Over the past few days, human rights advocates condemned the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's deal to buy Newcastle United in an attempt to deal to whitewash the bloody record of the Saudi regime.
In the same context, Amnesty International called on the English Premier League to focus on human rights issues, work to prevent the use of sport to beautify the dictatorial image, and reject the deal led by the Saudi Investment Fund headed by Saudi Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman.
The Sovereign Investment Fund headed by bin Salman, whose investments amount to 430 billion dollars which focuses on diversifying its economy instead of completely relying on oil, had announced a deal to buy Newcastle for 305 million sterling pounds, according to financial reports., equivalent to (415 million dollars).
Sasha Deshmukh, chief executive of Amnesty International UK, said in a comment: “Since the beginning of talk about this deal, we have said that it represents a clear attempt by the Saudi authorities to exploit sport to beautify their appalling human rights record with the magic of first-class football.”
It is worth noting that the original deal to buy Newcastle failed in July of last year 2020 amid scrutiny by officials of the Premier League, after it was pressured to stop the deal, due to concerns related to the alleged piracy of television broadcasts in Saudi Arabia, where the piracy dispute includes a group of channels (B. N) Qatari sports, which owns the television rights to broadcast Premier League matches across the Middle East, and is prohibited from working in Saudi Arabia, but Saudi Arabia took the initiative to lift the ban one day before talking about the deal, which removed a major obstacle to the Newcastle deal, however concerns about the kingdom's human rights record remain strong in international circles.
For its part, the English Premier League announced, in an official statement on the website, the completion of the transfer of ownership of Newcastle United club, to the Saudi Investment Fund, after completing all the legal matters.
The English Premier League confirmed a legal commitment from the Saudi Investment Fund, that the acquisition of Newcastle United does not mean the kingdom’s control of the team, explaining that it congratulates Newcastle and the new owners.
Specialists in Saudi affairs said that the general goal of this is to whitewash and beautify the image of Bin Salman on the third anniversary of the murder and dismemberment of the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, considering that Bin Salman’s delusion of buying the world’s debts will never become true, especially in light of the mounting violations in the human rights file in The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, where prisons are filled with tens of thousands of preachers, politicians, jurists and community activism, and everyone who seemed to have an opinion that contradicts bin Salman’s directions.
