Campaigners have hit out after Newcastle United signed a £25million-a-year shirt sponsorship deal with a leading Saudi Arabian events company.
Amnesty International claims the contract with Sela is part of an ongoing sports-based PR effort by the desert kingdom to deflect from its human rights abuses. Sportswashing is when a country with a poor human rights reputation used the glamour of sport to cleanse itself and distract from the repression it carries out.
It comes as Saudi Arabia takes control of top-level golf with the shock announcement of a multi-billion dollar investment which sees its breakaway LIV league merge with the PGA and DP World Tours.
The multi-year Newcastle deal replaces the club’s £6.5m-a-year shirt sponsorship with the Chinese online gambling company Fun88 signed in 2017. Since then it has controversially been taken over by Saudi Arabia’s wealthy Public Investment Fund (PIF) with an 80% stake in the club, which has qualified for next season’s Champions League.
Sela – which is also owned by PIF - is the leading sporting and entertainment events organiser in Saudi Arabia, behind the popular motor sport, Race of Champions, and management partner of Riyadh Season, the biggest entertainment event in the Middle East.
Peter Frankental, Amnesty International UK’s Economic Affairs Director, said: “Newcastle’s recent success on the football field has been part and parcel of an enormous sports-based PR effort from the Saudi authorities, yet away from the glamour of the Premier League there’s been mounting repression in Saudi Arabia.
“We’ve seen a disturbing human rights crackdown under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, with government critics and human rights activists arrested, a spate of unfair trials, and with the death penalty widely used, including as a tool of political repression.
“Last year alone, the Saudi authorities executed 196 people, the highest number for at least 30 years, and the Leeds University PhD student Salma al-Shehab was given a long jail sentence for tweeting her support for Saudi women’s rights activists.
“Next season, when players are pulling on Sela-branded Newcastle football shirts, they should also be ready to field questions about sportswashing and the human rights abuses the Saudi authorities are trying to airbrush out of the picture.”
Deals of this nature will be waved through by the Premier League as long as they are considered to be of fair market value. Following PIF’s £300m takeover of Newcastle United the Premier League introduced new rules that clubs don’t get unfair financial advantages by agreeing commercial deals at inflated prices with companies linked to their owners.
The same would apply to Manchester City who have a £67.5m- a-season deal with Etihad Airways. Mr Frankental claims the shirt sponsorship deal was a logical step in the sportswashing exercise at the club which began with its takeover and can now reach a wider market with Newcastle’s qualification for the Champions League next season.
He added: “Saudi Arabia’s sportswashing at Newcastle was probably always going to include a shirt sponsorship deal so if this goes ahead it won’t come as any surprise whatsoever.”
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Last month Saudi Arabia executed three men in the eastern region of the country where there has been opposition from the local Shia population. Two people currently on Death Row were minors at the time of their arrest for taking part in demonstrations against the Saudi regime.
One was accused of crimes including attending funerals between the ages of 15 and 17 that were deemed by the authorities to be “protests”. Describing Sela as “the perfect partner”. Newcastle chairman Darren Eales said: “We team up at an exciting time in the history of both organisations given both share an ambitious vision to expand their brands globally.
“Fan engagement is central to what we do at Newcastle and, in Sela, we are partnering an organisation with shared interests that has delivered incredible events and experiences to millions of people over many years.”
Mirror Football has contacted Newcastle for comment.
