Words of wisdom from the great philosopher Young Jeezy on his hit record “Soul Survivor.” Words his fellow golfers and organizers of the LIV Golf Invitational series wish Phil Mickelson would have taken to heart when speaking to an unauthorized biographer earlier this year, setting off a firestorm and debate on whether playing on a rebel golf tour meant to disrupt the PGA Tour is akin to selling your soul.
Fast forward several months and the LIV Golf series has officially arrived. The controversial rival to the PGA has already lured away noteworthy players like Mickelson and Dustin Johnson with financing from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund. The series, which kicked off this week with its first event in London, has been mired in controversy ever since Mickelson first confirmed his interest.
Meanwhile, the RBC Canadian Open has returned this weekend for its 111th edition after two years of COVID-related cancellations. Yet, RBC’s main spokesperson at the tournament in years past, Johnson, isn’t present. Neither is Mickelson, though he hasn’t been a regular at Canada’s lone PGA Tour stop.
When speaking about the opportunity to play in the Saudi Arabia-backed series earlier this year, Mickelson said: “We know they killed [Washington Post reporter and U.S. resident Jamal] Khashoggi and have a horrible record on human rights. They execute people over there for being gay. Knowing all of this, why would I even consider it? Because this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reshape how the PGA Tour operates. They’ve been able to get by with manipulative, coercive, strong-arm tactics because we, the players, had no recourse. As nice a guy as [PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan] comes across as, unless you have leverage, he won’t do what’s right. And the Saudi money has finally given us that leverage. I’m not sure I even want [the SGL] to succeed, but just the idea of it is allowing us to get things done with the [PGA] Tour.”
The fact that the series may come to rival the PGA or give the golfers leverage isn’t the issue; it’s that this is the latest example of sportswashing. Translation: a country or political regime using the lure of sport to attract attention and goodwill to cover up and distract from the human rights violations they have engaged in.
This much we know: sportswashing is not new. It’s been around a long time but is becoming more obvious and is apparently here to stay.
In this case, Saudi Arabia is a nation run by an authoritarian regime where women are treated as second-class citizens. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman says he wants to make it “a country of moderate Islam that is open to all religions and to the world.” However, he’s been linked to various abuses, including the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi, a journalist who had been critical of him.
Despite knowing about these well-documented offences, Phil said the quiet part out loud. It’s no secret to the other golfers in the LIV Golf series either.
At LIV Golf’s media availability ahead of its first event this week, Graeme McDowell was asked about the sportswashing nature of this endeavour, and he hit every spot on the BS Bingo card. He talked about not being a politician and about growing the game of golf and about being a role model for kids — all in the same answer where he admits to helping Saudi Arabia on their “journey.” Which opened him up to be pushed on the extent this “journey” of sportswashing covers up extremely cruel crimes and human rights offences.
Preparing for the Saudi golf series launch, Graeme McDowell talked about golf being a force for good. I asked how the sovereign wealth funded series will help those who have been killed, oppressed and suffered by Saudi actions.https://t.co/lLxnCCQsqmpic.twitter.com/rtDaetqnG1
As he stumbled through an unconvincing response, he did land on some truth.
“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 admitted. So, in a sense, these golfers are making the same calculus that many other leagues, teams and sport governing bodies have made: take the money until the backlash causes you to lose money.
The players are thinking about their bottom-line, first and foremost. The truth is every person and every league has a magic number where the moral complexities become far less complex — that much is obvious across golf and the rest of the sports world.
Augusta National has a history that is problematic, not admitting Black members or women members for long stretches, and yet there was no yearning for golfers to turn down prize money for winning the Masters. So, it is a bit hypocritical when there are no clear rules on where to draw the line on what is and isn’t acceptable.
Newcastle United is controlled by the same group that is behind LIV Golf. Immediately after they were purchased, the English soccer club won 10 of their next 15 matches and finished in the top off half of the Premier League table. When that deal was announced last October, the supporters’ reaction was not shame, but joy as they saw their club become one of the richest in the world overnight. So can fans criticize these golfers for accepting big cheques on the Saudi-funded series, but then still cheer for a club backed by the same money?
Similarly, Paris Saint-Germain, is owned by Qatar’s big sovereign wealth fund.
Qatar is also the host of the upcoming FIFA World Cup.In order to prepare to host the biggest soccer tournament on the planet, Qatar has imported migrant workers who have been forced into terrible working conditions and had their passports confiscated so that they could not leave the country. Thousands of migrant workers have died under these conditions since Qatar was awarded the World Cup back in 2010. And we haven’t even mentioned the inability of women to have full participation in society, and the treatment of the 2SLGBTQ+ community.
