En fallstudie av herrarnas fotbolls-VM i Qatar 2022 - i ljuset av sportswashing och mjuk makt
(2025) STVK04 20242Department of Political Science
- Abstract
- The aim of the study is to analyze how the concept of sportswashing is understood within the context of international championship, as a tool for authoritarian states to legitimize anti-democratic values. To achieve this, a case study was made illustrating how the concept of sportswashing can be understood, both in theory and in practice, in connection to the FIFA World Cup 2022 in Qatar. Additionally, it is also of interest to acquire knowledge about how Qatar legitimizes anti-democratic values through the use of Nye’s (1990; 2004) term Soft Power.
The study analyzes official documents from FIFA and the Qatar Football Association (QFA) along with news reports from Swedish Television (SVT), the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)... (More) - The aim of the study is to analyze how the concept of sportswashing is understood within the context of international championship, as a tool for authoritarian states to legitimize anti-democratic values. To achieve this, a case study was made illustrating how the concept of sportswashing can be understood, both in theory and in practice, in connection to the FIFA World Cup 2022 in Qatar. Additionally, it is also of interest to acquire knowledge about how Qatar legitimizes anti-democratic values through the use of Nye’s (1990; 2004) term Soft Power.
The study analyzes official documents from FIFA and the Qatar Football Association (QFA) along with news reports from Swedish Television (SVT), the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and Amnesty International.
The result indicates that sportswashing was used as a method to legitimize anti-democratic values. Furthermore, the analytic discussion highlights that sportswashing was a deliberate strategy for Qatar to distract from negative narratives about the country’s human and democratic rights. Another interesting find was also that the host nation changed their sportswashing-strategy during the tournament, as a consequence of critical media reports.
Also, the results point out that FIFA and Qatar had a common opinion on how the host nation should implement soft power to strengthen their political legitimacy. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9179409
- author
- Elfman, Ellen LU
- supervisor
-
- Martin Hall LU
- organization
- course
- STVK04 20242
- year
- 2025
- type
- M2 - Bachelor Degree
- subject
- keywords
- Sportswashing, Soft Power, mjuk makt, fotbolls-VM Qatar 2022, FIFA World Cup 2022
- language
- Swedish
- id
- 9179409
- date added to LUP
- 2025-03-04 12:54:08
- date last changed
- 2025-03-04 12:54:08
@misc{9179409,
abstract = {{The aim of the study is to analyze how the concept of sportswashing is understood within the context of international championship, as a tool for authoritarian states to legitimize anti-democratic values. To achieve this, a case study was made illustrating how the concept of sportswashing can be understood, both in theory and in practice, in connection to the FIFA World Cup 2022 in Qatar. Additionally, it is also of interest to acquire knowledge about how Qatar legitimizes anti-democratic values through the use of Nye’s (1990; 2004) term Soft Power.
The study analyzes official documents from FIFA and the Qatar Football Association (QFA) along with news reports from Swedish Television (SVT), the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and Amnesty International.
The result indicates that sportswashing was used as a method to legitimize anti-democratic values. Furthermore, the analytic discussion highlights that sportswashing was a deliberate strategy for Qatar to distract from negative narratives about the country’s human and democratic rights. Another interesting find was also that the host nation changed their sportswashing-strategy during the tournament, as a consequence of critical media reports.
Also, the results point out that FIFA and Qatar had a common opinion on how the host nation should implement soft power to strengthen their political legitimacy.}},
author = {{Elfman, Ellen}},
language = {{swe}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{En fallstudie av herrarnas fotbolls-VM i Qatar 2022 - i ljuset av sportswashing och mjuk makt}},
year = {{2025}},
}