News - Middle East: Human Rights Watch reported on Saudi government's use of European football to whitewash its reputation. 

Forget JamalKashoggi, the journalist brutally murdered in a Saudi consulate, and all his colleagues jailed, censored or harassed in Saudi Arabia; don’t think about women's rights in the kingdom; and ignore the mass killing of migrants along the Saudi border with Yemen. Look, there, Saudi Arabia is hosting the Super Cup, Inter Milan, Real Madrid! It’s the country of Cristiano Ronaldo and Neymar, not repression and rampant human rights abuses, the report read.

This is how “sportswashing” works: laundering a government’s reputation by hosting major sport events that attract widespread, positive media attention, while diverting it away from the hosts abuses, it added. Saudi Arabia has been doing that for years  and intends to continue doing so.

The country recently hosted the men’s Spanish football Super Cup, despite warnings to LGBT and other visiting supporters from a participating team, and it is about to host the Italian equivalent. 

The report pointed out that these are just two examples among the many sporting and nonsporting events that Saudi Arabia is hosting as part of its “Vision 2030”, a multi-billion program backed by Saudi crown prince Mohammed Bin Salman aimed at diversifying the country’s economy and rehabilitating its image.

In May, Saudi human rights defenders, activists, and intellectuals issued “A People's Vision for Reform in Saudi Arabia ”, a document articulating a series of principles and reforms that should serve as the foundation of a rights-respecting Saudi Arabia.