This month, the World Cup will kick off in Qatar, the first Middle Eastern country to host the event. This is a historic moment of pride for both Qatar and the Middle East, a region that has been unfairly overlooked in world football (or soccer for Americans). Still, Qatar’s lack of both soccer history and sporting infrastructure, as well as its minuscule size, make it a seemingly bizarre choice to host the world’s most-watched sporting event. Qatar’s underlying motive drove it to bribe its way to hosting the tournament: like many authoritarian countries, Qatar is attempting to launder its world image through sports.

Qatar is betting big that this will be a successful rebranding for the country, spending an estimated $220 billion on the tournament. But its success in drawing the world’s attention could also be an opportunity to expose an expected 5 billion viewers to Qatar’s human rights record and the larger issue of sportswashing.

Read the full article in Inkstick.