Saudi 'sportswashing' back in spotlight after Newcastle's historic win over PSG
It has been a stellar week for Saudi Arabian sportswashing. Last Friday, it was confirmed Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk had signed contracts for the first world heavyweight unification fight since Lennox Lewis beat Evander Holyfield in 1999.
Fury-Usyk will take place in Riyadh. On Wednesday night, Saudi’s Premier League club, Newcastle United, produced a landmark Champions League performance to overwhelm Qatar-owned Paris St Germain.
Earlier that day, FIFA - increasingly seeing itself as some sort of global, political superpower - announced only bids from Asia and Oceania would be invited for the staging of the 2034 World Cup. The Saudis immediately signalled their intention to bid and, let’s face it, you can already consider it pretty much a done deal.
It has probably been a done deal since Gianni Infantino laughed and joked with Mohammed Bin Salman at the Qatar 2022 opening ceremony in November last year. And to cap a fine few days for the Saudi sporting machine, its main man was enjoying the quintessential sporting day out on Thursday.
Chairman of Newcastle United Football Club, chairman of Al-Hilal Football Club, chairman of giant Saudi oil company Aramco, governor of the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia (owners of Newcastle United and LIV Golf), Yasir Al-Rumayyan was playing the Old Course at St Andrews in the company of Martin Slumbers, the chief executive of the Royal and Ancient, no less.
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Newcastle owner Yasir Al-Rumayyan (Getty Images)This is the same Slumbers who, a year ago, said the Saudis’ LIV Golf “is not in the best long-term interest of the sport as a whole and is entirely driven by money.” Slumbers would also add that he believed LIV “if anything, is harming the perception of our sport that we are working so hard to improve.”
Presumably, Slumbers mentioned this to Al-Rumayyan when he was walking the hallowed fairways with him on Thursday. Whatever, they all succumb in the end.
But as the Saudis’ influence on world sport widens by the day, it should also be remembered that - amidst the announcement of the big fight, that stunning Newcastle United performance, the World Cup bid and the hobnobbing at the Home of Golf - this past week brought what should be regarded as another highly significant day in Saudi’s recent history.
Newcastle's 4-1 victory over PSG was their biggest-ever Champions League win (AFP via Getty Images)Let’s allow the social media feed of BBC veteran John Simpson, one of the most respected world affairs reporters of modern times, to tell you about one particular fifth anniversary.
“Five years ago today,” Simpson posted on Monday, “a brave and outspoken journalist, Jamal Khashoggi, walked into the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Inside, a team of killers strangled him and cut up his body with a bone-saw. According to US officials, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman approved the murder.
“Turkish intelligence had bugged the Saudi consulate and later leaked the tapes of Khashoggi’s muder. You can hear the killers put a plastic bag over his head and suffocate him.”
In early 2021, in the United States, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence made this assessment, based on information gathered by the CIA. “Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman approved an operation in Istanbul, Turkey, to capture or kill Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.”
The United States still stands by that assessment. A lot of sportswashing water has flowed under the bridge since then and, granted, over time, it is easy to forget the odd bone-saw murder.
But as the Saudi takeover of sport continues apace, sometimes it is worth remembering why it sickens some people. The voices of those people are getting fainter with every ’successful’ day of sportswashing that passes - with every showcase boxing event, with every thrilling football match at St James’ Park, with every golf deal, with every new bid for one of FIFA’s gifts. But let’s hope those voices are never silenced.
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