The Ladies European Tour has five Saudi-sponsored events but because it is a struggling tour and female sports investment is badly needed, the link to Saudi Arabia in this case hasn’t caused a visceral reaction.
On the men’s side, this isn’t even new to the sport or the region. The Saudi Golf Federation partnered with the DP World Tour (formerly the European Tour)and created the Saudi International four years ago. In Europe, appearance fees are allowed so eventual LIV defectors — Mickelson, Johnson and Bryson DeChambeau — have been getting paid seven-figure appearance fees to play in Saudi Arabia for years without anyone taking issue.
But that was just one tournament per year in Saudi Arabia. LIV Golf already has eight tournaments scheduled, including two at Donald Trump courses with the finale at Trump National Doral Miami. The association with Trump in itself is controversial.
The truth is it’s not about being a role model or growing the game for these players. If it doesn’t make dollars, it doesn’t make sense.
The PGA Tour itself offers no salaries and no guaranteed payouts and does not allow tournaments to pay appearance fees to golfers (though some sponsors do pay golfers to appear at certain events and tournaments). The top three career earners in PGA Tour history are Tiger Woods ($121 million), Mickelson ($95 million) and Johnson ($74 million).
Greg Norman, the CEO of LIV Golf who also tried to form a world tour that would rival the PGA in the 1990s, said they’re offering Tiger Woods almost $1 billion. Johnson was reportedly offered $150 million. Mickelson was offered a $200-million guaranteed deal by LIV. With Lefty recently opening up about his gambling debts, the math tells the story there.
And that’s true for everyone involved.
The PGA wants to keep its monopoly, so it has taken a hard stance. It has suspended all players who choose to play on the LIV Golf series, but the USGA is going to allow players to play next week in their open invitational. Why? Because big-name players draw revenue. Now, we wait to see what the other majors decide to do. And that will be determined by how angry the public decides it wants to be.
The sponsors are also dropping golfers who leave because they don’t want their logos tied to the negative public sentiment that currently exists with LIV Golf. But do the players need as many corporate partners if LIV Golf is going to guarantee they’ll make more than they’ve ever made previously?
Everyone has their angle.
It seems the only ones not motivated solely by money are the Saudis. Their path to revenue and recouping costs for LIV Golf as a sustainable business model seems less clear. More people will likely watch the LIV press conference clips than will see actual LIV Golf this weekend. They don’t have a broadcast deal in the USA and are streaming their first event on YouTube. None of the PGA Tour’s major U.S. media partners like NBC or CBS or the Golf Channel will risk their relationship by broadcasting the LIV tournaments.
In a very golf way, everyone is trying to gauge which way the wind is blowing on this to determine if the initial intensity of outrage will only be short-lived.
And if we are going to scrutinize these dealings in sports, do we need to keep that same energy in other walks of life? Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund also invested billions of dollars in Uber before it went public and bought stock in Boeing, Facebook, Disney and Starbucks just to name a few. Are you complicit if you work for those companies? Or, if you have stock in those companies or use those products? How far removed do individuals or corporation need to be to plead plausible deniability?
We all have a bias to our own bottom-line. Being honest about the intended and unintended consequences of engaging with the sports associations we love has become part of the sports experience in 2022. LIV Golf is the latest example but there will be more.
The power of sport is so transformational, and the wealth is so generational, so it guarantees that sportswashing is here to stay. That’s no longer in question.
The questions now are: do we care as much about these issues as we demand the athletes should? And if so, what are we willing to do about it?
VANCOUVER – As the Major League Soccer season ticks down, Vanni Sartini wants his Vancouver Whitecaps to make a declaration — the team is ready to compete.
“The time of hiding ourselves, I think it’s over,” the coach said after the ‘Caps earned a 2-0 victory over the San Jose Earthquakes on Saturday.
“We need to really say that we are here to try to be at the ball until the end and trying to shoot for the highest position. That doesn’t mean that we’re going to make it, but we have the quality to do it.”
With seven games left on their regular-season schedule, the ‘Caps (13-8-6) sit in fifth spot in the congested Western Conference, just two points out of fourth.
Saturday’s loss officially eliminated the last-place Earthquakes (5-21-2) from post-season action.
Vancouver has been on a hot streak since returning from the Leagues Cup break and is unbeaten (3-0-1) in its last four outings across all competitions. The team has not allowed a goal in those matches.
