Skip to main content
NEU Senior Industrial Organiser
Saudi Arabia’s sportswashing billions can’t cleanse the brutal truth
From golf and football to Formula One, the kingdom uses unprecedented investments in global sport to divert attention from its persecution of journalists, dissidents and women, write BELLA KATZ and ROGER McKENZIE
GROTESQUE DISTRACTIONS: Bebe Rexha and David Guetta perform during the Fifa Club World Cup 2023 final at the King Abdullah Sports City Stadium in Saudi Arabia, December 2023

THE phrase a man walks into a consulate could be the beginning of some sort of distasteful joke. But this is no joke.

Back in October 2018, Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi did in fact walk into his country’s consulate in Istanbul, Turkey to obtain documents he needed for his forthcoming marriage. He never walked out.

Instead, he was murdered on what a United States intelligence report asserted was the direct order of the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
Female racing driver Aseel al-Hamad celebrates the end of the ban on women drivers in 2018 with a lap of honour in a sports car. Photo: JaguarMENA/ Creative Commons
Women's Rights / 25 November 2025
25 November 2025

As Saudi Arabia is hailed abroad for its ‘reforms,’ the reality for women inside the kingdom grows ever more repressive. On the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, MARYAM ALDOSSARI argues it is time to stop applauding the illusion – and start listening to the women the state works hardest to silence

Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (left) FIFA President Gianni Infantino (centre) and Russian President Vladimir Putin watch the match between Russia and Saudi Arabia at the Luzhniki stadium in Moscow, Russia, on June 14, 2018
Men’s football / 16 May 2025
16 May 2025

Report raises alarm over ‘preventable deaths’ of labourers in Saudi Arabia

Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman’s face in lights at
Men’s Boxing / 27 February 2025
27 February 2025
JOHN WIGHT questions how legend of the sport Roberto Duran is lending credibility to the sportswashing circus that is Riyadh Season — and at what cost?