Saudi Crown Prince says he does not care about ‘sportswashing’ claims
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Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has insisted that his investment in sport is only because of the country's GDP and not "sportswashing".
PHOTO: REUTERS
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NEW YORK – Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has said that he is not bothered by allegations of “sportswashing” against the kingdom and that he will continue to fund sport if it adds to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP).
The accusation of “sportswashing” is levelled at countries, especially those in the Middle East, perceived to be using sport to improve their tarnished image when it comes to human rights issues.
“If sportswashing (is) going to increase my GDP by one per cent, then we’ll continue doing sportswashing, I don’t care,” the Crown Prince Mohammed told Fox News.
“I have one per cent growth in GDP from sport and I am aiming for another 1.5 per cent. Call it whatever you want – we are going to get that 1.5 per cent.”
Saudi Arabia has in recent years made massive investments in football, golf, Formula One, boxing and tennis through its sovereign wealth fund – the Public Investment Fund (PIF) – which is chaired by the Crown Prince Mohammed, the kingdom’s de facto ruler since 2015.
The PIF owns an 80 per cent stake in English Premier League club Newcastle United and funded LIV Golf, which recruited high-profile players from the PGA Tour and Europe’s DP World Tour before announcing an agreement in June to merge and form one unified commercial entity.
It also took a majority ownership stake in four of the country's top football clubs. Teams in the Saudi Pro League spent nearly US$1 billion (S$1.37 billion) luring top footballers from Europe during the recent transfer window which closed on Sept 7.
Saudi Arabia has been hosting an F1 grand prix since 2021 and has also held boxing world title fights. It will stage a professional tennis event for the first time in 2023.
But critics have, on many occasions, accused the country of using the PIF to engage in “sportswashing” in the face of heavy criticism of Saudi Arabia’s human rights record.
The Gulf state has denied those accusations and insisted that it is merely aiming to diversify its economy away from oil revenue before that income source dries up.
The Crown Prince Mohammed added: “When you want to diversify an economy, you have to work in all sectors – mining, infrastructure, manufacturing, transportation, logistics all this.
“Part of it is tourism and if you want to develop tourism part of it is culture, part of it is your sport sector, because you need to create a calendar.” REUTERS
