GENEVA (AP) — Saudi Arabia’s growing influence and massive spending in global sports ahead of being confirmed by FIFA as the 2034 World Cup host was detailed on Monday in a report that cited risks to good governance off the field.
More than 900 sponsor deals — more than one-third traced to the $925 billion Saudi sovereign wealth fund — and a network of officials with overlapping state, business and sports roles were cited by Play The Game, a publicly funded sports ethics institute in Denmark.
The oil-rich kingdom’s investment of tens of billions of dollars in soccer, golf, boxing, tennis, the Esports Olympics and a yet-to-be-built ski resort will get its most coveted prize next week from FIFA, the 2034 World Cup in men’s soccer.
The close ties between FIFA president Gianni Infantino and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman were built since 2018 amid global criticism of the kingdom’s record on human rights, including for women, migrant workers and freedom of expression.
“Saudi Arabia’s sports strategy seeks to divert attention from these realities, revealing the tension between the ideals of sport and the realities of power, money, and politics,” Play The Game’s Stanis Elsborg said in the report.
FIFA passed a mandatory step toward the 2034 decision by publishing at the weekend an in-house evaluation of the World Cup hosting plan that offered more praise than critical analysis, including labor issues for how most of the 15 stadiums will be built.
On Dec. 11 in Zurich, FIFA will host an online meeting to ask more than 200 member federations to acclaim Saudi Arabia as the 2034 host, 14 months after shaping a fast-tracked and narrow-focused contest that produced just one candidate.
Nearly 50 of those voters have signed working agreements with the Saudi soccer federation, while the soccer bodies for North America, Africa and Asia separately struck cooperation deals or tournament sponsor deals with the sovereign Public Investment Fund (PIF), state oil firm Aramco and the planned megacity project Neom.
“The awarding of the 2034 World Cup to Saudi Arabia is merely the culmination of years of strategic investments and behind-the-scenes manoeuvring,” said the report, called “Saudi Arabia's grip on world sport.”
FIFA itself signed Aramco in April to an elevated World Cup sponsor category of “major worldwide partner,” worth a reported $100 million each year through 2027.
The chairman of Aramco, Yasir Al-Rumayyan, also is governor of the PIF which has a goal to "deliver a strategy focused on achieving attractive financial returns and long-term value for the country.” He is chairman also of the LIV Golf project, new airline Riyadh Air, and English Premier League club Newcastle.
“Aramco and FIFA intend to leverage the power of football to create impactful social initiatives around the world,” FIFA said in April.
Saudi state and sports officials have consistently cited the crown prince's Vision 2030 program to diversify the economy beyond dependence on oil and modernize the traditionally conservative society while giving opportunities to a young population.
Infantino has not taken questions from international media, nor held a news conference, in the 14 months since the Saudi candidacy was declared. No news conference is scheduled on Dec. 11 at FIFA headquarters after the closed-doors meeting.
More Saudi commercial deals are expected after the 2034 World Cup decision, either for the 2026 edition being played in North America or the revamped Club World Cup being staged by the United States next year.
“It’s very complex — there’s lots of interlinked parts,” Dan Plumley, sports finance expert at Sheffield Hallam University, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview on Monday.
“We are living in a utopia if we think that sport and politics can be separated in the modern world because that’s impossible,” Plumley said. “There is always power, influence and money, which ultimately dictates the direction of travel.”
AP Sports Writer Steve Douglas contributed.
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
Newcastle United's Sandro Tonali, left, and Crystal Palace's Ismaila Sarr battle for the ball during the English Premier League soccer match between Crystal Palace and Newcastle United at Selhurst Park, London, Saturday Nov. 30, 2024. (Ben Whitley/PA via AP)
FILE - Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, left, and FIFA President Gianni Infantino, stand for the anthem prior to the match between Russia and Saudi Arabia which opened the 2018 soccer World Cup at the Luzhniki stadium in Moscow, Russia, on June 14, 2018. (Alexei Nikolsky, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP, File)
ATLANTA (AP) — Already reeling from their November defeats, Democrats now are grappling with President Joe Biden’s pardoning of his son for federal crimes, with some calling the move misguided and unwise after the party spent years slamming Donald Trump as a threat to democracy who disregarded the law.
The president pardoned Hunter Biden late Sunday evening, reversing his previous pledges with a grant of clemency that covers more than a decade of any federal crimes his son might have committed. The 82-year-old president said in a statement that his son’s prosecution on charges of tax evasion and falsifying a federal weapons purchase form were politically motivated.
“He believes in the justice system, but he also believes that politics infected the process and led to a miscarriage of justice,” said White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, who along with Biden and other White House officials insisted for months that Hunter Biden would not get a pardon.
