With Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal set to join some of the world's best footballers by playing in Saudi Arabia, questions of morality are being raised. Is Saudi Arabia just using sport to try to launder its reputation?
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Next month, as things stand, the best two male tennis players in the world will accept sizable fees to play in a country whose human rights record is described by Amnesty International as "truly appalling."
The exhibition match between Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal, slated for December 22, has no sporting implications outside itself, so is widely viewed as a way for Saudi Arabia to polish its tarnished reputation on the international stage.
The scheduling of the contest was announced a day after the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi disappeared. The after-effects of his death, plus the continued Saudi bombing of Yemen and its dismal human rights record, has led to widespread calls for the pair to pull out of the match.
"I don't like to involve myself in any political exchange or situations," said Djokovic. "And it's unfortunate that we are both drawn into this right now."
"Of course I'm aware of the situation," said Nadal. "But I had a commitment since one year ago to play there. And my team is talking to them, to analyse the things. That's it."
Are Saudi changes genuine?
Quite what there is to analyze is a question that remains unanswered. Since the ascension to power of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman last year, the Middle Eastern state has sought to boost its reputation with a series of headline-grabbing social and political changes. Under the umbrella of their "Vision 2030" masterplan, the Saudi rulers claim they are looking to modernize the country and see the promotion of sport as part of that process.
Adam Coogle, a Middle East Researcher for Human Rights Watch, says that there have been some moves towards liberalization but that they fall short.
"There is a whitewashing of the country’s image when in fact it is an incredibly repressive place," he told DW.
"I think what Saudi Arabia is really trying to do is emulate the UAE [United Arab Emirates] model. The UAE is incredibly repressive politically, it has torture, it has enforced disappearances, it has jailed opposition dissidents for many years based on political ideas.
"But it has been able to launder its image, not just through sporting events like golf tournaments but its ownership of European football clubs to project a certain image of the country."
The UAE’s use of the process, which is becoming known as "sportswashing" is well established, with the ownership of Premier League champions Manchester City the jewel in a sporting crown that also boasts major international tennis, cricket, golf, motorsport and rugby events.
Keeping up with the neighbors
Their neighbors to the west are a few years behind on those terms but Saudi Arabia hosted a prestige international football friendly between Argentina and Brazil last month, while the World Wrestling Entertainment’s "Crown Jewel" pay-per-view event is scheduled for Friday and a European Tour golf event was recently confirmed for next year.
The attempt to woo the world’s biggest sports stars and the organizers of their sports has come as no surprise to Nicholas McGeehan, a Human Rights researcher who runs a consultancy and has long focused on the Gulf region. He says sportswashing is "good, cheap PR" with the benefits to the state including brand positioning, international relations, better business and tourism links and a place to spend some of their vast reserves of oil money.
"I think they’ve looked at Qatar and looked at the UAE and they'll have seen the benefits of it [laundering an international reputation through sport] and it's entirely possible that they'll think 'this is what we can do too.'
"They [the Saudis] are very close to the Emiratis and it would not surprise me if the advice had been given to them that sport is a really useful thing to use."
While recent reports of Saudi interest in Manchester United appear to be speculative, McGeehan sees a Saudi purchase of a major football club as a logical step.
"Qatar’s got a club [Paris Saint-Germain] the UAE has got a club, so the Saudis should have a club," is the way he suggests bin Salman may be thinking.
Turning a blind eye
By and large, the response of the sporting world to repressive states using their sports as shiny baubles to distract from the horrors lurking behind the decoration has been to shrug their shoulders and bank the check.
"The European Tour constantly monitors the situation in all our host countries and we will continue to do so," deadbatted a spokesman for the golfing body in response to a series of questions from DW relating to the death of Khashoggi.
"It’s very clear that politics should stay out of football," said FIFA President Gianni Infantino earlier this year, before revealing his plans for an expanded Club World Cup backed by Saudi Arabian investors in a Japanese bank.
Those plans have been delayed largely due to the objections of football's European governing body UEFA, though probably more because it’d interfere with the Champions League than any moral objection, while Roger Federer said he turned down an invitation to play an exhibition match because: "I didn't want to play there at that time."
Prominent athletes or organizations to taking a moral stance against the Saudis or their neighbors are notable by their absence, though sporting boycotts have plenty of precedent. For example, former tennis great John McEnroe has revealed that he turned down $1 million in 1980 from apartheid South Africa because he didn't want to be used as "propoganda."
The two men currently at the top of tennis don’t seem to feel the same way and they aren’t alone in that. With plans for a Formula E race and the 2019 Italian Supercoppa already on the table, and Infantino raising the idea of Saudi Arabia hosting World Cup matches, athletes and organizations will have to decide if this is a genuine attempt to open Saudi Arabia as a sporting destination or just another distraction trick.
Jamal Khashoggi: A mysterious disappearance and death
Official Saudi statements on the fate of journalist Jamal Khashoggi have changed several times since he disappeared at the Istanbul consulate on October 2. DW traces the most important events in this intricate case.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/J. Martin
Vanishes into thin air
October 2: Prominent journalist Jamal Khashoggi was last seen entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, where he had gone to obtain an official document for his upcoming marriage to his Turkish fiancee, Hatice Cengiz. He never emerged from the building, prompting Cengiz, who waited outside, to raise the alarm.
