Newcastle plans Saudi camp despite ‘sportswashing’ criticism
...The Saudi-owned Premier League club Newcastle will hold a mid-season training camp in the kingdom, raising concerns among human rights organizations about “ sportswashing.”
“It’s a football decision..."
...“It will be a work training camp. We will be training and working and playing a game..."
“A training camp like this could easily turn into yet another PR opportunity for the Saudi authorities who are clearly pursuing an aggressive policy of trying to sportswash their appalling human rights record,” said Sacha Deshmukh, chief executive of Amnesty International UK.
“If the Newcastle training camp becomes a glorified PR exercise for Mohammed bin Salman’s government it will prove once again that sportswashing human rights crimes is the name of the game here — not football,” Deshmukh added.