The sky has just fallen on the heads of sports fans who have a modicum of moral sense and political awareness.
In the last week they had two very bad news.
First, Manchester City, owned by investors from the United Arab Emirates, won the Champions League in soccer on Saturday. This is the first time that a club-state has been crowned the best club in Europe, and therefore in the world.
Second bad news, with even more serious consequences: Saudi Arabia has just bought an entire sport, golf, by merging its LIV circuit with the PGA.
These are two sad victories for the sports washing (sports laundering), this strategy where countries, usually totalitarian regimes or investors associated with these regimes, buy teams or host prestigious events.
To increase their influence on the international scene. And to make people forget their systematic violations of human rights.
In June 2022, Saudi Arabia inaugurated the LIV International Golf Tour to compete with the PGA, a league that had a monopoly on top-level golf. With contracts worth hundreds of millions, it has attracted some of the best golfers in the world.
A year later, Saudi Arabia has won its bet: the PGA and LIV announced their merger last Tuesday. There is talk of a merger where the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia is a minority shareholder for the moment, but no one is fooled. Saudi Arabia will invest more billions in the new entity over the next few years. Don’t be surprised if she one day becomes the majority shareholder. Put simply, Saudi Arabia is taking control of one of the most popular sports in the world.
It’s the biggest bleaching move by sport so far.
With this investment, the kingdom of Mohammed bin Salman wants to increase its influence and restore its image in the West, particularly in the United States. Make people forget that it is the authoritarian regime that killed journalist Jamal Khashoggi, that does not respect human rights or the rights of women, that treats homosexuality as a crime that can lead to the death penalty, that imposes death penalty for minors. Fifteen of the nineteen terrorists of September 11, 2001 had Saudi citizenship.
THE sports washing is also well established in European soccer.
The United Arab Emirates hold, through a member of the royal family, Manchester City, winner of four of the last five British championships and European champion since Saturday.
Qatar owns Paris Saint-Germain, hosted the World Cup in 2022, and Qatari investors are currently finalists to buy Manchester United.
Saudi Arabia bought the Newcastle team, wants to host the World Cup in 2030 and gave golden bridges to Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema to end their careers in Saudi Arabia.
PHOTO OLI SCARFF, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE ARCHIVES
Manchester City’s Kevin De Bruyne celebrates his goal against Arsenal April 26 in a Premier League match in England.
THE sports washing threatens parity between the teams. Either, the richest European clubs have always had disproportionate financial means compared to their rivals. But today, few clubs can keep up with the financial rhythm imposed by the club-states. The Premier League also accuses Manchester City of having cheated by not respecting the rules of financial “fair play” for nine years. For anyone who cares about a certain equality of opportunity, this dispute is of paramount importance…
Another major problem: fans are taken hostage. Since the new PGA/LIV Tour is a monopoly, golf fans with a sense of morality will face an unfortunate dilemma: a) implicitly enriching and supporting Saudi Arabia; b) stop watching golf.
What can be done against this kind of bleaching ? Unfortunately not much, apart from being aware of it and denouncing it. In the West, you need very serious reasons to restrict the freedom to invest. It is hard to see the countries of Europe designating their soccer teams as a sensitive sector in terms of national security…
Granted, one can hardly expect professional sport, where money is king, to be morally purer than the rest of society.
The West buys oil from Saudi Arabia, the world’s second largest producer. Because we can’t do otherwise.
After playing tough in the election campaign, US President Joe Biden bowed to Saudi Arabia. Because he needed his oil and his support in the war in Ukraine.
Canada sells 15 billion military armored tanks to Saudi Arabia.
And now, totalitarian regimes are slowly taking control of large parts of our professional sports industry, which has a huge presence in the daily lives of many people.
It will no doubt be done in a slow and pernicious way, but there will be harmful consequences to letting sports fans cheer on teams and athletes whose exploits serve mainly to rehabilitate totalitarian regimes that do not respect human rights.