The State Of Sportswashing

On Dec. 5, 2025, FIFA President Gianni Infantino presented Donald Trump with the inaugural FIFA Peace Prize, nominally for Trump's "tireless efforts to bring people together in a spirit of peace." I found myself less interested in the cynicism of placating Trump with the sort of bribe one would bestow upon a recalcitrant 10-year-old—nobody considers FIFA the imprimatur of global peace—and more interested in the physical award itself.

The FIFA statue is a miniature of a hulking bronze sculpture, on display at the UN, entitled Thoughts and Desires. It offers a hackneyed and vacuous statement of connectivity, depicting five bronze hands reaching up to touch a globe. The viewer is supposed to see the statue and think, Wow, people are important on the planet , and be moved. OK. It was made by Azerbaijani artists Salhab Mammadov and Ali Ibadullayev, who occupy presumably cushy propagandizer roles in the repressive, brutal Azerbaijani state under dictator Ilham Aliyev. The bulk of Mammadov and Ibadullayev's work is tied to the glorification of their national project, a mission the FIFA statue is coherent with, if less overtly. This particular duo helping this particular international corruption syndicate–slash–soccer concern with honoring this particular villain tells one part of the story of what is commonly understood as sportswashing; the other part of the story is told by the fact that their sculpture is hideous.

What is sportswashing? In general usage, it refers to actions undertaken by malign organizations (usually though not exclusively repressive governments) in an attempt to cleanse their international reputations—blighted by things like genocide, the kidnapping and imprisonment of journalists, or gangster-state rapacity—through the sponsorship of sports. It's like giving a dog their heartworm pill wrapped in peanut butter: The pill is, for example, a willingness to hear both sides of the debate about executing teenagers who criticize the Saudi government, and the peanut butter is Formula 1 racing. Though prominent examples of the practice can be found throughout international sporting history—we're 90 years out from the 1936 Hitler Olympics—the term only came into prominence in the last decade, first in reference to the Azerbaijan state using the 2015 European Games (among other international events) to launder its increasingly concerning reputation.