News - Middle East: Facing heavy criticism from its fans, German club Mainz insisted on Tuesday that a friendly game with Saudi-owned Newcastle would go ahead as planned.

Fans of Mainz and another German team, third-division 1860 Munich, have protested that the games amount to sportswashing, the use of sports events to burnish Saudi Arabia's image and play down human rights issues.

“Newcastle United is not just a soccer club but a vehicle for implementing the interests of a regime which tramples on human rights and whose politics are diametrically opposed to Mainz 05's values and mission statement," the Supporters Mainz group said last week.

Mainz management offered to meet fans to discuss their criticism of Saudi Arabia but said the game on July 18 at a training camp in Austria would go ahead for contractual reasons. The management argued Mainz had few opportunities to play leading European clubs.

Since Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund completed a deal to take majority control of Newcastle in October, the team has held a winter training camp in Saudi Arabia and released an “alternate kit” for next season in the white-and-green colors of the Saudi national team.

In the middle of last month, Newcastle United have come under fire from European media offended by their 'awful' new away kit in the green and white of Saudi Arabia.

The British daily newspaper, the Guardian, quoted Amnesty International as saying that Newcastle United wearing the colors of Saudi Arabia's national football team on their away shirt next season would be "clear evidence" of Gulf regime sportswashing.

The Saudi Investment Fund, headed by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, announced last October the acquisition of Newcastle United in a deal worth 300 million pounds ($370 million).