In the days of the Roman Coliseum, they called it “bread and circuses” — leaders used the superficial allure of entertainment to distract citizens from real problems. The term today: Sportswashing: the use of games and teams and stadiums to wash their image and reputation. Saudi Arabia, a country that has never won an Olympic gold medal, has suddenly become a major player in global sport: hosting events, buying teams and attracting athletes with staggering contracts. Is this investment an attempt to diversify the economy and cater to younger citizens, as its leaders claim? Or is it done to cover up human rights violations, authoritarian rule and even murder? We visited the Kingdom to see the new nerve center of the sports world and see what the Saudis and their neighbors are getting for their money.
Argentina may have won the World Cup last December, but it wasn’t the only country to emerge as a big winner. The oil-rich Gulf state of Qatar, a controversial choice to host, threw more than $200 billion into running the event, beating criticism of its appalling human rights record. And another winner was next door. Saudi Arabia fielded the only team to defeat Argentina – a triumph celebrated across the Arab world – not least by Prince Abdulaziz bin Turki Al Saud, the country’s sports minister.
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Prince Abdulaziz: It was incredible. It was just a milestone we ticked that shows that you can achieve impossible things with effort and – and the right resources – behind it.
The improbable continued after the World Cup. Saudi Arabia’s vast resources – meaning sloshing oil bucks – enticed Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo, a generational star, to play for a team in Riyadh. His salary? More than $200 million per season. That’s right $200 million: roughly the combined annual player salaries of LeBron James, Steph Curry, Aaron Judge, and Patrick Mahomes.
The opening bell for Saudi Arabia’s investment in global esports rang three years ago with The Clash on the Dunes, a heavyweight title fight.
A few months later, the kingdom hosted the richest horse race in the world.
There’s Formula 1 racing and a 10-year contract with WWE. But for many, these mega-events in Saudi Arabia are financial loss-makers used to wash a country’s image while camouflaging repression and authoritarian rule.
Prince Abdulaziz bin Turki Al Saud, Minister of Sports of Saudi Arabia 60 minutes
Jon Wertheim: You’ve heard this term sportswashing, this idea that countries can cover up bad deeds through sports. Do you believe in the concept that a country can use sport in this way?
Prince Abdulaziz: Not at all. I disagree with this term. Because I think when you go to different parts of the world, you bring people together. Everyone should come, see Saudi Arabia, see it for what it is and then make your decision. See for yourself. If you don’t like it, fine.
That’s exactly why we came to Saudi Arabia late last year to see this unlikely sports hub with our own eyes. December is the off-season for professional tennis, but Riyadh was the setting for an exhibition peppered with top 10 stars and embroidered with local influences… Hawks have stepped in to help with the draw ceremony. But the actual draw? Australia’s Nick Kyrgios was blunt.
Interviewer: What brought you here in the end?
Nick Kyrgios: Well the money is pretty good, I’m not going to lie.
Despite plentiful empty seats – and scant television rights that are usually the lifeblood of the sport – players were paid millions just to show up. And Taylor Fritz, a California native, earned $1 million in prize money for winning the weekend event.
The Saudis don’t just host events. Through the kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund, they bought an English Premier League football team, Newcastle United. We saw them in a away match against a local team… clearly, dropping their usual striped jerseys in favor of the green of the Saudi flag.
Then there’s Saudi’s biggest swing in esports: the $2.5 billion LIV Tour, which divided golf. Tiger Woods dismissed this PGA Tour rival as citing “an endless pit buck” and turned down $800 million from the Saudis to join LIV. Many other top players – including Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson – switched tour allegiances, both paying over $100 million as they were.
LIV Golf putting green 60 minutes
Jon Wertheim: This flood of Saudi money into the sport is just absolute, it’s a disruptor. It completely changes the face of the sport. Is that on purpose?
Prince Abdulaziz: Not at all. It contributes a lot to the sport.
Jon Wertheim: But you have to be aware of the implications. I mean, when LIV golf event winners earn multiples of what Tiger Woods won in the last Masters win, that’s a big economic shift.
Prince Abdulaziz: I think it doesn’t matter if the impact of increasing participation and interest in the sport increases – then why not?
The sports minister insists the massive investment is a key pillar of what is being called “Vision 2030”: a $7 trillion plan by the kingdom’s effective ruler, Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Salman, or MBS, to take the economy beyond oil diversify while toning down some of its most restrictive social conventions and laws. It is now legal for women to drive without a male guardian, uncover their head, hold a passport and travel.
In the country’s fields, in gyms and recreation centers, young Saudis – men and women – play sports. So are their mothers. Rasha Al Khamis is the country’s first certified boxing trainer. Already in 2019 she took part in the “Clash on the Dunes” fight.
Rasha Al Khamis is Saudi Arabia’s first certified boxing trainer 60 Minutes
Jon Wertheim: This is your country. These are two international superstars and you don’t see them on TV. Here you can see them live. How was it?
Rasha Al Khamis: I would never imagine going to the fight in my own country, driving my car and taking part in the fight. So that’s a h– that’s a huge transformation. And you can feel that the change is noticeable.
However, these changes come at a cost. Loujain Al-Hathloul led the Saudi women-to-drive movement – and was punished for her activism: arrested, charged with terrorism and sentenced to prison where, she says, she was tortured. Even after her release, she is prevented from leaving the country. Her sister Lina lives in exile and spoke to us from afar.
Lina Al-Hathloul: When we talk about sports, of course in Saudi Arabia we want to have entertainment. We want that. But not at the expense of our freedoms. We don’t want to live in fear, not knowing if they will break into our house tomorrow and take our sister or our daughter. I don’t want to live in this country. I want to live in a country where I really feel free.
