Shadow Play: A New Magazine on Football and Dictators
Football is the world’s game. It’s also, increasingly, a powerful geopolitical tool.
Shadow Play is a limited-run print magazine about football and dictators from The Signal and Human Rights Foundation (HRF).
Over the past two decades, authoritarian regimes have systematically used football ownership and sponsorship to launder their reputations — the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Rwanda. This isn’t a secret. Fans have called it out. Advocacy organizations have published reports. Journalists have covered it. Supporter groups have taken action.
Many who love the game hold some of this information in fragments, but it’s hard to see the full picture. Shadow Play explores football from its village-green origins to sovereign wealth fund ownership to Iran’s Blue Girl.
The magazine features reporting from Sarath K. Ganji, director of the Autocracy and Global Sports Initiative, and writer David Goldblatt, author of The Ball Is Round.
Launched at the Oslo Freedom Forum 2026 in conjunction with HRF’s Sports and Dictators program, Shadow Play is available to buy in the United States, Canada, the UK, and select markets globally.
