Laundering a country's image through sports investment has been happening for centuries
The LIV Golf Invitational Series apparently doesn’t have a drink sponsor yet. Players showed up at news conferences this week, sitting at a dais in the media room with clear, unmarked glasses of water.
The same Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund bankrolling LIV Golf recently completed the takeover of English Premier League club Newcastle United, a move met with widespread jubilation from fans ecstatic about the infusion of capital into a club wallowing near the bottom of the table. They waved Saudi flags and wore mock headscarves. The away uniforms for next season were leaked — white jerseys with green badges and trim, suspiciously familiar to the Saudi national team.
Four years before that, Russia spent $50 billion to host the Winter Olympics in Sochi and concocted an elaborate doping program so its athletes would top the medals table. Literally days after Closing Ceremony, it annexed Crimea from Ukraine. The NBA’s deep ties to China are well documented. In December, the NFL announced a marketing partnership for the Los Angeles Rams in China that included a global map … showing Taiwan — which the United States recognizes as independent — as part of China.
“You know, I think as golfers, if we tried to cure geopolitical situations in every country in the world that we play golf in, we wouldn’t play a lot of golf,” McDowell said. “It’s a really hard question to answer. We’re just here to focus on the golf and kind of what it does globally.” Another problem for the PGA Tour: If the four majors allow LIV players to enter their tournaments, as the U.S. Open will next week in Brookline, Mass., the Saudi cash becomes even more enticing.
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