Using sports to improve an unfavorable reputation is a method several countries where democracy can be questioned uses.
Over the years, a number of Olympics and World Cups have been awarded to such countries, the decisions to give the 2022 World Cup to Qatar and the 2022 Olympics to China, for example, have received sharp criticism.
A report was recently published in The Guardian that 6,500 guest workers have died in Qatar since the country won the World Cup, and in the World Cup qualifiers, players in Norway, Germany and Denmark, among others, have protested by wearing shirts with human rights demands during the warm-up.
And the U.S. Attorney's Office has already ruled that Qatar has paid bribes to win the championship.
Votes are raised for boycott
And with less than a year left until the Beijing Winter Olympics, there have been international calls for a boycott of the Games, due to China's human rights abuses.
The editor-in-chief and founder of the site "Sports & Society" Dan Persson has for many years written chronicles about sports in a societal perspective.
See the clip above where he develops his thoughts around the concept of sportwashing.