Sportswashing? Evidence from EPL Fans after Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine

• In Event: Poster Session: Political Communication

Abstract

Can investment from authoritarian regimes in sports clubs based in democratic countries reduce public criticism levied against them? To address this question, we study the case of Roman Abramovich, the famous Russian former owner of the popular Chelsea Football Club. Using 750,000 tweets written by soccer fans in the weeks after February 24th, 2022, we investigate how fans of the Chelsea Football Club discuss the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine relative to fans of other London-based English Premier League teams. Employing a fine-tuned BERT machine learning model, we classify whether tweets written by supporters of top-flight English Premier League clubs in London discuss the Ukraine-Russia conflict, denounce the Russian invasion of Ukraine, support Ukraine, and/or criticize the West. We find evidence that supporters of Chelsea football club are much less likely to discuss the conflict in Ukraine, criticize Russia for its invasion, and voice support for Ukraine. This paper presents, for the first time, empirical findings that support the sports-washing hypothesis that authoritarian regimes can reduce public criticism of their regimes by investing in popular sports clubs.

Authors

• Kevin Aslett, University of Central Florida

• Beatrice Magistro, California Institute of Technology

• Morgan Wack, Clemson University