Cristiano Ronaldo’s new relationship with Saudi Arabia has stirred the football world. But Lionel Messi has curious ties to the country that has long been accused of sportswashing.
Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi are the two biggest football stars this generation has seen.While they differ in personality and playing style, both athletes have cemented their places as genuine greats of the game.And they’re linked by one curious common factor – a close involvement with Saudi Arabia.
Portuguese star Ronaldo, 37, left English giants Manchester United in November and joined Saudi club Al Nassr last week. He’s signed a reported $315m-a-year deal until the end of 2025, making him the highest-earning player in history.His signing with the club, which is financially backed by the Saudi government, has prompted outrage from activists who have accused him of being complicit in sportswashing.Argentinian captain Messi, 35, also has lucrative ties to Riyadh. Last May, he was announced as Saudi Arabia’s tourism ambassador and highlighted a series of promotional visits to Riyadh and Jeddah on his social media. The monetary value of his deal has not been announced but has been reported to be worth around $40 million.
Their deals have again thrust into the spotlight questions on whether athletes such as Ronaldo and Messi have a responsibility to call out alleged human rights abuses – and whether Saudi Arabia’s forays into the sporting world are unique.
Sportswashing or ‘soft power’
Saudi Arabia has significantly ramped up its push to have its name connected to the world’s biggest sports in the past three years, all helped by the country’s sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund (PIF).The kingdom has hosted the Formula 1 Grand Prix for the first time, bought the Newcastle United football club in England through the PIF and funded Greg Norman’s controversial LIV golf league. Now it has the world’s most famous footballers on board.
Those moves have all promoted accusations of sportswashing.Sportswashing refers to a country or institution using sport to divert attention from allegations of human rights abuses directed against it. For Saudi Arabia, that includes claims of unequal rights for women and the LGBTIQ+ community from major human rights groups.Most notably, Saudi Arabia was heavily criticised after Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi was murdered inside the Saudi consulate in Turkey in 2018. The appointment of Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman prompted Khashoggi to speak out against the government and moved to the United States to avoid persecution after a series of arrests of activists and journalists were ordered. The crown prince has denied responsibility for his killing.
In a statement on Thursday, Amnesty International’s Middle East researcher Dana Ahmed said Ronaldo’s signing feeds into a “wider pattern” of sportswashing in Saudi Arabia.She said she believes Saudi authorities will use Ronaldo’s presence in their country as a means of “distracting from the country’s appalling human rights record”.”Instead of offering uncritical praise of Saudi Arabia, Ronaldo should use his considerable public platform to draw attention to human rights issues in the country,” she said.
Sportswashing is a term that Steve Georgakis, University of Sydney’s senior lecturer in pedagogy and sports studies, describes instead as a “soft power” – a tool used by many nations through sport, aimed at legitimising their political status in the world.”Really, all international sport, in a way, historically was sportswashing. It was always politicised. Anyone that ever held an Olympic Games or a World Cup held it for political reasons,” he said.
Saudi Arabia climbing the sports ladder
Saudi Arabia’s luring of Ronaldo as part of a greater move to elevate its status is not a new phenomenon. The rich nation has moved quickly in recent years to establish a name for itself in the tourism and sporting markets.It appears to be one of the many jigsaw puzzles being pieced together as part of Saudi’s grand tourism plan, dubbed Vision 2030. The government website describes Vision 2030 as a “unique transformative economic and social reform blueprint that is opening Saudi Arabia up to the world”. It is designed in part to reduce the Saudi economy’s reliance on oil.
And there are already signs of success, with a yet-to-be-built resort city in Saudi Arabia, called NEOM, set to host the 2029 Asian Winter Games. NEOM, a $770 billion development, is one of the projects that Saudi’s tourism ministry is working on to bolster the country’s standing.During the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, tourism minister Ahmed Al Khateeb said in an interview with Saudi magazine Riyadh that the country was considering a joint bid to stage the 2030 World Cup, with Egypt and Greece.Messi, currently the face of the “Visit Saudi” tourism campaign, may find himself promoting the nation ahead of the anticipated bid – despite Argentina being a contender to host the 2030 World Cup alongside Paraguay, Chile and Uruguay.Dr Georgakis said that this form of power that Saudi Arabia is leveraging is not an uncommon one – all international sporting events are politicised to benefit the country’s reputational standing.”It’s these countries making a statement around the world that they may be small nations, but they’ve got a vested interest in actually being part of the global world and they use sport to do that,” he said.Former Socceroo and human rights advocate Craig Foster, who during the 2022 World Cup was a vocal critic of Qatar’s treatment of LGBTIQ+ people and migrant workers, also called Ronaldo out on Twitter.
But Dr Georgakis said while it was likely never possible to separate politics from sports, it was “nonsensical” to unfairly criticise Saudi Arabia without highlighting issues from every other country as well – including North America as it gears up to host the next FIFA World Cup in 2026.”A lot of the countries that are wealthy that host these games use soft power to legitimise their own societies. But they’re not perfect. None of them are perfect,” he said.”We’re virtue signalling to the rest of the world on issues that we think are important and in many ways, we turn a blind eye to other things.”Are we going to have these issues when America holds it?”
