More action needed on ‘sportswashing’ says Amnesty ahead of Chelsea vs Newcastle
- Planet Sport writer
- 11 March 2022
Amnesty International believe that the Premier League need to ‘catch up’ and take action against the growth of sportswashing in the competition.
The organisation's chief executive Sacha Deshmukh expressed his concerns ahead of Sunday's Premier League match between Chelsea and Newcastle United.
This fixture will mark Chelsea's first game since the UK government imposed sanctions on owner Roman Abramovich over his links with Russian president Vladimir Putin.
Newcastle, in contrast, were recently taken over by Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund, with co-owner Amanda Staveley recently coming out in support of her Chelsea counterpart.
Deshmukh said: "Big money has obviously dominated top-level English football for years, but this game is a particularly stark reminder of the fact we're now in an era of global sportswashing.
"Saudi Arabia's purchase of Newcastle was a glaring example of modern sportswashing - with Mohammed bin Salman adding St James' Park to a portfolio of sporting acquisitions designed to reshape Saudi Arabia's international image and distract from the country's appalling human rights record.
"Roman Abramovich's links to a Russian state which has crushed dissent at home and carried out suspected war crimes in Syria have long been known, so questions currently being asked about the Chelsea owner should have been asked many years ago.
"The Premier League urgently needs to catch up with a world where sport is a convenient tool of soft power and image management."
Staveley was criticised after appearing to question the impact of sanctions then set to be placed upon Abramovich during the Financial Times Business of Football Summit.
In a response to a question, she said: "We are always going to have geopolitical issues. This world is always going to have problems and I know it is really hard, and I am really sad today that someone is going to have a football club taken away because of a relationship they may have with someone."
However, Deshmukh urged the Premier League to make up for lost time and instigate procedures to ensure similar developments cannot be repeated in future.
"We've been saying for nearly two years that the Premier League needed to take action to prevent top-flight English football being used for sportswashing," added Deshmukh.
"The Premier League should accelerate its current review of how best to introduce a new human rights-compliant owners' and directors' test."