Long term readers of the blog will know I have often spoken out against sporting events being “sold” to backwards countries in their attempt to divert the attention from those nations horrendous human rights track records.
We have seen F1, athletics, football, boxing and more go to these places, with all those athletes involved suddenly forgetting about what they have said about slavery, taking the knee, rainabow laces, etc. Sports washing.
On Saturday, we had the farce that was the Battle of Baddest take place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
We had Tyson Fury talking about how welcoming the murderous Saudi regime were to him, in comparison to the UK Government. The self proclaimed Gypsy King trying to criticise our authorities for not providing him with “special treatment” when going through airports.
The so-called “man of the people” celebrating he is invited for a cup of tea with heads of Government in Saudi Arabia whilst complaining that he has not even had a thank you letter from anyone in the UK Goverment. He has rightly been slammed by many.
The fight was just farcical.
Bought by the Saudi’s as part of their Riyadh season, they then splashed out millions to ensure that former champions and celebraties were ring side for their event.
I never want to hear any of those who took Saudi money to turn up ever talk about human rights, racism, homophobia or anything again. They have all shown their morals can be bought. Just like Jordan Henderson.
The fight was launching the Saudi’s Riyadh Season. A 6 month “state-sponsored annual entertainment and sports festival”. Basically, the worlds biggest sportswashing initiative.
Interested in what Riyadh Season involved beyong boxing, I checked out its Wikipedia page.
The usual suspects were there – boxing, UFC, wrestling, tennis. But there was also football…
The Turkish Super Cup (their version of the Community Shield) is set to be held in Saudi Arabia.
The match between Galatasaray and Fenerbahce will be the 2nd time in 3 years that the Turksih FA have taken the Arab oil money and hosted the game abroad.
Back in 2021, the Turkish Super Cup was sold to Qatar. Just 3,500 turned up for it. In comparison, a year later nearly 47,000 were at the Ataturk Olympic Stadium in Istanbul. The Turkish FA are literally taking a game away from the fans for (probably) plenty of brown envelopes.
And it is not just Turkey who have sold games to Saudi Arabia for Riyadh Season.
La Liga are also in on the act, selling the 2023–24 Supercopa de Espana to the Saudis. This will be the 4th time in 5 years that the Supercopa has taken place in Riyadh
Real Madrid v Atletico Madrid and Barcelona v Osasuna will both take place in Riyadh in January. The winners will then face eachother in the final on 14 January.
La Liga had actually expanded the tournament from the traditional 2-team League Champions v Domestic Cup Winners to a 4-team tournament to enable them to sell it abroad.
Italy have also followed suit, with the expanded 2023 Supercoppa Italiana set to be part of Riyadh Season.
A week after the Supercopa de Espana finishes, Napoli will face Fiorentina and Inter Milan will play against Lazio. The final will take place on 25 January.
Manchester City are also set to play a Saudi All Stars XI in the Riyadh Season Cup. This will probably take place during the mid-season winter “break”.
I look forward to hearing Pep Guardiola complain again about how many games his players have to play, whilst the club arranged meaningless friendlies in what should be a rest period.
How long will it be until the FA get in on the act. Follow Spain and Italy and expand the Community Shield to a 4-team tournament and take it from Wembley to whichever Arab nations pays them the most.
If they do it, it will show all the Black Lives Matters posters, the taking the knee, the rainbow laces, etc are just virtue signalling. That the FA do not really care about any of these things and their morals can be bought.
Likewise, it will show that all the guff around the European Super League was just because they feared losing “their game”, and was not in protection of match-going fans.
Some of you reading the blog and thinking of commenting “Arsenal are a global club. We deserve games in our country”. Save you energy. I do not care for your opinion.
Arsenal existed before being a global brand, and will still exist after. Football thrives in places like Norway, Denmark, Poland and others where there is a not a huge export of TV rights. Local fans supporting local teams. That is where the passion is.
I have a fear that it will not be the European Super League that breaks up football, but a Liv Golf style “Saudi League”, which would see top European clubs leave their domestic leagues and join an international Super League funded by the Saudis.
An NFL style franchise league where teams play some games in England, Spain or Italy, and then others in Saudi Arabia and beyond.
If Arsenal ever joined something like, football will be dead for me. I also think the authorities would be overestimating how much interest there is in football in these countries and how quickly having Madrid, Barcelona or Munich in town every other week will wear off.
Turkey, Italy and Spain have already taken games away from their local fans to fill the pockets of officials. England might not be far from joining them…
Keenos
She Wore A Yellow Ribbon 
I was going the game I put in the correct answer and it still said it was wrong, even though I got it confirmed I was later it was correct
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