“It’s the fact that we play really well,” Sartini said of the clean sheets. “We have the ball a lot, we finish our attack most of the time in their box. So it’s really hard for the other team to attack us. And then when they attack us, in the rare times that they arrive in the final third, we’re very solid.”
Recent additions have bolstered the team’s ranks, including the club’s newest designated player, Stuart Armstrong. The 32-year-old Scottish midfielder scored his first MLS goal Saturday.
Three minutes after coming on as a substitute for Alessandro Schopf, Armstrong gave Vancouver a two-goal cushion in the 87th minute.
Midfielder Pedro Vite dished a short pass to ‘Caps captain Ryan Gauld, who tapped it toward Armstrong. The former Southampton FC player then blasted a shot into the top of the net for his first strike in a Whitecaps’ jersey.
He was mobbed by teammates in the corner of the field.
“I think everyone was happy. Also for the first goal, but also that it was an important three points,” said Armstrong, who signed with the ‘Caps on Sept. 3.
“It kind of felt a little bit like last week, when we had a lot of chances and we didn’t get the three points. So today, I think everyone was just relieved to have that two-goal cushion.”
Vancouver was the dominant team from the outset Saturday and did not relent, outshooting the visitors 19-5 and controlling 54.1 per cent of possession.
Fafa Picault also found the back of the net for Vancouver, while Gauld contributed a pair of assists.
Whitecaps goalkeeper Yohei Takaoka stopped both shots he faced to collect his seventh clean sheet of the year, while Daniel made nine saves for the Quakes.
Gauld and Picault teamed up in the 22nd minute when Gauld curled a cross in and the Haitian striker headed it down toward the net, only to see Daniel catch a piece of the shot with his forearm and redirect it out of harm’s way.
The duo connected again in the 35th minute on a Vancouver corner. Gauld swung a ball in and Picault jumped up from the pack to send a glancing header in past Daniel for his ninth MLS goal of the season.
San Jose briefly appeared to level the score in the 68th minute when an unmarked Ousseni Bouda collected the ball, froze Takaoka and tapped a shot into the Vancouver net. An official quickly raised the offside flag and waved off the tally.
Daniel kept San Jose’s deficit to a single goal with a pair of solid stops in the 82nd minute.
First, the Brazilian ‘keeper dove sideways on his line to tip away a bomb from Alessandro Schopf. He was tested again on the ensuing corner and jumped up to send a header from Picault over the crossbar.
“I think we created a lot of chances again,” Gauld said.
“We probably should have put the game out of their reach sooner. But we’d be more worried if we weren’t creating the chances. Three clean sheets in a row in the league, I think it’s a big thing for us. And it gives us a good platform to go forward.”
NOTES
Vancouver played without leading scorer Brian White for a third consecutive game as the American striker works his way back from a concussion. … Gauld’s second assist marked his 15th goal contribution (six goals, nine assists) in his last 15 Whitecaps games across all competitions. … An announced crowd of 21,309 took in the game at B.C. Place.
UP NEXT
The Whitecaps kick off a two-game road swing Wednesday against the Houston Dynamo. The Earthquakes host the Seattle Sounders the same night.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 14, 2024.
MANCHESTER, England (AP) — Not good enough. That was Arne Slot’s verdict after his first defeat as Liverpool manager on Saturday.
A shock 1-0 loss at home to Nottingham Forest in the English Premier League ended Slot’s perfect record since succeeding Jurgen Klopp at Anfield at the end of last season.
“We had a lot of ball possession but only managed to create three (or) four quite good chances, so that is by far not enough if you have so much ball possession,” said the Dutchman, who suggested his team should not be losing to the likes of Forest.
“If you lose a home game it’s always a setback, especially if you face a team … we never know, maybe they will go all the way to fight for Champions League tickets, but normally this team is not ending up in the top 10, so if you lose a game against them that’s a big disappointment.”
Slot won his first three games in charge, including a memorable 3-0 victory against Manchester United before the international break.
But that run came to an end after Callum Hudson-Odoi struck in the 72nd with a curling effort from the edge of the box and beyond goalkeeper Alisson.
Liverpool’s defeat leaves Manchester City as the only team with a 100% record in the league after a 2-1 win against Brentford kept the defending champion at the top of the table.
United won at Southampton 3-0 to end its two-game losing streak.
Unstoppable Haaland
Erling Haaland moved to 99 goals for City after scoring twice against Brentford.
The Norwegian’s double came after Yoane Wissa fired Brentford ahead with just 22 seconds on the clock.
