It comes as concern grows about the fossil fuel industry’s increasing efforts to launder its global standing through “sportswashing” — a practice, long used by nation states, of building associations with sporting events to improve tarnished reputations. In 2023, Mohammed bin Salman, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, said: “If sportswashing is going to increase my GDP by 1%, then we’ll continue doing sportswashing.” According to NWI’s Dirty Money report, Aramco, Saudi Arabia’s national oil company, was the biggest single investor in sports sponsorship identified by NWI’s report, handing out almost $1.3bn across 10 deals. The petrochemical company Ineos was second, with $777m in sponsorship deals; Shell had sponsored sports to the tune of $470m; and TotalEnergies, France’s leading oil company, had $340m in deals.
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