Find me a buyer with 6+bn to throw at Utd who doesn't have skeletons in their closet.... it may be obvious like the human rights issues we see in some middle eastern states, or less obvious like the environmental cost of sourcing raw materials that can be laid at the feet of most corporations, it is way too simplistic to think that there is a buyer out there who is just an altruistic trillionaire who just wants to rescue sick animals and feed the homeless, unless we are getting bought by Santa you are going to have to accept that our new owners at best are ruining the environment at worst are responsible for atrocities against other humans, probably a mix of both.
I am not defending or upholding anybody but there are three things I would say about sports washing:
Try dispassionately viewing the actions of your own "Western" country under the same scrutiny as you view those taken by countries half the world away, that you have probably never been to and who your only knowledge of comes through the lens of western media. Look at the bubbling homophobia, anti-semitism, racism and extreme conservatism in the US over the last few years, I know the potential for where that might lead that scares me more than what I see reported in the middle east. I also know that that is not all Americans and what I see is again through the lens of the media.
I think everybody to a certain extent is guilty of blind moral superiority, our way is right, our way is best, our way is just.... therefore every other country should follow our example and if they don't they are morally corrupt etc.... in doing this we forget about the right to chose and the will of a country to exercise that right, it may seem wrongminded or abhorrent to me or you, but flip the coin and what goes on here in the UK, or in your country wherever that might be, may be just as abhorrent to other countries. Nobody goes around thinking, I know this is evil but I just cannot help myself.
Sport swashing may seem like a bad thing, and surely there is an argument to justify that point of view, I would not disagree, but then it is at the very least an acknowledgement that there is a need for sports washing, anything that can highlight and has the potential to improve social injustice has to have some merit.... the standpoint of the west is that we effectively think everybody should do what we do, be happy then sports washing is part of that assimilation process.