That explanation did not satisfy some Democrats, angry that Biden’s reversal could make it harder to take on Trump, who has argued that multiple indictments and one conviction against him were a matter of Biden and Democrats turning the justice system against him.
“This is a bad precedent that could be abused by later Presidents and will sadly tarnish his reputation,” Colorado Gov. Jared Polis wrote of Biden on the social media platform X.
“When you become President, your role is Pater familias of the nation,” the governor continued, a reference to the president invoking fatherhood in explaining his decision. “Hunter brought the legal trouble he faced on himself, and one can sympathize with his struggles while also acknowledging that no one is above the law, not a President and not a President’s son.”
Rep. Greg Stanton, D-Ariz., said on X: “This wasn’t a politically motivated prosecution. Hunter committed felonies and was convicted by a jury of his peers.”
Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet said Biden “put personal interest ahead of duty” with a decision that “further erodes Americans’ faith that the justice system is fair and equal for all.”
Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., called the pardon “understandable” if viewed only as the “action of a loving father.” But Biden's status as “our nation's Chief Executive," the senator said, rendered the move “unwise.”
Certainly, the president has Democratic defenders who note Trump’s use of presidential power to pardon a slew of his convicted aides, associates and friends, several for activities tied to Trump’s campaign and first administration.
“Trump pardoned Roger Stone, Steve Bannon, Michael Flynn and Paul Manafort, as well as his son-in-law’s father, Charles Kushner — who he just appointed US ambassador to France,” wrote prominent Democratic fundraiser Jon Cooper on X.
Democratic National Committee Chairman Jaime Harrison said there “is no standard for Donald Trump, and the highest standard for Democrats and Joe Biden.” Harrison pointed to Trump's apparent plans to oust FBI Director Christopher Wray and replace him with loyalist Kash Patel and suggested the GOP's pursuit of Hunter Biden would not have ended without clemency. “Most people will see that Joe Biden did what was right,” Harrison said.
First lady Jill Biden said Monday from the White House: “Of course I support the pardon of my son.”
Democrats already are facing the prospects of a Republican trifecta in Washington, with voters returning Trump to the White House and giving the GOP control of the House and Senate. Part of their argument against Trump and Republican leaders is expected to be that the president-elect is violating norms with his talk of taking retribution against his enemies.
Before beating Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump faced his own legal troubles, including two cases that stemmed from his efforts to overturn his defeat to Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election. Those cases, including Trump’s sentencing after being convicted on New York state business fraud charges, have either been dismissed or indefinitely delayed since Trump’s victory on Nov. 5, forcing Democrats to recalibrate their approach to the president-elect.
In June, President Biden firmly ruled out a pardon or commutation for his son, telling reporters as his son faced trial in the Delaware gun case, “I abide by the jury decision. I will do that and I will not pardon him.”
As recently as Nov. 8, days after Trump’s victory, Jean-Pierre ruled out a pardon or clemency for the younger Biden, saying, “We’ve been asked that question multiple times. Our answer stands, which is no.”
The president’s about-face came weeks before Hunter Biden was set to receive his punishment after his trial conviction in the gun case and guilty plea on tax charges. It capped a long-running legal saga for the younger Biden, who disclosed he was under federal investigation in December 2020 — a month after his father’s 2020 victory.
The sweeping pardon covers not just the gun and tax offenses against the younger Biden, but also any other “offenses against the United States which he has committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from January 1, 2014, through December 1, 2024.”
Hunter Biden was convicted in June in Delaware federal court of three felonies for purchasing a gun in 2018 when, prosecutors said, he lied on a federal form by claiming he was not illegally using or addicted to drugs. He had been set to stand trial in September in a California case accusing him of failing to pay at least $1.4 million in taxes. But he agreed to plead guilty to misdemeanor and felony charges in a surprise move hours after jury selection was set to begin.
In his statement Sunday, the president argued that such offenses typically are not prosecuted with the same vigor as was directed against Hunter Biden.
“The charges in his cases came about only after several of my political opponents in Congress instigated them to attack me and oppose my election,” Biden said in his statement. “No reasonable person who looks at the facts of Hunter’s cases can reach any other conclusion than Hunter was singled out only because he is my son. … I hope Americans will understand why a father and a President would come to this decision.”
Associated Press journalists Will Weissert aboard Air Force One and Darlene Superville, Mary Claire Jalonick and Michael Tackett in Washington contributed to this report.
President Joe Biden arrives at Amilcar Cabral international airport on Sal island, Cape Verde Monday, Dec. 2, 2024, en route to Angola as he makes his long-promised visit to Africa. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)
President Joe Biden accompanied by his son Hunter Biden and his grandson Beau leave a book store as they walk in downtown Nantucket Mass., Friday, Nov. 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
