Tag: Sports washing

Scandal of Saudi World Cup


Saudi has won bid for 2034 World Cup despite massive human rights failings

December 2024

The football World Cup is the most watched sporting event on earth. Millions will will watch and many thousands will travel to see matches. The sports pages of magazines and newspapers will be full of excited articles, photos and interviews with star players. The progress of the home teams will be a matter of much debate. Pubs will be full to the brim with cheering supporters watching massive TV screens. What’s not to like?

The award FIFA made this Wednesday (11 December) has attracted considerable controversy. Human rights are clearly a major issue in the Kingdom. Amnesty has identified a range of serious issues of concern:

  • Labour exploitation. The people employed to work on construction sites in Saudi die in large numbers. A combination of unsafe working conditions and high heat levels has resulted in the deaths of 21,000 Indian, Bangladeshi and Nepalese workers since 2016. The massive level of construction needed for the competition is likely to see many more die. Trade unions are prohibited and there is forced labour.
  • Women’s rights. Women have few rights. They can be imprisoned for wearing the wrong clothing. The guardianship restricts their freedom of movement and what they can study. Same-sex relations are banned. They are not free to play sports.
  • Repression. There is no freedom of speech. The media is highly restricted. Human rights organisations, trade unions and opposition parties are banned. Journalists face censorship and imprisonment.
  • Death penalty. The Kingdom is one of the world’s biggest users of the death penalty usually by beheading and often in public. Confessions are often gained by the use of torture.
  • Evictions. Mass evictions have taken place to enable the facilities to be built. Protesters have been imprisoned for up to 50 years. Over half a million people are affected by these evictions.

To satisfy the requirements – such as they are – for decent human rights, a report was commissioned from Clifford Chance, an apparently respected London law firm with an office in Riyadh. The report was a whitewash and the response in the London HQ was reported to be a ‘shitstorm’. FIFA’s assessment of the human rights situation in Saudi as ‘medium’. It has to be wondered quite what they would have to do to be regarded as ‘high’.

FIFA’s Charter

So what has FIFA’s Charter go to say? Two elements are relevant:

  • To improve the game of football constantly and promote it globally in the light of its unifying, educational, cultural and humanitarian values, particularly through youth and development programmes. (para 2a)
  • Discrimination of any kind against a Country, private person or group of people on account of race, skin colour, ethnic, national or social origin, gender, language, religion, political opinion or any other opinion, wealth, birth or any other status, sexual orientation or any other reason is strictly prohibited and punishable by suspension or expulsion (para 4). (our italics)

How then does a country that discriminates against women, does not have religious tolerance, does not allow any political opposition, bans homosexual activity and does little in the way of promoting humanitarian programmes, get to host the World Cup? Amnesty describes the situation in Saudi as ‘dire’. ‘Mohammed bin Salman has presided over a soaring number of mass executions, torture, enforced disappearance, severe restrictions on free expression, repression of women’s rights under the male guardian system LGBTI+ discrimination and the killing of hundreds of migrants at the Saudi Arabia – Yemen border’.

Sport can be used to alleviate misery and wretchedness. “Sport can unite the world” Jules Rimet

It is of course impossible to marry the two. Any notion or suggestion that sport, and in particular football, can be used to unite the world is nonsense on stilts.

Sportswashing

This is pure and simple an example of Saudi Arabia using its immense wealth to acquire the rights to another sporting event as a means to enhance its reputation through sport. It will be interesting to see as we draw near to the event itself, whether the media and the sporting press pays any attention to the human rights situation – the dire human rights situation – in the country. Or will they focus almost entirely on the competition itself with endless vacuous interviews with managers and players? Will the thousands who will pour into pubs to watch the event be concerned or even know? Are we all complicit in this monstrous example of corruption both of sport and any sense of human values?

In view of the thousands who will die building the stadia and infrastructure, will FIFA be open to corporate manslaughter charges?

Main sources: FIFA; Observer; Guardian; Amnesty; European Sport Management Quarterly;

Updated 11 December with actual FIFA decision

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The World Cup and sportswashing


Major law firm heavily criticised for a whitewash report on Saudi Arabia

November 2024

The 2034 World Cup is to take place in Saudi Arabia a country with a huge range of human rights issues. Women have restricted rights both in law and in practice. They are prevented from participation in sporting activities. Human Rights defenders are routinely intimidated or arrested on spurious charges. There is no religious freedom. There is a heavy toll of death sentences usually by beheading in public. By September 2024, 198 had been executed. Torture is common and suspects are kept for long periods often in solitary confinement without legal representation. Altogether a Kingdom where few freedoms or human rights exist.

