In early January 2023, Saudi soccer club Al Nassr announced the signing of Cristiano Ronaldo. Considered by many fans to be one of the greatest athletes of all time, this move was unprecedented in the world of sport. Yet, not even a year ago the Saudi League was seen as insubstantial, uncompetitive, and overall in need of more funding. This move abruptly pushed Saudi Arabian soccer, and the national Saudi Pro League, into the limelight. Al Nassr’s Instagram followers increased fourfold in just a matter of 24 hours. Newspapers across the world were now being headlined by Ronaldo’s transfer. 

Soon, other household names began to follow Ronaldo to Saudi Arabia such as Neymar, Karim Benzema, and Sadio Mane. Every transfer was subsequently followed by front-page stories in major news outlets such as The New York Times, The Guardian, and The Washington Post. Media consumers who hadn’t previously followed the sport started to watch and support the growth of the Saudi Pro League. Incredibly, since Ronaldo’s transfer was announced, the number of viewers and total revenue of the league has increased by 650%. 

The Saudi government’s investment in domestic sports doesn’t stop here though. In 2020, Saudi Arabia signed an agreement with the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) for a speculated 10-year deal to host a Grand Prix in the country. This investment extends to attempts to get a future Professional Golfer’s Association (PGA) tournament played in Saudi Arabia. In these examples and others it becomes visible that the Middle Eastern nation has determined that professional sports will be a major area of future investment. According to The Guardian, Saudi Arabia has invested a total of 6.3 billion USD in the nation’s sports industry from January 2021 to July 2023. In contrast, during the six years before 2021, they had only invested a quarter of that amount.

To the naked eye, there appears to be a sporting “revolution” occurring within Saudi Arabia. This concept is reinforced by the aforementioned articles detailing the country’s mass investment in recent years. However, it can be argued that this is all just a diversion meant to manipulate public opinion of the country. What the media focuses much less on is the repeated human rights violations being carried out by Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz and his government officials. Political scientists have termed these tactics as “sportswashing.” According to The Australian Human Rights Institute, the portmanteau “sportswashing” refers to “the use of sport to redirect public attention away from unethical conduct.” Through means of distracting sports, the Saudi government can limit the international backlash they receive for their extensive list of human rights violations.  

The term “sportswashing” was first used to describe Azerbaijan when they hosted the 2015 European Games to distract from countless infringements on basic human liberties. However, the concept of sportswashing isn’t unique to the last decade. The Nazi party hosted the 1936 Summer Olympics in an attempt to divert attention away from their preparation for war and the establishment of work camps for Jews as early as 1933. Decades later in the 1970s the Argentinian government and democratically-elected Isabel Peron were overthrown in a violent military coup referred to as the “Guerra Sucia.” Once the militant junta came to power, they killed and “disappeared” up to 30,000 citizens for speaking out against the regime. During Argentina’s hosting of the 1978 World Cup, one of the military junta leaders Emilio Massera stated that hosting the tournament would “help push back against the criticism that [was] raining on [them] from around the world.” 

It appears that Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz has also determined that sportswashing is an efficient technique to divert public attention. Due to the large number of stories on the influx of investment in Saudi sports, there is less room in papers for critical stories on the country’s deprivation of basic human liberties. One example of this is the thousands of East African immigrants who have been killed by Saudi border guards on the Yemeni border. Although this topic is reported, it has in many cases been pushed to the bottom of the back pages of papers. In the last few decades, millions of migrants have poured out of Ethiopia due to poor economic conditions, continuous widespread food insecurity, and internal militant conflicts. Many of them find refuge in Saudi Arabia which has become one of the most popular destinations for Ethiopian immigrants in the last decade. The most frequently used border crossings are through land routes via Yemen. Unfortunately, these crossings have become quite perilous. Saudi border guards have taken extreme measures to prohibit these struggling refugees from entering their country. Now bodies of Ethiopian men, women, and children line the mountainous terrain along the Saudi-Yemeni border. 

