Sports & the Saudi Arabia influence

Where do we stand now with the Saudi Arabia influence on sport?

While many may see last night's CL win for Man City over Inter as a win for the Saudi Arabia influence rather than the club itself, it is is fair to say that many probably see it as a tipping point for sport in general itself.

Whilst I am pleased City won - as it has been a Holy Grail of sorts for the club, having been eliminated at various stages in the past few seasons - many will wonder - me included- just whether City are hungry enough to push on further and become world club champions in the next few seasons, and many will wonder how will Newcastle fare with their saudi owners.

Several days ago we saw the LIV tour and PGA come together after almost a year apart. There are still many legal wrangles to sort out I suspect where Ryder Cup is concerned and if and how any bans the PGA imposed originally will be lifted.

What I'm saying is this level of 'sportswashing' as many has described it by Saudi Arabia is acceptable and whether there needs to be a coming together of various heads of sport (i.e. Coe from the IAAF, Infantino at FIFA etc) and collectively speaking out on whether Saudi Arabia should be allowed to continue to exert it's influence in this way when it has such a dismal human rights record, that it has done little on past form to correct?

In terms of City's win would this be seen as confirmation of the accusation that City have bought their way to not only the PL title in recent but now the CL as well, and that the gap grows in terms of there even being a level playing field in the PL any more?

^ Clearly you don’t know that the Abu Dhabi Royal Family are the owners of Manchester City

(Abu Dhabi is NOT in Saudi Arabia)

Inside The Saudi Sporting Machine
The BBC sent Dan Roan to try and check out what's what, but he did seem more interested in if it were fair that the Saudi football might attract better players than the Premier League and thus make unfair competition, even with occasional low attendance. He did eventually bring up "sportswashing" but did he expect his interview to go "yeah, you're dead right!" ? The bloke from Amnesty was understandably sceptical. Football was the main issue, what with the 2034 World Cup set to be held there.

(11-06-2023 08:15 )SecretAgent Wrote:  ^ Clearly you don’t know that the Abu Dhabi Royal Family are the owners of Manchester City

(Abu Dhabi is NOT in Saudi Arabia)

They're sandy and full of Camels. It's easy to confuse them