What will you be doing seven days before Christmas? Did you know that, on December 18 of this year, it is ‘Bake Cookies Day’? And did you know that it is also ‘Roast Suckling Pig Day’?
However, December 18 will go down as one of the darkest days in sport history this world has ever known. For this day will mark the final of the 2022 FIFA World Cup, in one of the world’s most despotic regimes.
On December 2, 2010, the 22 executive FIFA council members voted in favour of Qatar hosting the prestigious World Cup, ahead of favourites the US, Australia, Japan and South Korea. Qatar. A desert nation of only 1.7 million people.
There was more than a whiff of corruption in this arrangement. Six months later, whistleblower Phaedra al-Majeil, who was part of the country’s winning bid, claimed that Qatar paid $1.5 million to African football representatives.
In February 2015, it was announced that the competition would be moved to winter, to avoid the excessive summer heat. This will be the first time in the competition’s history that it has not been held in June, July or August.
This in a country where sex outside marriage can be punished by public flogging and male guardians must approve the travel and driving of their female charges. Same-sex relationships are frowned upon and can even be punishable by death.
This is a country where over 6,000 migrant workers died in the 10 years until 2021 and at least 37 died constructing the stadia for the competition, leaving families destitute and in complete distress. Even now, the disrespected Sepp Blatter has admitted it was a mistake.
There is a term associated with sport and countries which accept no criticism and terrify their peoples. ‘Sportswashing’ is the term coined by Amnesty International. This is taking something horrible and associating it with something high profile and acceptable so the names of those countries, their airlines and multinationals become “soft and fluffy” in advertising terms.
About a year ago, famous English Premier League football club Newcastle United was in effect taken over by the government of Saudi Arabia. The club was purchased by the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF), a sovereign wealth fund chaired by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Five months after the takeover, the Saudi government executed 81 people, Saudi and non-Saudi citizens, all convicted of various crimes but including vague convictions such as “to destabilise security, sow discord and unrest and cause riots and chaos”.
Lynn Maalouf, Amnesty International’s deputy regional director, said at the time: “This execution spree is all the more chilling in light of Saudi Arabia’s deeply flawed justice system, which metes out death sentences following trials that are grossly and blatantly unfair.”
Only four years ago, journalist and Saudi citizen Jamal Khashoggi was murdered in his own country’s embassy in Istanbul. Khashoggi, a distinguished journalist who wrote critically of Bin Salman’s repression and the horrendous war waged in Yemen, was killed and dismembered at the Saudi consulate.
The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights stated in its report that the Saudi Arabian state was responsible.
We can make sure we don’t fall victim to sportswashing- Tom Welch
The CIA concluded, in November 2018, according to authoritative US reporting, that Bin Salman, the same man now in charge of Newscatle United, ordered the murder. He has denied it.
Sportswashing, on a grand scale, indeed.
I follow a very obscure, lower league football team. In Malta, we also enjoy following some of Europe’s biggest teams like Manchester City, Arsenal, Real Madrid and Paris St Germain. All clubs are owned or sponsored by regimes with appalling records on human rights.
Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan is a member of Abu Dhabi’s royal family and the majority shareholder of CFG, the company that owns Premier League club Manchester City. Flogging and stoning are legal forms of judicial punishment due to Sharia courts.
The government restricts freedom of speech and freedom of the press and the local media are censored to avoid criticising the government, government officials or royal families.
PSG is owned by World Cup country of choice Qatar and they also sponsor Bayern Munich.
The Arsenal shirt sponsors are Emirates Airlines and, like Abu Dhabi, are another part of United Arab Emirates (UAE) with similar laws.
Nearer to home, on Europe’s border, is a national airline which sponsors the prestigious UEFA Champions League competition. Turkey, the country that imprisons more journalists per capita than any other country in the world.
It has a brutal judicial system which also sees lawyers, politicians and protestors imprisoned on charges which do not exist in normally democratic countries.
Sportswashing. That word again.
If you have read this far, you’ll likely say: “What can we do?” The answer is: “Not much.” But we can make sure we don’t fall victim to sportswashing.
I’d love to visit Istanbul but will not visit Turkey, certainly not while President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is in power. I have no desire to visit the glittering desert city that is Dubai and I won’t be persuaded by friends who say “you really must fly Emirates!”.
And, on Gozo, on December 18, I’ll be eating suckling pig… I might even bake a cookie.
Tom Welch is a former UK regional newspaper publisher living on Gozo.