Sportswashing turns inward as the US faces criticism ahead of major global events
Academics and human rights experts argued at Play the Game 2025 that the US is using sport to deflect domestic criticism and restrict dissent, urging stronger oversight and ethical standards.
Now is the time to fight back against the use of sports for political repression in the United States in the run-up to the country hosting next year’s FIFA World Cup and the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.
That was the key take-out from a provocative opening session at Play the Game 2025, which detailed the extent to which sport is being used in the US as democratic norms are eroded.
While sportswashing is typically associated as an external weapon, Professor Jules Boykoff from Pacific University tackled how sport-washing is being used in the US to combat a range of domestic problems for president Donald Trump, including low poll ratings, his involvement with convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, a weak US dollar and the economy moving towards recession.
Sportswashing is not just about soft power, it’s about hard power used to suppress dissent, said Boykoff.
“ICE [the Immigration and Customs Enforcement service] has been running riot in LA and sometimes acting like an invasion force, but the LA28 organisers are going completely silent in reaction to the terror inflicted by ICE.”
Minky Worden, director of global initiatives at Human Rights Watch, agreed, saying: “ICE should not be in stadiums separating families.”
Worden addressed human rights violations against US residents and visa applicants and what can be done to address the problems. Abuses included the need to provide social media details and sex assigned at birth for visa applicants, which threatens to deter swathes of fans at the 2026 World Cup.
Worden questioned how many fans would be willing to risk thousands of dollars going to the US if they risk being denied entry.
“FIFA has the leverage to address this and to pressure Trump’s administration to roll back on this pernicious visa policy. This World Cup should not be a human rights crisis zone," she said.
Canadian journalist Karim Zidan revealed Trump’s use of sports, from football to the UFC and wrestling. Zidan shared some of the results of a new Play the Game project launched at the conference and details how a range of sports has enabled the president to weaponise his brand.
“No president has installed himself in sport to this extent to erode democratic norms,” said Zidan.
Calls for regulation and dialogue to curb political misuse of sport
Hans Natorp, president of the Danish NOC and the Sports Confederation of Denmark, presented the solution for a small National Olympic Committee as engaging in dialogue, discipline, and consistency.
James M. Dorsey, adjunct senior fellow at Singapore’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, proposed a form of regulation to prevent the political abuse of sport.
“Sport may need more than a regulator,” said Dorsey. “I would argue it needs a code of conduct supervised by a regulator.”
The session’s chair, investigative journalist Philippe Auclair, asked the panel if it was too late for pragmatism, and Zidan’s response -“the concept that sport is going to save us is nonsense” - drew a round of applause from the audience.
Natorp responded, saying: “Sport is not a peace process, but if we do sport well, it can help,” and Boykoff asked: “If we don’t do something now, when do we do it?”
Worden suggested that a consensus was needed on human rights.
“We need to look at what we agree on, and that should be a baseline, which should include not asking someone’s gender at birth or harassing journalists for their work on entry.”
Journalists are not the only potential attendees to the 2026 World Cup and the Olympic Games in Los Angeles two years later.
A delegation from the football association in Iran, which has qualified for the World Cup, were reportedly denied visas to attend the World Cup draw in Washington in December 2025.
An audience member added that 19 countries face full or partial bans on getting US visas ahead of next year’s World Cup, and Worden re-emphasised the leverage organiser FIFA has to combat this, but no one on the panel was confident that help would materialise from the world cup organisers.
