"Sportswashing is a term used to describe the practice of individuals, groups, corporations, or governments using sports to improve reputations tarnished by wrongdoing. A form of propaganda, sportswashing can be accomplished through hosting sporting events, purchasing, or sponsoring sporting teams, or participating in a sport."
Follow the money. Nobody that's profiting from Saudi Arabia will fuck with them no matter how horrible they are so long as business is lucrative. That's why they get a free pass to do whatever they want.
Again, sport in the US mostly own by corporation. Every other country, would host many events, yet when the Saudi do it, it is a sportswashing. What funny is, sport never stopped people from ignoring any other acts the saudi do. Which make this more like people crying because someone else have more money and willing to spend it on these activities taking them away from the US.
The reason it is sports washing is because they have human rights abuses to be hidden. If you shred documents because they have your personal information on it, it fine. If you shred documents because they are evidence of a crime, then that is obstruction of justice. Same principle applies here.
I think the idea is that people talk about the country in a positive context, such as sports. Trying to stem the onslaught of negative news regarding human rights, OPEC etc. But what do I know, I'm not a doctor
there's something darkly hilariously ironic that the failing petro-empires of the world will sponsor sports so people keep worrying about adults playing children's games, instead of the enormous, world-wide multi-generational struggle that surviving climate catastrophe, created by their petro-billions, will require.