FIFA, the world governing body, has been racked by years of controversy and corruption allegations. It would hardly be surprising therefore if the decision to host the 2034 competition in Saudi – following the massive scandal of the Qatar competition – was not accompanied by some corruption or other shady activities.

Enter Clifford Chance, a major London law firm with apparently a good reputation. They have produced a 39 page report in support of the Kingdom which somehow misses the key issues and the multiple human rights infringements. Clifford Chance, along with many other organisations, has a range of fine words praising their high principles. ‘[We] are committed to the highest ethical and professional standards’ they claim. ‘[We act] with integrity, professionalism and fairness.‘ As a firm ‘we have agreed to support and respect internationally recognised human rights both as part of our own commitment to the UN Global Compact and consistent with the UN Guiding Principles.’

So how, it might be asked, does a law firm with such principles and policy statements come to write a report which seems to overlook the massive infringements taking place in the Kingdom? It helps if you do not ask those in a position to know such as the many human rights organisations who have produced report after report detailing the dreadful state of human rights. Instead, you ask the Saudi sports authority itself, SAFF, who helpfully identified the five human rights ‘focal points’ for the (allegedly) ‘independent’ assessment. Reading the 39 pages there is no mention of the multiple human rights infringements which regularly take place in the Kingdom.

The report has produced a ‘shitstorm’ in the Clifford Chance headquarters

The report is nothing short of a disgrace. It is reported that it has produced an ‘internal shitstorm’ in the London headquarters. Eleven human rights organisations have condemned it. A common response to criticisms such as these is that sport enable a better understanding of human rights through sport. Global Citizen is a champion of this view. The difficulty with this idea, noble though it is, is that sport is being used by the likes of Saudi to promote – not human rights and brotherhood – but its own interests.

Another issue is the kafala system which immigrant labour works in desperate conditions for 16 hours a day sometimes in searing heat. The death toll is enormous and it is reported that 21,000 Nepali, Bangladeshi and Indian workers who have died in Saudi since the Vision 30 plan was launched in 2016. The Clifford Chance report dances around this issue with a host of weasel words.

And we must not forget the murder and dismemberment of Jamal Khashoggi almost certainly on MBS’s orders.

But should we be surprised? The Kingdom has enormous wealth and company after company is happy to do business there and hold their noses whilst doing so. Why should Clifford Chance be any different? It is alleged that the firm facilitated the removal of fortunes from 400 citizens who were locked in a hotel by Mohammed bin Salman. It is claimed £100bn was removed from them. The enormous wealth of the Gulf states has profited many European and American corporations eager to benefit from the largesse. Any moral scruples seem all too easily to be set aside. That a major law firms should join this jamboree is deeply disappointing. Thousands will die during the course of construction. Hundreds more will be detained without trial. Hundreds will continue to be beheaded. Whatever happened to those ‘highest ethical and professional standards?’

All this in aid of football. The ‘beautiful game’ has become mired in sleaze, corruption and graft. It has now dragged down a respected law firm in its quest to earn big fees.

[UPDATE: 15 November. Inside World Football reports that FIFA deliberately agreed with Saudi to limit the scope of the report into human rights.]

Sources: Amnesty, FIFA, Clifford Chance, The Guardian, New York Times, The Observer, Inside World Football.

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A change in the political climate for human rights


The post war human rights ideology is arguably now over and there is a need for new thinking

July 2023

The post war settlement and the introduction of a ‘rules based order’ for international affairs is arguably now in terminal decline. The creation of the United Nations and the introduction of the Universal Declaration seemed to usher in – many thought – a new way that governments would deal with each other and settle disputes through negotiation. The carnage of the Second World War in which millions of lives were lost was supposed to be a cathartic moment in world history, an event no one wanted to see repeated. Respect for human rights would be a core feature of how people lived around the world.

Recent history casts doubt on this idea and the rise of countries such as China, a post Stalinist Russia and the wealth of Saudi Arabia are beginning to show that the comforting idea of the rules based order is under considerable threat. More and more countries are showing that they can exist quite happily in the world by ignoring nearly all considerations of human rights and a democratic norms. China’s treatment of its Uighur minority has received wide coverage with nearly a million people being subject to so-called ‘re-education’ in an attempt to mould an entire population away from its beliefs and culture. They have almost eliminated any semblance of a free democracy in Hong Kong. Myanmar has brutalised its Rohingya minority forcing huge numbers out of the country. The treatment of Palestinians in Israel and the creation of what is effectively an apartheid state, shows that even a country with a powerful democratic system can behave badly towards those they wish to marginalise. We could quote other examples including Türkiye, Syria, Libya and more recently, Tunisia where in their different ways, human rights and the treatment of its citizens are a long way from the intentions of the Universal Declaration.

