According to the US government in 2018, Muhammed bin Salman, the de facto ruler Saudi Arabia, personally ordered the assassination of a Saudi journalist, Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi Embassy in Istanbul. MBS is now the most powerful person in international sport. MBS’s Public Investment Fund is Saudi Arabia’s sovereign fund.
Salman Mohammed bin Mohammed. Associated Press / Leon Neal
Fight misinformation by subscribing to the completely Mother Jones Daily newsletter and keeping up with important news. The de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, Muhammad Bin Salman, allegedly physically ordered Jamal Khashoggi’s assassination at the Royal embassy in Istanbul in 2018. MBS may be the most influential person in global sports five years from now.
MBS chairs Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund, which is currently experiencing a multi-billion dollar spending spree. It bought Newcastle United, an English Premier League soccer team, in 2021, and held its second F1 race in Jeddah. The PIF took over Saudi Arabia’s home soccer league in June of this year, around the exact time it effectively took control of the PGA tour of golf. It then started spending enormous sums of money on well-known players from prestigious European leagues. Petro-states have been disrupting and reshaping soccer’s economics for the past 15 years, as I wrote in a magazine article next year, but Saudi Arabia is currently doing something completely different.
In an interview with Fox News this week, MBS was questioned about the claim made by organizations like Human Rights Watch that his government’s involvement in international sporting events is a form of” sportswashing ,” or an effort to harm his regime ‘ reputation( as well as his own ) by tying it to an amusing spectacle.
We’ll keep doing sportswashing if it increases my GDP by 1 %, according to MBS.
I don’t give a damn ,” he said. ” Sports has contributed 1 % to my GDP growth, and I intend to add another 1.5 percent.” Whatever you want to call it, we’re going to get the other 1.5 percent.
He is correct, at least to a point. The investment made by MBS in global sports is a significant business move. He has a strategy called Vision 2030, which aims to diversify the Royal economy. He wants to create a more resilient regional economy based on, well, the things that great oil wealth can be used to purchase. Sports are for sale, and their enormous economic value comes from their immense global popularity. As a result, when you associate your regional brand with global sporting events( and international sports stars ), you are securing both economic and social clout.
However, we are also discussing someone who, according to US authorities, ordered the murder of a journalist five years before. It is not merely an economic play to take over well-known sporting institutions in other nations; it is not like buying a majority stake in opulent zinc mines. It possesses genuine historical power. And that power shows up in a larger global complicity. In order to strengthen this act of national rebranding whenever people simply want to watch sports on a Saturday morning,” Sportswashing” involves not only the individuals and nations who actively engage in it but also how it draws in everyone else.
MBS might claim that he is unconcerned with the sportswashing criticism. The feeling of impunity is all the more motivation to bring it up again.
The de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, Muhammad Bin Salman, allegedly physically ordered Jamal Khashoggi’s assassination at the Royal embassy in Istanbul in 2018. MBS may be the most influential person in global sports five years from now. Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund, which MBS
According to the US government in 2018, Muhammed bin Salman, the de facto ruler Saudi Arabia, personally ordered the assassination of a Saudi journalist, Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi Embassy in Istanbul. MBS is now the most powerful person in international sport. MBS’s Public Investment Fund is Saudi Arabia’s sovereign fund.
Mohammed bin Salman är den regerande monarken. Leon Neal of the Associated Press has reported on current events. Subscribe to the complimentary Mother Jones Daily newsletter and keep up to date with the latest news. In 2018, the American government determined that Muhammed Bin Salman—Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler—personally arranged the assassination of reporter Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi embassy in Istanbul. In five years, MBS potentially holds great sway over the world of sports. The Public Investment Fund, which he is in charge of leading, has been authorizing massive sums of money to be invested in varying places. In 2021, Saudi Arabia got hold of English Premier League soccer team Newcastle United, and the country organised a F1 race in the city of Jeddah for the first time. This past June, the PIF (Public Investment Fund) acquired control over the PGA tour, and then not long after that, took over the Saudi Arabia’s domestic soccer league. As well, the PIF shelled out lots of money for well-known stars from top-tier European leagues. In my article for the magazine last year, petro-states had already been altering the economics of soccer, however, what Saudi Arabia is doing currently is on a much loftier level. This week, in an interview with Fox News, MBS was interviewed about accusations from Human Rights Watch that Saudi Arabia is to use international sporting events to better its image and his. MBS’s response was: “If sportswashing helps bump up my GDP by 1%, then we’ll stay doing it. It doesn’t matter to me.” My goal is to achieve 1-percent economic growth from sports as well as an additional 1.5 percent.
