Rwanda’s de facto dictator Paul Kagame is notorious for imprisoning his rivals (the less lucky ones are murdered). But why would he oversee Rwandan state sponsorship of Arsenal, one of the top sides in the English Premier League, ranked in eighth place on the Forbes list of the world’s most valuable football clubs?
This is hardly the first example of “sportswashing,” so it’s worth asking some broader questions as well. Why do companies, individuals, and states seek to link their names to sporting clubs and events? What benefits do they expect to gain from it? And how should sports fans respond?
Starting with the question of “why,” two different sets of motivations were on display at this year’s European Champions League final between Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) and Inter Milan. It was a difference encapsulated in a Guardian headline — “Despotism v Capitalism.”
Inter are owned by Oaktree Capital, a US firm specializing in “distressed debt.” They acquired the club when the previous owners defaulted on loan repayments and are keen to make money from it, pure and simple. PSG, on the other hand, were acquired by the government of Qatar in 2011 and have had vast amounts of money pumped into them by various arms of the Qatari state, culminating in the victory over Inter and their first ever Champions League trophy.
Clearly, for both Qatar and PSG, the motivational factors behind ownership and sponsorship are not reducible to the immediate making of money. Indeed, injecting cash into PSG may have been a deliberate loss-making move by…
Auteur: Andy Storey