Image: Reuters TV
Confusion over whereabouts
October 3: Turkish and Saudi officials came up with conflicting reports on Khashoggi's whereabouts. Riyadh said the journalist had left the mission shortly after his work was done. But Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said the journalist was still in the consulate.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/V. Mayo
Murder claims
October 6: Turkish officials said they believed the journalist was likely killed inside the Saudi consulate. The Washington Post, for which Khashoggi wrote, cited unnamed sources to report that Turkish investigators believe a 15-member team "came from Saudi Arabia" to kill the man.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/H. Jamali
Ankara seeks proof
October 8: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called on Saudi Arabia to prove that Khashoggi left its consulate in Istanbul. Turkey also sought permission to search the mission premises. US President Donald Trump voiced concern about the journalist's disappearance.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/T. Kovacs
'Davos in the Desert' hit
October 12: British billionaire Richard Branson halted talks over a $1 billion Saudi investment in his Virgin group's space ventures, citing Khashoggi's case. He also pulled out of an investment conference in Riyadh dubbed the "Davos in the Desert." His move was followed by Uber's Dara Khosrowshahi, JP Morgan's Jamie Dimon and a host of other business leaders.
Image: picture alliance/dpa
Search operation
October 15: Turkish investigators searched the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. The search lasted more than eight hours and investigators removed samples from the building, including soil from the consulate garden and a metal door, one official said.
Image: Reuters/M. Sezer
Death after fistfight
October 19: Saudi Arabia finally admitted that Khashoggi died at the consulate. The kingdom's public prosecutor said preliminary investigations showed the journalist was killed in a "fistfight." He added that 18 people had been detained. A Saudi Foreign Ministry official said the country is "investigating the regrettable and painful incident."
Image: Getty Images/C. McGrath
'Grave mistake'
October 21: Saudi Arabia provided yet another account of what happened to Khashoggi. The kingdom's foreign minister admitted the journalist was killed in a "rogue operation," calling it a "huge and grave mistake," but insisted that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had not been aware of the murder. Riyadh said it had no idea where Khashoggi's body was.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/C. Owen
Germany halts arms sales
October 21: German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Germany would put arms exports to Saudi Arabia on hold for the time being, given the unexplained circumstances of Khashoggi's death. Germany is the fourth largest exporter of weapons to Saudi Arabia after the United States, Britain and France.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/S. Sauer
Strangled to death, dissolved in acid
October 31: The Turkish prosecutor concluded that Khashoggi was strangled to death soon after entering the consulate, and was then dismembered. Another Turkish official later claimed the body was dissolved in acid. Turkish President Erdogan said the order to murder the journalist came from "the highest levels" of Saudi Arabia's government.
Image: picture-alliance/AA/M. E. Yildirim
Grilled at the UN
November 5: Saudi Arabia told the United Nations it would prosecute those responsible for Khashoggi's murder. This came as the United States and dozens of other countries raised the journalist's death before the UN Human Rights Council and called for a transparent investigation.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/F. Coffrini
Fiancee in mourning
November 8: Khashoggi's fiancee, Hatice Cengiz, wrote on Twitter that she was "unable to express her sorrow" upon learning that the journalist's body was dissolved with chemicals. "Are these killers and those behind it human beings?" she tweeted.
Image: Reuters/Haberturk
Turkey shares audio recordings
November 10: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reveals that officials from Saudi Arabia, the US, Germany, France and Britain have listened to audio recordings related to the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/Presidential Press Service
Symbolic funeral prayers
November 16: A symbolic funeral prayer for Khashoggi is held in the courtyard of the Fatih Mosque in Istanbul. Yasin Aktay, advisor to President Erdogan, speaks at the service.
Image: Reuters/M. Sezer
Saudi-owned villas searched
November 26: Turkish forensic police bring the investigation to the Turkish province of Yalova, where sniffer dogs and drones search two Saudi-owned villas in the village Samanli.
Image: Reuters/O . Orsal
100 days since killing
January 10: Amnesty International Turkey members demonstrate outside the Saudi Arabia Consulate in Istanbul, marking 100 day since the killing of Jamal Khashoggi. One woman holds up a street sign which reads "Jamal Khashoggi Street". The organization has called for an international investigation into the case.
Image: Reuters/M. Sezer
Saudi murder trial begins
January 3: The Khashoggi trial begins in Saudi Arabia, where state prosecutors say they will seek the death sentence for five of the eleven suspects. A request for the gathered evidence has been send to Turkish authorities. A date for the second hearing has not yet been set.
Image: picture-alliance/abaca/Depo Photos
UN inquiry team in Turkey
January 28: Agnes Callamard, who is leading the UN probe into the handling of the Khashoggi case, arrives in Ankara where she meets with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu. The human rights expect will stay in the country for the rest of the week to speak with prosecutors and others involved in the case.