The dirt on Sportswashing

Learned a new phrase last night at dinner in Old Town Pasadena-- Sportswashing. 

I also learned that sending a salad back to the kitchen is a risky endeavor.

Sportswashing came up during a discussion of the World Cup. It's in Qatar of all places. It should be noted Qatar is to human rights as ex Precedent Shitgibbon is to ethics, honesty and green vegetables. You can learn more here.

On the day of this writing, Qatar had just prohibited the sale of alcohol at all 9 venues built for the WC festivities, which will be significantly less festive. I'm not much a soccer fan and prefer my football played the American way, with trash talk, plastic armor wear and 300+ lbs. men crushing the living shit out of each other. 

But what I do know? 

Well, I do know that soccer fans love their beer. 

Though in all liklihood, how many soccer hooligans are going to board a British Airways flight to hop on down to sun baked Qatar? Knowing the tendency of fair-skinned Brits, they'd need to pack huge jugs of SPF 50 sunscreen just to step onto the tarmac.

Sportswashing, that is the thinly-veiled affiliation with international sporting events in order to curry PR points with the unwashed masses, has been around for quite a while. 

I'm hoping the photo of Herr Hitler at the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games doesn't land me in the digital slammer but the notion of a fascist, antisemitic country trying to bolster its international image is very apparent. Which is a real shame because it's my understanding the 1930's produced a bevy of talented Jewish athletes. you know, before (((we))) got into the global domination game via worldwide media and banking control. 

You're welcome, Ye.

Perhaps the most egregious display of Sportswashing comes to us from the wonderful world of golf, which I'm not so sure should be considered athletics. I don't think anyone could look at Ray Floyd and John Daly (again, I'm dating myself) and say, "Now, those two guys are athletes."

Of course I'm referring to the breakaway LIV tour sponsored by the world's number 1 ranked abuser of human rights, Saudi Arabia. And naturally LIV is associated with the world's number 1 abuser of all-you- can-eat dessert bars, ex Precedent Shitgibbon. 

These cads, in their plaid pants and designer polo shirts, left the PGA to give credibility to a sham tour designed for the express purpose of detracting from Saudi atrocities. Does the Never Forget Red Hat crowd not recall that 15 of the 19 perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks were from this overheated hellhole?

Not to mention their abusive treatment of women and the criminalization of the LGBTQ community. It is 2022, god, if he or she or it exists, does not give a rat's ass what two men or two women or two women and one man or two men and one woman or two men and an unspecified furry, do behind closed doors. 

Why on Earth are we deriving our moral code according to the whims and fancies of ignorant Abrahamic shepherds and goat herders from 1500, 2000 or even 3000 years ago? 

That's all I have to say on Sportswashing. Oh and that I probably won't be watching a minute of the 2022 World Cup. 

Mostly because (apologies to my friends Paul and Colin) it's not really football, is it?