It all comes out in the (sports) wash. Oil money. For many, it’s the filthiest of lucre and it’s been reshaping the world of elite sports since the turn of the millennium. Professional football, Formula 1 and, more recently, golf, are amongst the most visible examples. However, if the current rumours are true –and there’s little reason to think they aren’t – road cycling may soon be joining them, thanks to the arrival of Saudi Arabia’s cashed up Public Investment Fund, or PIF. Which, of course, brings us to the ever-so-complicated topic of sports washing.
A close cousin of ‘green washing’ (first coined in the 1980s by American environmentalist, Jay Westerveld), sports washing refers to the forging of commercial partnerships that, in return for much-needed funding, help to shift public opinions about organisations, brands or products, so they are viewed as being perhaps more socially and ethically palatable than they really are.
In this way, the concept of sports washing certainly isn’t new. Ancient Rome used gladiators and
