be founded on jealousy and fear rather than on any substantive objections to the club's ownership or impact on the wider sport. Human rights abuses associated with the UAE government and the ownership are raised and dismissed through comparisons with other regimes, usually involved in some capacity with a rival club.
Media critics are dismissed in both general and specific terms. Notably, several sport journalists have attested to instances of fans of a sportswashed club aggressively defending their ownership regimes via social media and other online platforms. The media industry at large is also characterised as being compromised by money, and that integrity has been eroded by pleasing advertisers and chasing readership.
The study found that fans also use the term sportswashing themselves, often in derisory terms, which helps to dismiss it. Discussion on the forum has legitimated MCFC's ownership regime as benevolent, savvy and business-minded to the extent that there is largely no need for fans to reject accusations of sportswashing. The term is treated as facile slander, employed by MCFC's ‘enemies’ to taint their success. In de-legitimating the club's critics as jealous, greedy and ethically compromised, forum users succeed in de-legitimating the notion of criticising the club's ownership.