Leaked photos purportedly showing new shirts for English club Newcastle have sparked a heated controversy that has reverberated across Arab countries, with human rights activists harshly criticizing the “Saudi money”. What is the story of those shirts and what is Saudi Arabia’s relationship with them?
It is very clear that football is no longer just a popular sport, for many countries that have recently tried to invest in this field by signing international stars or buying prestigious clubs.
Last October, the Saudi Public Investment Fund announced the purchase of the English club Newcastle United, after a long struggle during which the Kingdom knocked on several doors in the world of football.
The Newcastle purchase deal was met with anger from a number of human rights organizations, as some saw it as “an attempt to polish Saudi Arabia’s image politically.”
Newcastle reserve uniform “Saudi”?
It seems that the controversy surrounding Saudi Arabia’s purchase of one of the most important clubs in the English Premier League is not going to end anytime soon.
British press reports talked about tweeters leaking pictures on the internet stating that the England team will launch a new set of shirts similar to the uniforms of the Saudi national team, known for its green and white colours.
The BBC could not independently verify the authenticity of these images. We also tried to get a comment from the Newcastle club management but we have not received any response as of this writing.
The circulated photos show white shirts with the Newcastle logo with sleeves and a green collar, making them very similar to the shirt of the Saudi national team.
Although the English team will keep its traditional black and white shirts as a basic uniform, British newspapers have reported that the team will adopt the green-striped white uniform during the matches it plays away from its stadium.
Newcastle have never worn shirts in this colour.
It seemed that the only objective in choosing these new designs was to increase the club’s income after selling the shirts in the Kingdom, but many saw other dimensions in the matter.
Divided opinions
“These are just shirts not worth all this controversy,” a Newcastle fan said on Twitter.
However, what some see as a natural step that falls within the club’s marketing strategy, other commentators see it as “a clear attempt to use football to burnish Saudi Arabia’s image and its record of human rights abuses,” as they put it .
In this context, the head of British campaigns at Amnesty International, Jackson Felix, criticized the use of Saudi money in sports.
And he continued in a statement to a journalist ‘ The Guardian: “If the news of the English club choosing a kit similar to the shirts of the Saudi national football team is confirmed, it will be clear evidence of the Kingdom’s exploitation of the club to damage its reputation improve.”
Felix added that this would “refute all their previous assurances of the separation of the sports club from its Saudi owners.”
At a time when Arab commentators see the association of football clubs with government agencies as a destruction of sport itself, others celebrate “the success of Saudi soft power in promoting a new image of the queen, who has long been in the minds of of some associated with Wahhabism.”
Diplomacy t-shirts
Saudi Arabia has invested in “sports diplomacy” through its sponsorship of many local and international sports competitions and clubs.
The acquisition of Newcastle United is one of the biggest investments Saudi Arabia has made in this area.
About a day ago, Majid Al-Surour, CEO of the Saudi Golf Association, was appointed as a member of the club’s board of directors.
Al-Sorour will join Yasser Al-Rumayyan, governor of the Saudi Investment Fund, which owns 80% of the English club’s stock.
And within the framework of the sports policies used to market the image of the “new kingdom”, Lionel Messi, the star of the Argentine national team and Paris Saint-Germain, was appointed on Monday as an ambassador for tourism in the Kingdom . .
During the past few years, the head of the Entertainment Authority, Turki Al-Sheikh, has tried to organize international football and sports events within the Kingdom.
Among them are the Spanish Super Cup and Italian Super Cup matches hosted by the Kingdom in 2019.
In the same year, Turki Al-Sheikh managed to buy the Spanish club Almeria, which competes in the second division of the Spanish League.
As innocent as these Saudi moves seem, observers warn against using them to advance Saudi foreign policy and to divert attention from the ongoing war in Yemen and the restrictions imposed on press freedom in the Kingdom.
Saudi Arabia is notAlone
Those who follow sports and entertainment will notice that Saudi Arabia’s steps have come late compared to neighboring countries.
Qatar is considered one of the first Gulf countries to adopt sports diplomacy, to the extent that it has allocated a section for this file in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Qatar has thus secured the hosting of the World Cup in 2022. The head of Qatar Sports Investments, Nasser Al-Khulaifi, also managed to buy the French club “Paris Saint-Germain” and strengthened its ranks with a number of the brightest. soccer stars.
The case is not much different in the UAE, which has preceded its Gulf counterparts in this area.
In 2008, the Abu Dhabi Investment Group, owned by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister, acquired the English club Manchester City, quickly transforming it from a weak club burdened with debt to one of the most important teams in Europe.
And to market the Emirati company, “Etihad Airways”, the English club introduced the name “Al-Ittihad” on its own stadium.
The effects of these investments in sport are reflected in the image of the Gulf countries. Sometimes we hear the fans of those clubs chanting the names of those countries, and other times the voices rejecting the use of football to manipulate people’s perception and whitewash the image of governments.
Here some question whether these massive investments are aimed at changing the European idea of the region and developing close cultural and economic ties, or do they have purely political motives?
There are many examples of foreign countries that have chosen to improve their image and attract tourists through the shirts of international clubs.