It's not really working because it's clear how much money they're throwing around. If we didn't know about some of the top golfers being paid 9 figures to join it'd be a different story. And the corruption within FIFA isn't exactly a secret anymore either.

When Russia hosted the Olympics the story became the games for a period and the Crimea story was put on the back burner. Russia waiting to invade Ukraine until after the Beijing games was likely orchestrated as well.

It doesn't work on everyone, but most people really only follow major news cycles. And when a sporting event is big enough it'll tend to dominate the news and the other things about that country becomes a footnote.