Athletes complicit in sportswashing

Opinion

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This article was published 29/09/2023 (709 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Sometimes, they say the quiet part out loud, on purpose.

It’s not a slip of the tongue, the dupe from a gotcha moment, or even a remark betraying pitiful naivety. Rather, it’s a statement made without regard for consequences, because the speaker knows full well there won’t be any, that due to their power, wealth or the cowardice of others, they are beyond the reach of ramifications.

“If sportwashing is going to increase my GDP,” mused Mohammed bin Salman in an interview with Fox News last week, “then I will continue doing sportwashing.”

The Saudi crown prince had revealed his kingdom’s public wealth fund was buying up sports and entertainment properties, and acquiring big-name footballers to add profile to the domestic Pro League, not only to launder Saudi Arabia’s reputation but also boost its GDP by 1.5 per cent.

“I don’t care,” he added. “I’m aiming for another 1.5 per cent. Call it whatever you want. We’re going to get that 1.5 per cent.”

Amnesty International calls it “repression of rights,” “arbitrary detentions” and “forced evictions”; Human Rights Watch calls it “mass killings.”

Bin Salman, in the Fox broadcast, also revealed that a retired teacher had received a death sentence for social media posts. Nevertheless, his interviewer hailed him as a “visionary leader,” no doubt at least in part because religious authoritarianism is increasingly admired in certain parts of the United States, but also, perhaps, because the re-reputationing, of which sport — and football specifically — is at the vanguard, is working.

While bin Salman, who has previously admitted that he and his administration were at least accountable for the 2018 murder in Turkey of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, sits in front of cameras and presents an image of unassailable leadership and international steadiness that stimulates investment, or encourages the U.S. to conclude a US$500 million arms sale this month, the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema, Sadio Mane and Neymar apply the detergent, revolve the spin cycle and produce a veneer that covers atrocities even they must realize are taking place.

Such as those being committed to clear the way for the planned construction of the giga-project NEOM, a futuristic linear city for the ultra-rich that will ultimately displace tens of thousands of people. Again, the death penalty is being applied to those who resist. Revoltingly, already lavishly paid athletes continue to sign up for work in the laundromat.

Neymar, as just one example, should be, at 31, at or near the height of his powers. He recently became Brazil’s record goalscorer, and, before joining Al Hilal in August, had won seven titles and the Champions League as a forward for Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain.

Last week, the day after the Fox interview with bin Salman, he played in front of a crowd of slightly more than 11,000 spectators, mostly men. He earned about €5 million for the match – part of the €300 million he’ll make over two years as a state employee.

He is a state employee. As is Ronaldo and all the rest, not figuratively, either.

Given the Pro League’s role in Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 campaign, as well as the simple fact the division’s biggest clubs are owned outright by the kingdom itself, the players and other club personnel, such as managers Steven Gerrard, Slaven Bilic and Jorge Jesus, are quite literally — pay stub and all — federal workers in the employ of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

They are each of them sportwashers, as bin Salman has himself said. Their jobs are to cleanse Saudi cruelties, to drive an increase in 1.5 per cent GDP. That’s their trophy.

On Monday, the fifth anniversary of Khashoggi’s murder, Ronaldo’s Al Nassr will host Tajikistan’s Istiklol in an AFC Champions League match in Riyadh. No one will speak of the journalist’s assassination and dismemberment. Sportwashing works.

It tragically, effectively works.

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