Saudi Arabia and international sports, a tale of politics and greed
Saudi
Sports Minister Abdulaziz bin Turki Al-Saud
By James M Dorsey
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Saudi Arabia brings out the worst in the world of international sports in terms of politics and greed.
FIFA’s awarding Saudi Arabia the 2034 World Cup hosting rights is just the tip of the iceberg.
The awarding violated the world soccer body’s human rights policy and mocked the sports world’s fiction that sports and politics are separate rather than Siamese twins joined at the hip.
The Olympic Council of Asia’s earlier awarding of the 2029 Asian Winter Games to Saudi Arabia, even though the kingdom lacks a qualifying winter season and intends to hold the tournament in a troubled mega science fiction project that is under construction, is another example of politics and money trumping sports.
Contradicting international
sports associations’ lofty statements, such as FIFA’s declared commitment to “respecting all internationally
recognised human rights” and “integrating human rights requirements into bidding
processes for competition,” the awardings reflect a wider world characterised
by double standards, hypocrisy, and prejudice.
The associations, including FIFA, argue that tournaments like the World Cup create an opportunity to foster positive change, including improving the kingdom’s abysmal human rights record.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and the Saudi Arabian Football Federation’s World Cup bid document made short shrift of that argument even before the tournament was awarded last December.
Speaking to Fox News in September
2023 on the back of the kingdom’s winning bids for multiple Asian and other
tournaments, including the 2023 FIFA World, the 2026 AFC Women’s Asian Cup, the
2034 Asian Games, the 2027 AFC Cup, and the 2029 Winter Games, Mr. Bin Salman dismissed criticism and
allegations that he was engaging in sportswashing, the use of sports events to
polish reputations tarnished by human rights abuse.
“If sport washing is going to increase my GDP by way of 1 per cent, then I will continue doing sport washing,” Mr. Bin Salman said.
When asked how he felt about the term, Mr. Bin Salman replied: “I don’t care … I’m aiming for another 1.5 per cent. Call it whatever you want, we’re going to get that 1.5 per cent.”
Mr. Bin Salman has good reason to believe he can weather criticism of the kingdom’s human rights record. It took him a relatively short time to put behind him allegations that he was responsible for the 2018 killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
In catering to Saudi sports ambitions, national, regional, and international sports associations don’t just ignore human rights but also take risks when endorsing venues in science-fiction-like mega-projects, which the kingdom has had to scale back.
Slated to host the Winter Games, Trojena,
a mountain tourism destination under construction, is part of Neom, a US$500
billion sprawling Red Sea science fiction megacity project running into trouble
because of funding constraints and reputational issues.
Recent media stories said some of the 100,000 employees of Neom, the world’s biggest construction project, had reported incidents of gang rape, suicide, attempted murder, drug dealing, and child labour.
A Neom spokesperson insisted that “protecting the welfare of those working on-site is a top priority.”
The spokesperson said Neom holds contractors responsible for adhering to its welfare standards, which the British Safety Council audits. The spokesperson added that Neom investigates inappropriate workplace behaviors and allegations of wrongdoing or misconduct.
Abdulrahim
Ahmad Mahmoud al-Huwaiti. Credit: MENA Rights Group
In 2020, Saudi security forces killed 43-year-old tribal activist Abdulrahim Ahmad Mahmoud
al-Huwaiti, who campaigned online against
the forcible removal of his tribal brethren from towns slated for demolition to
make way for Neom. Authorities said Mr. Al-Huwaiti was killed after he opened
fire from inside his home.
Security forces detained more than 20 other tribesmen on terrorism charges, five of whom were reportedly sentenced to death.
Neom is central to Mr. Bin Salman’s Vision 2030 plan to diversify the Saudi economy by creating new engines of economic growth beyond oil.
So far, Trojena was spared cutbacks in expenditure and its projected number of residents.
Trojena likely benefited from the fact that the cutbacks, which largely exempted projects related to mega sporting events scheduled to be hosted partially or fully in Neom.
Credit:
Cityscape Global
Even so, Trojena has begun
pitching luxury apartments to Saudis rather than foreigners, in what historian
Andrew Hammond described as “an abrupt switch."
“So many Saudis have second homes
in Dubai, London, and elsewhere, but now we have something we can show off, and
we can provide for Saudis and Saudi families; it’s more a product for them,” Mr.
Hammond quoted Trojena residential sales advisor Hani Alharbi as telling a
Riyadh real estate conference in November.
The revised sales pitch was about more than expanding Trojena’s target market.
It was about assuaging Saudi concerns that the government and management envisioned Neom as a utopia for foreigners that would operate on rules that contradict Saudi law, for example, regarding the consumption of alcohol and dress codes.
The kingdom bans alcohol and adheres to conservative and traditional dress norms.
Mr. Alharbi’s revised sales pitch, coupled with the cutbacks and allegations of abuse, raises the question of whether international sports associations, like the Olympic Council in Asia, in Saudi Arabia, prioritise the catering to Mr. Bin Salman’s whims above the merits and risks of a given bid.
On average, temperatures in north-western Saudi Arabia seldom, if ever, drop below eight degrees Celsius, except in the 2,400-metre-high Sarawat mountains, where snow falls at best occasionally.
At least 32 Asian nations compete in the Asian games, which include alpine skiing, ice hockey, biathlon, cross-country skiing, and figure skating competitions.
Trojena expects to harness renewable energy to create an outdoor ski slope by blasting artificial snow at the mountains to compensate for a lack of natural snow.
Executive director Philip Gullett anticipates that visitors will be able to scuba dive, ski, and hike, or climb, all on the same day.
More fundamentally, Mr. Bin Salman’s vision of Neom has the makings of a futuristic surveillance state.
Credit:
Access Now
Speaking to Bloomberg in 2017,
Mr. Bin Salman envisioned Neom’s residents
and visitors managing their lives with just one app.
Mr. Bin Salman imagined that “everything will have a link to artificial intelligence, to the Internet of Things – everything. Your medical file will be connected with your home supply, with your car, linked to your family, linked to your other files, and the system develops itself in how to provide you with better things.”
The crown prince predicted, “Today all the clouds available are separate – the car is by itself, the Apple watch is by itself, everything is by itself. There, everything will be connected. So, nobody can live in Neom without the Neom application we’ll have – or visit Neom.”
Mr. Bin Salman’s Neom app will likely make daily life easier. It will also enhance the crown prince’s control and crackdown on any form of dissent. Awarding Neom sports tournament hosting rights helps Mr. Bin Salman perfect the system.
Dr. James M. Dorsey is an Adjunct Senior Fellow at Nanyang Technological University’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, and the author of the syndicated column and podcast, The Turbulent World with James M. Dorsey.
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