Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi both score in exhibition
Cristiano Ronaldo scored two goals in his first game in Saudi Arabia and Lionel Messi was also scored as Paris St-Germain beat a Riyadh All-Star XI 5-4 in a thrilling contest.
Peter Frankental, Amnesty UK’s economic affairs director, said: “Ronaldo’s big-money transfer to Al Nassr and Messi’s engagement by the Saudi authorities as a tourism ambassador are both part of Riyadh’s aggressive sportswashing programme.
“The authorities are seeking to exploit the celebrity appeal of elite sport to deflect attention from the country’s appalling human rights record.
“Saudi Arabia’s extensive use of sport as an exercise in soft power is well-known, but with Qatari-owned PSG appearing in Riyadh we effectively have two sportswashing superpowers – Saudi Arabia and Qatar – flexing their muscles.
“Footballers like Ronaldo and Messi have huge profiles and we’d like to see them resisting being used as the famous faces of sportswashing, including by speaking out about human rights issues in both Saudi Arabia and Qatar.”
