Why and how should sport organisations deal with their difficult pasts?

This paper explores why and how Western-based sport organisations deal with difficult pasts within sport tourism spaces, specifically at stadiums, tours and museums. As part of a longitudinal international research agenda, in this piece, grounded in the principles of Critical Heritage Studies and structured under a case study methodology, I discuss the politics of remembering and forgetting placed by sport organisations around histories linked to racism, authoritarianism, and human rights abuses. Drawing on diverse contemporary international case studies, it serves as a guide to why and how sport organisations can critically engage with the more painful chapters of their histories, while highlighting the challenges, importance, and benefits of doing so. In addition, this paper sheds light on the role that local cultural, political, and/or economic considerations play in the remembrance and/or suppression of these pasts. Ultimately, it calls for an ethical engagement with difficult heritage, urging sport organisations to embrace their social responsibility and the urgent need to become ‘comfortable with the uncomfortable’.