Saudi Minister of Sports Abdulaziz bin Turki al-Faisal said, commenting on Al-Nasr club’s contract with Cristiano Ronaldo: We will support the rest of our clubs with good deals with international stars soon. The statement confirms the direct relationship of the Saudi government to this deal or similar ones in the future.
The contract with Ronaldo represents the most prominent step in the sports-washing approach that Saudi Arabia has worked hard on. It has spent enormous amounts of money on it. Its practices come in conjunction with the worst human rights record the country is experiencing. This is led by Mohammed bin Salman, who has absolute control over all powers and decisions in the state.
At the time this deal took place, the people were still suffering from unprecedented persecution on more than one level. Saudi Arabia carried out the largest massacre in its history by killing 81 detainees at once in March 2022. Executions on charges not considered among the most serious by the law are still on the rise. There are currently at least 60 political detainees threatened with death, including minors, with indications that Saudi Arabia may carry out a horrific massacre involving dozens.
The persecution of women has also reached unbridled levels, as the judiciary, which is entirely controlled by Mohammed bin Salman, issued horrific rulings, amounting to nearly a century, against women for sharing their opinions on social media or interacting with retweets, such as Salma Al-Shihab, Noura Al-Qahtani, and the Tunisian Mahdia Marzougui.
Saudi Arabia has also persisted in recent years in large-scale forced displacement, the level of brutal torture in prisons has escalated, and not even women have been excluded from it. Freedom of expression has been fiercely targeted. All human rights defenders have been targeted. Enforced disappearances have doubled, and the number of people fleeing Saudi Arabia to escape repression has increased.
While the deal with Ronaldo is the most expensive in sports history, the people are living in a stressful economic situation. The number of poor has increased, and various types of taxes and fees have accumulated unprecedentedly.
The European Saudi Organisation for Human Rights believes sports washing, such as contracting with Cristiano Ronaldo, buying Newcastle Club and holding major sporting events, has become the norm for covering up the atrocities and crimes led by Mohammed bin Salman.