Koch Quoted in Newsweek Article on Saudi Arabia’s Global Sports Investments

July 2, 2024

Newsweek

Natalie Koch

Geography & the Environment Department

Center for Qualitative and Multi-Method Inquiry

Central Asia & the Caucasus Initiative

Middle Eastern Studies Program

Government

International Affairs

Middle East & North Africa

Newsweek

Natalie Koch

Saudi Arabia's bet on becoming a world-class player in the field of international sports has won the kingdom unprecedented global attention, emerging as a key component in its social and economic transformation through the Vision 2030 project headed by its de facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

The attention has also largely succeeded in redefining narratives of Saudi Arabia's reputation abroad in countries like the U.S., where long-standing concerns over the nation's human rights situation have been substantially diluted as Riyadh bears the soft power fruits of its multibillion-dollar push to attract foreign fans, talent and events. Or what some call “sportswashing.”

Pointing to Crown Prince Mohammed's response to sportswashing allegations, Natalie Koch, professor of geography and the environment, says that the monarch-in-waiting “is more concerned about selling these projects to his people than he is in selling them to the West.

“MbS' main challenge with the global sports investments is that he wants to modernize economic, political and social life in Saudi Arabia along Western lines, but not to alienate parts of the Saudi population who do not like the idea of 'selling out' to the West,” Koch says. “So, all of these big sports investments have to be carefully positioned as somehow contributing to Saudi national interests.”

Read more in the Newsweek article, “How Sports Are Making Saudi Arabia Look Better Than Ever.”