Sportswashing

We have discussed sportswashing in several previous posts and in particular, Saudi Arabia with its funding of Newcastle United football club for example, and hosting a Grand Prix, tennis and golf tournaments and other sporting investments. Since early 2021, they have invested at least £4.9bn ($6.3bn) in various sporting events and are currently seeking to purchase the footballer Kylian Mbappé from Paris St Germain for a reported €300m. For them it buys kudos. The sums are so large that a significant number of sports stars are willing to overlook any considerations of human rights and sign up for the various lucrative deals on offer. The extent of their denial of rights can be seen in a report by grant Liberty.

Commercial activity

It would be unfair to heap blame on sports stars alone. After a brief lull following the murder and dismemberment of Adnan Khashoggi, western firms are all too willing to get involved in the many deals and contracts on offer from the kingdom. Even architectural practices are lured to the many contracts of offer as part of the massive half a trillion dollar Neom development being proposed in south west Saudi. We have been happy to supply Saudi with a variety of weapons and personnel to enable it to carry on its war in Yemen creating what, according to the UN, is the worst humanitarian disaster in modern history. In addition to football clubs, the Saudi investment fund is being eagerly welcomed to Teesside.

The significance of the change has not really been taken on board. Saudi’s enormous wealth, China burgeoning power and the increasing post-colonial confidence of countries like South Africa, means there has been a shift away from the ‘Washington consensus’. Human rights have little if any role to play in most of the Gulf states. Opposition is banned, torture is widely practised, human rights activists harassed or arrested and media tightly controlled. A similar story exists in China which operates as a one party state and where human rights norms are largely ignored.

Countries like the UK seem almost to have given up on any pretence that human rights form part of their decision making and in our relations with these countries. In a sense, it is part of our national decline particularly economically. In a word, we can no longer afford to pick and choose. If we want investment in our country, especially in less popular areas (economically speaking) then if a country like Saudi has the money then so be it. If we want sell arms then we must hold our noses and sell to more or less anyone who needs them. Noises are made about export controls and end user certificates, but the pressure is to steer round them not to use them as a force to limit their sale. The recent loss of the court case concerning arms sales to Yemen is a case in point. It is not just the government’s failure to properly consider human rights issues and the terrible effects of bombing in Yemen, but the judges seemed also to push reason to one side in their judgement.

Post war consensus

Post war and in the half century or so which followed, was a period of hope and a belief that human rights could be encouraged around the world. It was not all plain sailing and it took a long time for oppressive states like East Germany to collapse along with other east European states to gain freedom from the Soviet Union. Many countries achieved independence from the colonial powers, France and the UK principally. The UN and its various agencies was able to pursue policies and programmes of benefit to millions of people, tackling polio for example.

In recent times, the leadership of US is coming under strain. Internally, it is struggling with the very concept of democracy. European states are far from united and although there has been some unity in the response to the invasion of Ukraine, they seem far from making the weather as far as human rights and the rule of law are concerned.

What is interesting about sport is the lack of conscience or morality among a significant number of sporting people. If the money is sufficient, they accept the gig, with seemingly no compunction. That women are treated as second class citizens, executions are carried on at an horrific rate, sometimes in public, torture is routine and LGBTQ people are punished or imprisoned, seems not to trouble them. The question is whether this reflects the zeitgeist of the population at large? Are people no longer interested in human rights considerations in our sporting and commercial actions? Have we reached a point in our history where we no longer believe in things which were always said to be a key part of the British character: decency, fair play and respect for the underdog? It would seem so. If the public is more concerned with entertainment and the success or otherwise of their team or sporting hero, who can blame the sportsmen and women taking the millions of riyals on offer?

There does need to be a rethink of our approach to human rights. The belief in largely state led approaches, through treaties, declarations, legal actions and the like, is no longer sustainable especially if the states concerned are more concerned with economic pressures than with the rights of people often far away. The centre of gravity has to a large degree shifted away from the West to countries like China, the Gulf states, Russia and non-aligned countries like Brazil. Some of these countries have a different concept of rights and see Western countries only too willing to turn a blind eye if contracts and sufficient money is on offer. It would seem a little foolish to continue pursuing the post-war ideology in a world which has substantially moved away from those ideas.

Sources include: Amnesty International; New Statesman; Guardian; CAAT, Grant Liberty

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F1 and sportswashing


Formula 1 claims about change questioned

There is increasing interest in the question of sportswashing – that is the increasing use by despotic regimes to sanitise their reputations through funding sports events. The World Cup was a recent example where the Qatar regime spent billions to host this event a major part of which was to give the country a good image. There were many concerns surrounding the event and the treatment of the workforce used to build the stadia and other projects. According to Amnesty and other human rights observers:

On sites both connected and unconnected to the World Cup, migrant workers have encountered:

  • recruitment fees, wage theft, debilitating debt and broken dreams, including for impoverished
    families back home;
  • abuse by employers emboldened by excessive powers and impunity for their actions, sometimes
    trapping workers in conditions that amount to forced labour; and
  • unbearable and dangerous working and living conditions, with thousands of workers’ deaths
    remaining unexplained, and at least hundreds likely to have been linked to exposure to the country’s
    extreme heat.

