Is Saudi Arabia using sport to try to clean up its image?

Next month, as things stand, the best two male tennis players in the world will accept sizable fees to play in a country whose human rights record is described by Amnesty International as "truly appalling."

The exhibition match between Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal, slated for December 22, has no sporting implications outside itself, so is widely viewed as a way for Saudi Arabia to polish its tarnished reputation on the international stage.

Read more: Support grows for EU-wide arms embargo on Saudi Arabia

The scheduling of the contest was announced a day after the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi disappeared. The after-effects of his death, plus the continued Saudi bombing of Yemen and its dismal human rights record, has led to widespread calls for the pair to pull out of the match.

"I don't like to involve myself in any political exchange or situations," said Djokovic. "And it's unfortunate that we are both drawn into this right now."

"Of course I'm aware of the situation," said Nadal. "But I had a commitment since one year ago to play there. And my team is talking to them, to analyse the things. That's it."

Are Saudi changes genuine?

Quite what there is to analyze is a question that remains unanswered. Since the ascension to power of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman last year, the Middle Eastern state has sought to boost its reputation with a series of headline-grabbing social and political changes. Under the umbrella of their "Vision 2030" masterplan, the Saudi rulers claim they are looking to modernize the country and see the promotion of sport as part of that process.

Adam Coogle, a Middle East Researcher for Human Rights Watch, says that there have been some moves towards liberalization but that they fall short.

"There is a whitewashing of the country’s image when in fact it is an incredibly repressive place," he told DW.

"I think what Saudi Arabia is really trying to do is emulate the UAE [United Arab Emirates] model. The UAE is incredibly repressive politically, it has torture, it has enforced disappearances, it has jailed opposition dissidents for many years based on political ideas.

"But it has been able to launder its image, not just through sporting events like golf tournaments but its ownership of European football clubs to project a certain image of the country."

The UAE’s use of the process, which is becoming known as "sportswashing" is well established, with the ownership of Premier League champions Manchester City the jewel in a sporting crown that also boasts major international tennis, cricket, golf, motorsport and rugby events.

Keeping up with the neighbors

Their neighbors to the west are a few years behind on those terms but Saudi Arabia hosted a prestige international football friendly between Argentina and Brazil last month, while the World Wrestling Entertainment’s "Crown Jewel" pay-per-view event is scheduled for Friday and a European Tour golf event was recently confirmed for next year.

The attempt to woo the world’s biggest sports stars and the organizers of their sports has come as no surprise to Nicholas McGeehan, a Human Rights researcher who runs a consultancy and has long focused on the Gulf region. He says sportswashing is "good, cheap PR" with the benefits to the state including brand positioning, international relations, better business and tourism links and a place to spend some of their vast reserves of oil money.

"I think they’ve looked at Qatar and looked at the UAE and they'll have seen the benefits of it [laundering an international reputation through sport] and it's entirely possible that they'll think 'this is what we can do too.'

"They [the Saudis] are very close to the Emiratis and it would not surprise me if the advice had been given to them that sport is a really useful thing to use."

While recent reports of Saudi interest in Manchester United appear to be speculative, McGeehan sees a Saudi purchase of a major football club as a logical step.

"Qatar’s got a club [Paris Saint-Germain] the UAE has got a club, so the Saudis should have a club," is the way he suggests bin Salman may be thinking.

Turning a blind eye

By and large, the response of the sporting world to repressive states using their sports as shiny baubles to distract from the horrors lurking behind the decoration has been to shrug their shoulders and bank the check.

"The European Tour constantly monitors the situation in all our host countries and we will continue to do so," deadbatted a spokesman for the golfing body in response to a series of questions from DW relating to the death of Khashoggi.

"It’s very clear that politics should stay out of football," said FIFA President Gianni Infantino earlier this year, before revealing his plans for an expanded Club World Cup backed by Saudi Arabian investors in a Japanese bank.

Those plans have been delayed largely due to the objections of football's European governing body UEFA, though probably more because it’d interfere with the Champions League than any moral objection, while Roger Federer said he turned down an invitation to play an exhibition match because: "I didn't want to play there at that time."

Prominent athletes or organizations to taking a moral stance against the Saudis or their neighbors are notable by their absence, though sporting boycotts have plenty of precedent. For example, former tennis great John McEnroe has revealed that he turned down $1 million in 1980 from apartheid South Africa because he didn't want to be used as "propoganda."

The two men currently at the top of tennis don’t seem to feel the same way and they aren’t alone in that. With plans for a Formula E race and the 2019 Italian Supercoppa already on the table, and Infantino raising the idea of Saudi Arabia hosting World Cup matches, athletes and organizations will have to decide if this is a genuine attempt to open Saudi Arabia as a sporting destination or just another distraction trick.