Saudi Arabia’s sportswashing program has shifted to an even higher gear, and this time MotoGP is the willing accomplice.
In motorsports, the Saudi money first paid off the Dakar Rally, getting the biggest off-road race in the world to move to a new route entirely in Saudi Arabia, its third location after abandoning the original Europe-to-Africa route and then South America. Then the Saudis paid off Formula One, getting the world’s best drivers to turn laps even as smoke billowed from a nearby oil facility blown up by rebels. (And that’s after disrupting the professional golf world by creating a rival to the PGA.)
While the details are not yet certain, Dorna Sports and the Saudi Motorsports Company signed a memorandum of understanding to bring the series to the kingdom widely known for throwing women in jail for having the outlandish temerity to ask to be allowed to drive a car. Or sentencing a woman to 34 years in prison for posting tweets in favor of political reforms. A country ruled by a government known for dismembering a critical journalist in an embassy. The #BonesawGP memes are practically reproducing on their own, at this point.
Easily 90% of the responses to the tweet of the news on the MotoGP Twitter account was negative and other reactions tended toward the bitterly sarcastic.
Really looking forward to being a journalist at a race in a country where journalists get hacked to death for the crime of being journalists 👍 https://t.co/sX1zLT78ch
— Simon Patterson (@denkmit) September 5, 2022
Hearing that Dorna is equipping the Clinica Mobile with bone saws
— Mat Oxley (@matoxley) September 5, 2022
It’s bad enough that MotoGP has started its season for many years in front of (small and) empty grandstands in Qatar, just for the money. Qatar’s human rights record is nothing to brag about, but it’s at least a step above Saudi Arabia. Now, in the next few years, we will presumably have MotoGP racing at a new track being built for motorcycle racing and the Saudi F1 grand prix. I’m sure those stands will be mostly empty of fans, too. Especially women.
Just days ago, Dorna was bragging (based on the results of an unscientific survey) about how they were drawing more female fans. Now the same old men who run the sport are smiling and shaking hands with leaders from a country that still won’t allow women to do much of anything without the permission of their male guardians.
There is no MotoGP round in Africa, where millions ride motorcycles. There are precious few in parts of Asia that are hotbeds of motorcycle racing fanaticism. What we do have is final proof that the Dorna hacks who run the sport are mainly concerned not with motorcycles, or motorcyclists, or racing, but with money.
accurate and astute read, sir… cheers, Lance