Qatar was an example of a regime with a poor human rights record, hosting an international sporting event. Regimes and oligarchs have used their massive wealth to acquire sporting assets in the UK and elsewhere. Recent examples have included the purchase of Newcastle Football Club by Saudi interests. It is true that sport has always had some kind of ‘display’ function and during the cold war years, the Soviet government and its satellite countries devoted enormous energies to win Olympic medals. It has now seemed to have grown with a large range of sports visiting countries with poor or very poor human rights records to compete in well-funded events.

There does not seem to have been much of a reaction to this. Tens of thousands went to the World Cup and although there were some limited attempts to wear arm bands in support of LGBQ rights, generally protests were extremely limited.

Sporting interests like to claim that sport has a role in stimulating change. There seems little sign of this. There is encouraging news however that people are questioning the F1 event in Bahrain. It is reported that a group of 20 cross party MPs have written to the governing body, FIA, to call for an independent inquiry into the sport’s activities in countries like Bahrain with questionable human rights records. The FIA claims apparently that they are committed to improving conditions and the best way is through dialogue and its continued presence in the grand prix. Unfortunately, the human rights situation shows no sign of improvement with torture, forced disappearances and extrajudicial killings still taking place there according to the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy.

It is difficult for individual sportsmen and women to take action especially if they are professional. They go where the competitions are and where the contracts require them to.

Sportswashing is essentially about laundering regime’s reputations using PR firms and masses of money. It is used to hide atrocious human rights records and corruption. At its heart is money but also, a willingness of those involved in sport – including fans and spectators – to look the other way. Sport sits at the back of most newspapers and in reporting events, the money and what lies behind the sport seldom gets discussed. It seems detached from other political reporting making it ideal for the process of sanitising reputations. The funding of arts institutions by fossil fuel firms for example has come under scrutiny and has attracted a lot of criticism and the ending of some relationships. The Sackler family, of Oxycontin fame, have seen their name removed from many galleries and arts venues. So the spotlight can work.

Lewis Hamilton has queried the claims by Formula One that it is bringing positive change so perhaps a greater awareness of the role of sport in sanitising these regime’s reputations might happen.

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Qatar World Cup


October 2022

The World Cup, soon to start in Qatar, brings together in one place, sports washing, corruption and human rights abuses in a kind of symbolic statement of how to understand the modern world. FIFA itself is in a league all of its own in terms of corruption. It is reported that 16 of its voting members have been implicated in corruption or bad practice since Qatar was awarded the tournament. The list of enquiries investigations, legal actions and the like would take thousands of words to describe.

States like Qatar, with its enormous wealth derived from its massive reserves of natural gas, can afford to spend huge sums on supporting or sponsoring sporting events to green wash their dubious political activities. They are safe in the knowledge that simply by waving large cheques at sporting entities, they can secure these events with no sign of sportsmen or women, their managers or coaches, showing the least concern about the activities going on in those countries.

To build the stadiums has caused a large number of deaths, either from safety failures or from heat exhaustion. The labourers, recruited under the infamous kafala system, are unable to change employers, are not allowed to join a trade union, and live in appalling squalor often sleeping in shifts in the same bed. Their wages are often stolen and despite investigations and promises, there seems no end to the abuses. Various statements have been made by FIFA representatives expressing concern at the deaths and Qatar has made promises to improve their practices. It seems however, that nothing was actually done.

Women are still second-class citizens suffering under a range of gender-based restrictions. They must seek permission from a male guardian to study or travel abroad, marry, or work in some government jobs. Some hotels will not allow single women under the age of 35 to stay.

Some of the footballers have expressed concern but seemed to say there was nothing they could do, and it was all too late anyway since the stadiums were built. A boycott would serve no purpose one England team person said.

So, a tournament takes place soon, in a country where an unknown number of workers – with few rights – have died building the stadiums, where corruption on a massive scale has taken place and where women enjoy few rights. Nothing political will be said because we depend on their gas following Russia cutting off their supplies. Our sports pages will be full of the results and eager reportage of England’s progress in the tournament and will show scant attention to events beyond the pitch. A neat encapsulation of where human rights are today perhaps.

Sources used in this post: HRW; al Jazeera, Amnesty; The Guardian

Readers may also like to link to FairSquare human rights organisation, based in London, which has published reports on abusive labour practices in Qatar.

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