For football and for the UK in particular, the takeover is but a microcosm of a far wider and deeper issue of how dark money has taken hold of the island. As journalist Simon Kuper so eloquently wrote in his assessment of the takeover for the Financial Times last week, “anyone surprised that Britain welcomes such shady money hasn’t been paying attention.” Suspicion is further aroused by the BBC reporting that the UK government is refusing to divulge what it told the Premier League about the takeover because it could “harm” relations with Saudi Arabia...

Sportswashing sceptics (who are often supporters of a club accused of the practice) claim that buying a football club actually shines a light on your bad behaviour and deny that sportswashing exists. This ignores the fact that a well-directed spotlight can bring significantly more positive than negative media coverage and that the aim is to achieve a net reputational benefit, not to erase bad publicity altogether...

Sportswashing is a term that we need to flesh out in more detail, but it's important to focus not only on its ability to burnish the reputation of serial human rights abusers, but also its capacity to corrupt our own democratic institutions, leading them to fall silent when we need them most.