Jon Wertheim: Even if they have fancy sporting events?
Lina Al-Hathloul: I want both.
Her sister’s harsh treatment, she says, underscores a stark paradox: At a time when social liberties have been expanded, political repression in Saudi Arabia has grown tougher.
Lina Al-Hathloul 60 minutes
Jon Wertheim: They say that’s window dressing. This is… this is cosmetics. And behind the games are mass executions and repression like never before.
Lina Al-Hathloul: Absolutely. Exactly. This is what happens.
Cultural change goes beyond sport. Who would have made Saudi Arabia hold an annual desert rave? Among the headliners were Bruno Mars and DJ Khaled. It’s all in one piece: sport, entertainment, tourism. To marry everything, the crown prince turned to American impresario Jerry Inzerillo.
Jon Wertheim: What is a guy from Brooklyn doing in a place like this?
Jerry Inzerillo: creating magic, creating a place where all are welcome to see the kingdom, the birthplace of the kingdom. Very exciting times. Salaam-Alaykum.
With a career in hospitality and entertainment, Inzerillo founded Atlantis in the Bahamas. Name a global celebrity and rest assured, Jerry made her acquaintance.
Jerry Inzerillo: I’ve worked in tourism for five decades. My job is to welcome people and create joy and celebration. With Vision 2030, we now want people to come to Saudi Arabia.
Today he oversees a massive $63 billion development on the site where the Saudi state was founded, transforming it into a modern Xanadu with homes for 100,000 people, luxury hotels and restaurants. We asked Inzerillo how he was doing representing this autocracy. He told us that he focuses on the positive.
Jerry Inzerillo: You know, I went to school in Las Vegas, and there’s a gambling term that says you gamble house money when you’re way ahead.
Jon Wertheim: You win?
Jerry Inzerillo: Oh, I’m not just winning, I’ve won.
Jerry Inzerillo60 minutes
Jerry Inzerillo: You know, there’s an old country western song, “Dance with the one who brung ya.”
Jon Wertheim: Who brought you?
Jerry Inzerillo: Who brought me here?
Jon Wertheim: Yes.
Jerry Inzerillo: Vision 2030, a very benevolent, very beloved King and a very visionary, dynamic Crown Prince.
But it is the crown prince’s less than noble acts that have tarnished the country’s reputation and both hastened and hampered his foray into the sport. According to a CIA report, MBS authorized the 2018 killing and dismemberment of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Executions have increased dramatically under MBS rule, including a mass beheading of 81 people in one day last March. The mildest criticism of the state, even on Twitter, was met with imprisonment, torture and long and arbitrary prison sentences.
Jon Wertheim: We’ve heard a lot about Transition. We saw it with our own eyes. But the concern is that this country is not yet able to hold international sporting events.
Prince Abdulaziz: We’re not saying we’re perfect, but I’m trying to say that these things help us achieve a better future for our people.
Jon Wertheim: I don’t think any country would say it’s perfect, but are you saying that every country has a leader who the CIA says ordered the murder of a journalist? Are you saying that every country has 81 beheadings in a single day? And if the answer is no, doesn’t that make this relative argument, this whataboutism, doesn’t that make it irrelevant?
Prince Abdulaziz: Well, what I’m trying to say is, ‘Let’s look at the bright side.’ And– and, you know, you only bring up certain issues when we’re– I’m leaving, and, you know, we had the mass shooting in the United States a few weeks ago. Does that mean we won’t host it — the World Cup in the US? No. We should go to the US. We should bring people together.
Jon Wertheim: A mass shooting is not a government actor. Let’s be clear about that.
Prince Abdulaziz: Still, however – however, people have died. But what I’m trying to say is that if we only look at the bad side, we shouldn’t do anything.
Jon Wertheim: Aren’t there universals, aren’t there basic thresholds that you think need to be met?
Prince Abdulaziz: As I said, there are many problems with many countries. But then you mention that the order came from the Crown Prince, and that’s not true. There is no evidence of this – as we speak –
Jon Wertheim: You deny that the CIA’s report stating that this was ordered and authorized…
Prince Abdulaziz: I don’t think the CIA report really says that when you look at it.
The CIA report concluded: “Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman “authorized an operation… capture or kill Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.”
Nevertheless, the games go on. How to choose. Just last month, FIFA – the football governing body not known for being ethical – responded to player protests and turned down Saudi Tourism’s sponsorship offer for this summer’s Women’s World Cup. These moral dilemmas will only deepen.
Jon Wertheim: When we were in Saudi Arabia we saw a top level tennis event – a top level golf event had just been held. Bruno Mars had given a concert. What would be your message to the athletes and entertainers who come to perform and compete?
Lina Al-Hathloul: My message is: Why would you go to Saudi Arabia and remain silent about what is going on there? Why – why don’t you speak on behalf of the muzzled prisoners about – about all the families who can’t speak? Because if you go to Saudi Arabia, you are part of this cover-up machine.
Jon Wertheim: What do you think is the purpose of throwing billions and billions of dollars into sports like this?
Lina Al-Hathloul: I think the Saudi government, the Saudi regime and – and MBS, he wants people to think of – Ronaldo – when they think of Saudi and not Khashoggi.
Jon Wertheim: That’s what the club has become now. We have gone from murdered journalist to soccer star.
Lina Al-Hathloul: Absolutely, yes. Regrettably.
Produced by Michael H Gavshon. Associate Producer Nadim Roberts. Broadcast staffer Elizabeth Germino. Edited by Matthew Lev.