Cristiano Ronaldo was retiring after his team's defeat last April against Al Ittiyah, the group that has acquired the services of Karim Benzema for 100 million euros a year, and the rival fans began to chant: “Messi, Messi”. Ronaldo, who lost any chance of winning the league in the ranks of Al Nassr, responded by grabbing his genitals. Then the fire.
A Saudi lawyer, Nouf bin Ahmed, assured that she would denounce the Portuguese for “a crime of public indecency”. “It is considered a crime and entails arrest and deportation if committed by a foreigner,” he wrote on a social network.. His testimony was joined by those of many other fans who also asked that the Portuguese be expelled from the country. Obviously none of that has happened.. It's Cristiano Ronaldo. “We don't know what would have happened to someone other than Ronaldo, but we do know that there are other people in jail for that crime,” says Carlos de las Heras, a spokesman for Amnesty International.
The Portuguese was the first star to bet on the millions of Saudi Arabia. Then came Benzema, Kanté and Mahrez, among others. “I have opened the door. My decision was crucial to incorporate great players”, said the Portuguese striker recently while Pep Guardiola raised the cry: “They have changed the market”.
The Portuguese forgot that those who have followed him come with salaries, sometimes four times higher than their previous salaries, and the Catalan coach that his team, Manchester City, belongs mostly to City Group (78%), a fund from Abu Dhabi that has invested more than 2,300 million euros in transfers alone since its acquisition in 2008.
City, Qatar World Cup, PSG, Newcastle…. but also the LIV Golf, several Formula 1 awards or the Dakar Rally. The Middle East has seemingly unlimited financial resources, but needs to project a very limited external image, especially when it comes to human rights. Clubs, major sporting events and signings are the three pillars of sportwashing, image laundering through sport, in the Middle East, although “Saudi Arabia is the champion”, according to De las Heras and recalls that these methods have already been used to whiten Nazi Germany with the Berlin Olympic Games or the Videla dictatorship the World Cup in Argentina 78.
This association includes in its latest report on Saudi Arabia various violations of Human Rights, and speaks of the “most worrying” situation in the region. There is the execution of 81 people, after “unfair trials” for various crimes. Or the torture and deportation of Ethiopian families “because of their status as irregular immigrants.”
Saudi Arabia is beginning a process that was previously started by the United Arab Emirates or Qatar. “It is very good for Arab culture to be able to make itself known in the world beyond the prejudices and unfair criticism that has been made about this country and this region”, said Xavi Hernández, coach of FC Barcelona about the discrepancies that arose about the celebration of the World Cup in the country he coached. But the laws do not change for a World Cup.
post world
Articles 296.3 and 296.4 of the Qatari Penal Code provide prison sentences for any person who “commits an act of sodomy or perversion” or an “act contrary to morality”. The latest Amnesty International report includes the arbitrary detention and torture as well as other ill-treatment of six people due to their sexual orientation in the emirate. And, if you are a woman, you still need the permission of a male guardian to: get married, study abroad, work in certain public jobs or travel if you are under 25, among others.
In the United Arab Emirates, LGTBI actions and women are also condemned, although the country is subject to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, they do not enjoy the same treatment as men despite the sharia, or islamic law. Thus, they do not have the same legal and civil capacity as them.
From Amnesty International “they do not defend boycotts” to the celebration of events or other sports promotions in these countries, but they do request that clauses be included in the contracts related to human rights and that, once finished, their respect be monitored.
progress
De las Heras gives the example of the first Spanish Super Cup in Arabia and how women were allowed to enter areas previously exclusively for men and that, months later, Saudi legislation began to allow this condition in other types of events. “The changes are very slow,” explains the spokesman for Amnesty International about the improvements in these countries and mentions that the interpretation of the sharia is one of the obstacles when establishing them.
“Today I feel Qatari, Arab, African, gay, disabled, a migrant worker,” said FIFA president Gianni Infantino, in the presentation of the World Cup in Qatar. Today, it is still difficult to be any of those things in most countries in the Middle East.