Accounts from surviving refugees tell of border guards shooting at them from point-blank range as well as firing mortars into large civilian groups. Human Rights Watch published an in-depth piece earlier this year on the situation titled “They Fired on Us Like Rain.” One of their interviewees Munira describes some of these harrowing events: “I saw a guy calling for help, he lost both his legs. He was screaming; he was saying, ‘Are you leaving me here? Please don’t leave me.’ We couldn’t help him because we were running for our lives.”

Saudi Arabia has violated numerous sections under Article 8 of the Geneva Accords, in which they are a co-signatory. For example, Article 8 Section 2 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, which rules on breaches of the Geneva Convention, states that it is illegal to “[i]ntentionally direct attacks against the civilian population as such or against civilians not taking direct part in hostilities.” 

Interestingly enough, heavily arming the border guards hasn’t been in response to the mass migration of Ethiopian refugees across the Southern border. Instead, it is due to an ongoing war between the Saudi government and the Iran-backed Houthi rebels who control the majority of Yemen. Militarizing and securing the border from a potential Houthi attack is completely reasonable; however, it appears that the guards have decided to indiscriminately shoot at those near the border, making no distinction between refugees and terrorists. Not to mention, the Houthis haven’t even attempted to cross into Saudi Arabia since 2009. Due to all these reasons, there is no excuse for mistaking impoverished, fleeing migrants for terrorists or any potential threat for that matter. 

 In my opinion, events such as these should be headlining newspapers, not news of the Saudi government throwing money around to attract athletes and sports fans to the country. While there are plenty of news articles on the situation at the border, they haven’t appeared to garner substantial attention, making way for stories on the country’s recent sports investment to lead the headlines. 

This is exemplified by the news coverage following June 6, 2023, as the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) made two significant sports deals. First, the PIF announced that it had bought 75% of four of the largest soccer clubs in the country. On the same day, the LIV, which is 93% owned by the Saudi Public Investment Fund, announced a massive merger with the PGA Tour. Yet, while these large deals were occurring, Human Rights Watch made a startling discovery on Saudi Arabia’s southern border. Using satellite imaging, the nonprofit identified at least 8 burial sites consisting of a total of 287 graves belonging to Ethiopian migrants. In addition, many decaying bodies of men, women, and young children were found lying along the route left unburied and tattered with gunshot wounds. 

In the month following these events, The New York Times published a minimum of 40 articles discussing the Saudi sports industry. Meanwhile, there isn’t one single article discussing the brutal killing of these Ethiopian migrants despite numerous accounts of their occurrence during the aforementioned time frame. If we use this as a metric, then sportswashing appears to be a well-implemented, highly effective political tactic of the Saudi government. 

In the end, it is no secret Saudi Arabia has a long track record of human rights violations and attempts to cover them up. Take Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi journalist who was assassinated by his own government after speaking out against their poor history of preserving human rights. Other examples include the recent passage of the Personal Status Law which has furthered discrimination against women in the country or perhaps the unethical trials of minors and mass executions of supposed criminals. The list goes on and on. The human rights violations being carried out at the Yemeni border aren’t a one-off incident. Saudi Arabia has had to become creative in finding ways to shape how their country is viewed by the general international public. Sportswashing is just one of many tactics implemented by the Middle Eastern nation in recent times. 

Furthermore, we also must begin questioning the many major news outlets that have failed to properly report on the events occurring on the Yemeni border. Saudi Arabia retains significant political clout, encouraging countries to feel as if they should “play nice” with them. However, the media doesn’t have to be held to these same standards. The media should shine a light on some of the darkest parts of humanity, forcing oppressors like the Saudi government to be held accountable. It should be used to bridge the gap between corrupt government actions and public knowledge. I would even argue that shying away from reporting on these events makes media outlets partly responsible themselves. 

I’m uncertain of how significant a role sportswashing will play in international politics and public perception in the future. However, any tactic that can significantly redirect public attention from copious amounts of human rights atrocities must be made aware of. I urge everyone to actively evaluate situations such as those in Saudi Arabia and attempt to see past these deceptive tactics — only then can you get a true picture of the situation and subsequently formulate your own opinions.