LOL...



Saudi crown prince says he will keep ‘sportswashing’ as criticism of the practice grows

Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman embraced accusations of “sportswashing” to rehabilitate the country’s image, as the kingdom beefs up its spending and influence in major international sports such as golf and soccer.

“Well, if sportswashing is going to increase my GDP by way of 1%, I will continue doing sportswashing,” he said during an interview with Fox News that aired Wednesday night.

“I don’t care ... I’m aiming for another one and a half percent. Call it whatever you want, we’re going to get that one and a half percent,” the crown prince added.

Critics have long said the Saudi government is using sports investments to gain political influence around the world, as well as to mend the kingdom’s tarnished reputation from human rights abuses like the killing of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The practice was dubbed “sportswashing.”

The Saudi kingdom has ramped up investments in sports in recent years, taking stakes in Saudi soccer clubs and recruiting top players like Cristiano Ronaldo and Neymar from Europe to Saudi Arabia with deals reportedly as high as $175 million. It also lured golfers like Dustin Johnson and Bryson DeChambeau away from the PGA Tour to its rival LIV Golf with massive paydays — before the organizations ultimately agreed to merge.

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/09/21/saud...tswashing.html

The Saudi's could literally buy every professional north american sports league if they wanted to lol.

They’ve got a long term deal with WWE to hold ppvs over there. And I admit eve. Though the women have to wrestle fully covered the have some rabid fans over there that. The crowds are electric for wwe. Especially Sami Zayn naturally

Good on Tiger and Rory telling them to F themselves.

Lol'd the other day when I heard Lanny Wadkins say Phil Mickelson would be homeless gambling in a ditch if it weren't for golf. LOL

SA keeps a balanced budget. They're withholding a little oil to get prices up high, solely to keep their budgets balanced. The higher price of oil per barrel more than makes up for the number of barrels not sold. Fuark, I'm a little jelly about that. Some people think China's oil demand will peak by 2030, but I doubt it. Even though they've been going down in population for likely a decade I still think they'll be using more oil for 20 more years.

It will be lulzy if SA buys NASCAR. The irony would be huge.

"Muhammad Sufyaan el-Quadri wins the Daytona 500!"

Looking forward to our camel racing overlords.. lol

Maybe they’ll make it main stream again.

20 yrs when all the boomers (target audience) are dead and gone nascar will become a thing of the past. Good riddance.