The Postdoctoral Researcher’s study, published in the Journal of Politics, reveals no image gains for Qatar but backlash against German media and institutions.
Autocracies increasingly host international sports events to exploit the unique media attention and improve their international reputation. To avoid complicity in these authoritarian publicity stunts, journalists in democratic countries share critical content alongside the tournaments informing readers about the illiberal practices of the host regimes.
By surveying Germans just before and after the start of the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, Christian Gläßel and co-authors Adam Scharpf (University of Copenhagen) and Pearce Edwards (Louisiana State University) have conducted “the first social scientific test of whether authoritarian host regimes win the desired image boost through sports mega-events.”
Gläßel and his co-authors explore three potential paths through which international sports events in autocracies may influence foreign spectators:
- Changing views of the host country through the tournament’s glamour and positive emotions
- Increasing sympathy for the host’s region more generally
- Fueling mistrust and criticism of the viewers’ home country due to perceived discrepancies between the shiny pictures from the tournament and the domestic media’s critical reporting
The survey results are revealing. The event did not deliver any short-term image gains for Qatar, but slightly increased sympathy for the Arab region. However, the findings reveal that the World Cup undermined respondents’ trust in German media and led to growing skepticism towards domestic institutions and minority policies. Analyses of online discourse suggest that this backlash may indeed be attributed to the discrepancies between the dazzling images of the spectacle and the critical reports, which many perceived as disproportionate and insincere.
“These results highlight a complex dynamic,” explains Gläßel. “While sportswashing may not bolster the host nation's image as intended, it can influence viewers' perceptions in other significant ways.” The study underscores the delicate balance journalists in democratic countries must strike. To avoid inadvertently supporting authoritarian image campaigns or undermining their own credibility, media coverage must be both critical and perceived as fair by audiences.
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