Haaland scored his 98th and 99th goals in his 103rd City appearance in all competitions. And he was the width of the post away from his third consecutive hat trick after trebles against Ipswich and West Ham.
“He’s been really, really good. Yeah, I would say he’s the best (he’s been), but it’s only four fixtures (this season),” City manager Pep Guardiola said.
Haaland, who has been nominated for the Ballon d’Or, has nine goals in four league games. He has topped the league scoring charts in each of his two seasons at City since joining from Borussia Dortmund in 2022 for $63 million.
Haaland’s first goal after 19 minutes evened the game following Wissa’s opener, which stunned the Etihad Stadium crowd. Haaland turned and swept a shot past goalkeeper Mark Flekken after a slight deflection off Ethan Pinnock.
He was then too strong for Pinnock when shaking off the defender and running through for his second in the 32nd.
He was inches away in the 81st; the shot came back off the post after beating the keeper.
Rashford snaps run
Marcus Rashford snapped a 12-game barren run in front of goal as United beat Southampton.
Rashford doubled United’s lead at Saint Mary’s after Matthijs de Ligt’s scored his first for the club. Substitute Alejandro Garnacho scored a third in the sixth minute of stoppage time.
The win came after back-to-back defeats for United.
Rashford hadn’t scored since March in United’s win over Liverpool in the FA Cup quarterfinals. He curled in a shot from the edge of the area to put Erik ten Hag’s team 2-0 up at Southampton in the 41st minute.
Ten Hag said it could be a turning point for the forward.
“For every striker, they want to be on the scoring list. Once the first is in, more is coming. Like a ketchup bottle, once it’s going, it’s coming more,” he said.
De Ligt, who joined United from Bayern Munich in the offseason, headed in from Bruno Fernandes’ cross in the 35th.
It could have been a different story if Cameron Archer converted a penalty for Southampton in the 33rd. Instead, his effort was saved by goalkeeper Andre Onana.
Newly promoted Southampton was reduced to 10 men when Jack Stephens was sent off in the 79th for a high challenge on Garnacho.
Villa comeback
After three straight defeats to start the league, Everton looked set for its first win when leading Aston Villa 2-0.
Goals from Dwight McNeil and Dominic Calvert-Lewin put Sean Dyche’s team in control until Ollie Watkins struck twice to even the game.
Jhon Duran completed Villa’s comeback and sealed a 3-2 win in the 76th to leave Everton rooted to the bottom of the table and the only top flight team without a point.
Late drama
Jean-Philippe Mateta converted a stoppage time penalty to salvage a 2-2 draw for Crystal Palace against Leicester.
Leicester led 2-0 at Selhurst Park after goals from Jamie Vardy and Stephy Mavididi.
But Mateta sparked Palace’s response with a goal in the 47th, a minute after Mavididi doubled Leicester’s advantage.
Conor Coady fouled Ismaili Sarr in the box right near fulltime and Mateta was cool enough to convert.
West Ham left it even later to salvage a point in a 1-1 draw at Fulham.
Danny Ings struck in the fifth minute of added time after Raul Jimenez’s goal looked like earning Fulham the win.
Brighton boss Fabian Hurzeler, the manager of the month for August, was frustrated as his team was held to 0-0 at home by Ipswich.
CLEVELAND (AP) — Restricted free agent forward Isaac Okoro has agreed to re-sign with the Cleveland Cavaliers on a three-year contract, a person familiar with the negotiations told The Associated Press on Saturday.
Okoro’s new deal is worth $38 million, according to the person who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the contract has not been signed or announced by the team.
ESPN.com first reported the agreement, citing Okoro’s representation.
The fifth overall pick in the 2020 NBA draft, Okoro is Cleveland’s best perimeter defender, often drawing the assignment of guarding the opponent’s top scorer. Okoro also has worked to improve his offensive game.
The 23-year-old averaged 9.4 points and 3.0 rebounds in 69 games — 42 starts — last season for the Cavs, who beat Orlando in the opening round of the playoffs before losing to eventual champion Boston.
Okoro shot a career-best 39% on 3-pointers, forcing teams to come out and guard him.
His agreement caps an extraordinarily busy summer for the Cavs that began with coach J.B. Bickerstaff being fired and replaced by Kenny Atkinson. All-Star guard Donovan Mitchell signed a three-year, $150 million extension in July, ending months of speculation that he wanted out of Cleveland.
Also, power forward Evan Mobley signed a five-year, $224 deal and center Jarrett Allen signed a three-year, $91 million extension.
