London - Sana
The British newspaper "The Guardian" revealed that the Saudi regime has spent about $ 1.5 billion on high-level international sporting events in an attempt to wash its reputation and cover up its record of human rights violations.
According to the Guardian, a report published by the Grant Liberty Organization for Human Rights revealed that Saudi Arabia, which is one of the oil-rich countries, has spent millions of dollars in the world of sports, ranging from golf and chess championships to tennis, especially the Saudi Cup for the largest horse race in the world, on which it alone spent 60 million A dollar with a financial prize of 20 million.
The report added that Saudi Arabia has signed a $ 650 million contract with Formula 1 for a period of 10 years, which is expected to start its tournament next Sunday and will include, for the first time, the Saudi coastal city of Jeddah.
And Amnesty International had previously considered that organizing a Formula 1 race in Saudi Arabia would benefit the efforts made to whitewash its human rights record.
The "Grant Liberty" organization saw that the huge investment made by the Saudi regime and its implementation of what is known as "sports laundry" and its hosting of sporting events is an attempt to conceal the poor human rights record and to promote Saudi Arabia as a new global destination for tourism and important events.
The Saudi regime led the coalition of aggression on Yemen, which caused the death of more than a hundred thousand people, about 12,000 of them civilians, according to observers, about two-thirds of these victims were killed due to the Saudi aggression's air strikes campaign.
Saudi Arabia has also spent huge funds to ensure participation in global sporting events to present it as a country that represents a new friend for business and advanced future thinking, including an amount of $ 145 million for a three-year contract with the Spanish Federation to host the Super Cup that was not held last year due to the Corona virus pandemic yet. If it was established in 2019 and won the title at the time, "Real Madrid".
It also allocated $ 15 million for a one-time international men's golf tournament, in addition to spending $ 33 million on a billiards tournament and $ 100 million for the boxing match between Andy Ruiz Jr.and Anthony Joshua in 2019.
The Saudi regime also concluded a deal worth $ 500 million for 10 years with the company "Double U Double U" in 2014 to provide wrestling shows.
Lucy Ray of the "Grant Ray" organization said, "Saudi Arabia is trying to take advantage of the good reputation of the most famous sports stars to hide its human rights record full of brutality, torture and murder," and she was charged with human rights violations.
The organization indicated that the numbers reported for the contracts were monitored through the analysis of contracts signed by governmental organizations and institutions and do not include any agreements signed or completed by members of the royal family, noting that “This means that the amounts spent on sports laundry may be much greater than one and a half billion dollars. .
