Sports events as economic and political instruments: unpacking the dynamics of image creation through sport

Introduction: This article examines how sports events are conceptualized in scholarly literature as economic and political instruments of image creation, soft power projection, sport governance, reputational positioning, and sportswashing. Methods: The study adopts a systematic mapping/scoping review design using bibliometric performance analysis and science mapping to examine publications indexed in Scopus and Web of Science between 2015 and 2025. Results: The analysis identifies key thematic clusters, international collaboration patterns, and relationships between sport events, infrastructure development, governance, and political communication. The findings show that sportswashing appears as an embedded concept within a wider research landscape rather than as an isolated research stream. Contemporary image-building through sport is increasingly materialized through stadium construction, infrastructure megaprojects, and urban redevelopment. Discussion: Hosting global sporting events can enhance economic visibility and soft power, but it also raises ethical concerns, intensifies spatial inequalities, and produces uneven developmental outcomes. Identified research gaps include limited quantitative evidence on long-term economic effects, insufficient assessment of governance transparency, and underdeveloped comparative analysis of infrastructural legacies as political tools.