Simon Chadwick

Simon Chadwick

ByAndrea Crafoord

Simon Chadwick is a Professor of AfroEurasian Sport, with three decades of experience in the global sport industry. He is co-editor of The Geopolitical Economy of Sport: Power, Politics, Money and The Geopolitical Economy of Football: Where Power Meets Politics and Business, and he co-founded and co-directs the China Soccer Observatory at the University of…

Is the 2026 World Cup a Case of Sportswashing?

Is the 2026 World Cup a Case of Sportswashing?

ByAndrea Crafoord

Sportswashing has become one of the most reached-for words in modern sports journalism, shorthand for the practice of using sponsorships and mega-events to distract from a state’s less flattering reputation. It is a word almost always aimed outward, at Gulf monarchies buying up European football clubs, at China’s Olympic ceremonies or at Russia’s staging of…