What it costs to bow to Saudi Arabia
The choice to feature the Saudi national anthem at a UK boxing event while banning a journalist shows that the kingdom isn’t just joining the global sports conversation—it’s actively shaping it.
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On Saturday night, London's Wembley Arena was bathed in the green glow of the Saudi Arabian flag as singer Rashed Al-Majed performed the kingdom's national anthem for a crowd of 96,000.
The anthem rang out just before the heavyweight bout between Anthony Joshua and Daniel Dubois, an event promoted under Saudi Arabia's Riyadh Season banner. Among the attendees was Turki Al Sheikh, chairman of the General Entertainment Authority and the driving force behind Saudi’s boxing investments.
It was a surreal moment—the first time Saudi Arabia’s anthem was played at a boxing event on British soil—and a clear signal of the kingdom's growing influence over both boxing and the wider UK sporting scene.
This influence was particularly evident when Oliver Brown, The Telegraph’s chief sports writer, had his credentials for the Joshua-Dubois fight revoked for criticizing the Saudi regime.
Following a scathing article titled “Joshua-Dubois is an unashamed sportswashing exercise transforming London into Saudi Disneyland” that was published last Friday, Brown received an email from an unnamed senior PR executive involved in the fight that read: “Shall I presume from your opinions that you no longer wish to attend as clearly you do not agree with Saudi Arabia’s involvement in boxing?”
By the time Brown arrived at the event the next day, he was told his credentials had been revoked. Reflecting on the incident, he noted that it was the first time in his 20-year career he had been barred from covering a sports event. More troubling, however, was that this blatant assault on the British press had been enabled by the growing influence of a repressive regime within the UK.
Walking back up Wembley Way, where a giant billboard screamed “Visit Saudi” and where a booth implored fans to “capture your Saudi moment” by trying traditional Middle Eastern coffee, I wondered how it had all reached this point – where a brutal dictatorship and their spineless enablers had been given carte blanche, under British jurisdiction, to stifle a free press.
Such are the dismal consequences of appeasement. As journalists, we are sometimes asked why, when even the Government is in hock to the Saudis over everything from arms to oil, we should care about the regime’s annexation of sport. Surely it is just the natural order that boxers and golfers and Newcastle United should prostrate themselves before the Saudis and their limitless sovereign wealth fund?
As Brown mentioned above, boxing is far from the first sport that the kingdom has attempted to infiltrate. Since 2016, Saudi Arabia has spent billions on high-profile international sports and entertainment events. The strategic investments are part of the kingdom’s ‘Vision 2030’ masterplan that aims to reduce Saudi’s economic dependence on oil but it also serves as a multi-pronged soft power strategy that includes boosting tourism and other economic sectors, diplomacy, and reputation laundering.
However, unlike other sports Saudi Arabia has invested in—such as football, racing, and golf—boxing has been plagued by decades of infighting among rival promoters and organizations that organize their own matches and rarely collaborate to create the most competitive and engaging fights. This fragmentation has led fans and pundits to frequently claim that the sport is “dying,” especially with the rise of more centralized combat sports like the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) gaining mainstream popularity.
Enter Turki Al Sheikh.
The eccentric politician and close confidant of Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, Mohammed bin Salman, has had a massive impact on boxing in recent years. He has bankrolled some of the most high-profile heavyweight fights and broken through negotiation stalemates by offering record-breaking sums of money. His success as a promoter has made him one of the sport's most powerful figures. Referred to by fans and media alike as "His Excellency," the title underscores the growing cult of personality surrounding him.
Al Sheikh’s expanding cult of personality has stifled criticism within boxing. Fans are willing to overlook troubling behaviour as long as he continues to deliver exciting matchups, while journalists, eager to maintain their critical access, often frame the narrative in his favour. At the same time, Saudi Arabia deploys a vast network of PR firms and executives to advance its political agenda through sports, such as the unnamed senior executive who barred Brown from attending the event on Saturday.
It serves as yet another reminder of how Saudi Arabia leverages sports not only to reshape its global image, but also to tightly control the narrative surrounding the kingdom.
Last year, Tariq Panja and I published a story in The New York Times that provided a rare glimpse into Saudi Arabia’s sports deals, focusing on its partnership with football icon Lionel Messi. One of the key revelations in the piece was a clause in Messi’s $25 million contract that prohibited him from making any statements that could “tarnish” Saudi Arabia’s image.
You can read more on that here:
How Saudi Arabia bought Messi's endorsement—and his silence
The kingdom has managed to transform the greatest footballer of all time into a propaganda puppet willing to espouse any message for the right price.
These are some of the true costs of sports kowtowing to Saudi interests. By securing high-profile events and influencing key figures in the sports world, Saudi Arabia is able to dictate how it is perceived on the international stage, using the allure of major competitions to normalize the regime and deflect attention from its human rights abuses and controversial policies.
The kingdom isn't just participating in the global sports conversation—it’s steering it.
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He who pays the piper calls the tune, as the saying goes.