The new rulers of world sport: how scary are the Saudis?

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Phil Mickelson will hardly be able to get a job as a diplomat in this life. Eighteen months ago, the star golfer described the Saudis as ‘terrifying bastards’. That did not stop him from signing for the LIV golf tour, which was financed with Saudi petrodollars. Since then, he has been deprived of a job as a diplomat anyway: he is said to have received about 200 million dollars for the deal.

The Mickelson case summarizes the dilemma well. The human rights situation in Saudi Arabia is terrible. It is a fact that the number of executions has increased again in recent years despite reforms (an average of 129 per year between 2015 and 2022). Horrible.

At the same time, the role of sheikhs in global sports and in the global economy has long been a reality. All that money is too tempting. For the editors of Blick this means: we continue to criticize what can be criticized. At the same time, it is important to look at things up close. That is why my colleagues Marco Pescio and Stefan Bohrer left for Saudi Arabia. They have met puppeteers and sports fans, ordinary men and women, human rights activists and even a princess.

The result is a series of articles about a country that enjoys glamorous sporting events such as Formula 1 GPs or football stars such as Cristiano Ronaldo, but whose citizens at the same time have to be careful what they say out loud. So that we can all understand a little better if and how scary the Saudi influence actually is.

Source : Blick