Saudi Arabia world's 'worst sportswasher' after Newcastle and LIV Golf deals

29 November 2023 , 07:00

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Saudi Arabia took over Newcastle United through PIF in October 2021 (Image: PAUL ELLIS/AFP via Getty Images)

Saudi Arabia has been crowned as the world’s worst sportswasher following a huge push in the sector across 2023.

The Middle Eastern country has invested millions into sport via its ownership of Newcastle United and LIV Golf through the Public Investment Fund, which is also funding the lavish spending to make the Saudi Pro League the destination of choice for players chasing a payday. The Kingdom has made a splash in the sport of boxing by forking out to stage high-profile fights, like Tyson Fury vs Francis Ngannou, in the country.

Saudi crown prince Mohammed Bin Salman – the man who approved the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi according to the White House – has overseen the move into sport in an effort to diversify the country’s economy away from oil and receive some positive PR. Following significant lobbying, the country will host the 2034 World Cup after FIFA quietly changed its rules to pave the way for another controversial tournament.

As well as luring the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar and Jordan Henderson to play in the country, a recent report by Play the Game revealed Saudi Arabia has more than 300 sponsorship deals in place across sport. State-owned oil and gas giant Aramco – the world’s biggest corporate greenhouse gas emitter – is one good example, using its sponsorship of the Cricket World Cup and Indian Premier League to greenwash its image.

Its critics claim Saudi Arabia’s sports strategy, led by PIF chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan, is being implemented to deflect from legitimate concerns about human rights abuses in the country. Saudi Arabia executed 81 people in a single day in 2022, killed hundreds of unarmed Ethiopian migrants on the Yemen-Saudi border last year and has imprisoned womens’ rights campaigners. A US senate committee hearing was told in September that Newcastle’s owners PIF were “directly involved” in human rights abuses.

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Saudi Arabia has now been called out for its sportswashing by The Bad Sport Awards, whose panel cited “the Kingdom’s persistent breaches of human rights, its role as a major fossil fuel producer and blocker of climate action at the international level” in handing the Kingdom its top award.

Gianni Infantino is close to Saudi Arabia's crown prince Mohammed bin Salman (Christopher Pike/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The country’s de facto ruler Bin Salman is unlikely to pay much attention to such criticism. “If sport washing is going to increase my GDP by way of 1 per cent, then I will continue doing sport washing,” Bin Salman told Fox News in September. “I don’t care … I’m aiming for another 1.5%. Call it whatever you want, we’re going to get that 1.5 per cent.”

He said investment into sport was simply being made to increase tourism to Saudi Arabia. “We can see tourism used to contribute to Saudi GDP 3 per cent, now it’s 7 per cent,” he said. “Sport used to be 0.4 per cent, now it’s 1.5 per cent, so it’s economic growth, it’s jobs, it’s a calendar, it’s entertainment, it’s tourism. You can see that now we are ranked number one in the Middle East, six years ago we were not in top 10 in the Middle East.”

PIF chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan launched the breakaway LIV Golf tour (Charlie Crowhurst/LIV Golf/Getty Images)

Andrew Simms, co-founder of the Badvertising campaign, said: “While Saudi Arabia might not care about admitting to sportswashing the stain it leaves on the climate and human rights, we believe this should blow the final whistle on sport promoting major polluters. Athletes and the games they play are being used as billboards by some of the world’s biggest polluters and petrostates.

“Not only does that allow those acting in bad faith to brush-up their reputations, it pushes products and high-carbon lifestyles that are destroying the very environment sport depends upon. By accepting sponsorship from major polluters, sport is just collecting money to pay for its own funeral. If sport is to thrive in our heating world, it has to banish polluting sponsors from the field. The Bad Sport Awards show where to start.”

Felix Keith