Professional golfers have expressed their anger at the PGA and DP World Tour, announcing a merger with LIV Golf.
Players were not consulted about the surprise deal with Saudi Arabia-backed LIV, which was revealed to the media on Tuesday.
Barstool Sport’s Dan Rappaport told JEE News that he had spoken to a number of players shortly after the deal with the rival circuit was announced.
“The initial reaction was shock and then turned to anger,” he said.
“There are a lot of players who turned down a lot of money who wonder, ‘What’s the deal?'”
The Telegraph’s golf correspondent Jamie Corrigan added that the deal had been “done in incredible secrecy”.
“It’s a complete mess and they will present it as they have made the warring factions peaceful again, but they still have a long way to go,” he said.
“Forget about enhancing sports and washing sports, it all comes down to money and power.”
‘Just more evidence of the onward march of Saudi sportswashing’
The PGA Tour has been defending its position since talk of a rival circuit began, and pending litigation with Breakaway Tour LIV.
But they have agreed to combine their commercial operations and rights into a new, yet-to-be-named for-profit company, with PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan as chief executive.
Yasir Al Rumiyan, governor of the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund (PIF), which backs LIV, will be chairman of the new entity and was interviewed by Monahan on Tuesday.
The golf correspondent said: “For the past year, Jay Monahan has been as insulting as he can be, unwilling to say the words ‘LIV’ or ‘Saudi Arabia’. .
“Now they’re sitting together on a couch hammering out the deal. Did LIV buy World Golf today?”
Amnesty says the merger is further evidence of Saudi efforts to divert attention from the country’s human rights record.
Felix Jenkins, Amnesty International UK’s Head of Priority Campaigns and People at Risk, said: “While this may have surprised some golf fans and commentators, it is really more evidence of Saudi sports laundering going forward. “
“It has been clear for some time that Saudi Arabia was willing to spend huge amounts of money to strengthen its way into top-level golf – just one part of an effort to become a major sporting power and divert attention from the country’s atrocities. Part 1. Human Rights Record
“Beyond the glamor of golf courses and TV cameras, repression in Saudi Arabia is on the rise, with government critics and human rights activists being arrested, unfair trials continuing, and the death penalty widespread. being used, including as a political weapon, of coercion
“The golf world is about to put one of its most high-profile trade battles behind it, but it is important that this latest escalation in Saudi sports laundering is not allowed to obscure the increasingly dire human rights situation in Saudi Arabia. Not to be given.”
Speaking to JEE News, DP World Tour chief executive Keith Paley said: “It’s never been about sports washing.”
