Participation Laundering in Sports Governance: When Consultation Becomes Evidence of Legitimacy Without Meaningful Influence

Sports organisations can display extensive participation while retaining concentrated control over decisions. This conceptual policy paper proposes participation laundering as an analytical description of a specific practice: using the visible involvement of stakeholders to imply endorsement or shared authority that the process did not provide. It distinguishes this practice from legitimate consultation, ordinary disagreement and tokenism. A five-part diagnostic examines representation, timing, information, influence and accountability. The paper recommends clear mandates, a decision-response record, protected dissent and proportionate decision rights. It offers hypotheses and a practical assessment framework rather than empirical findings about a named organisation. This is an author-issued conceptual policy paper and has not been peer reviewed. All illustrative scenarios are hypothetical; no original interviews or quantitative dataset are reported.