Saudi Arabia's MBS Says in Interview That 'Sportswashing' Efforts Will Continue

The country's Public Investment Fund backs LIV Golf and the Crown Prince said he doesn't 'care' about sportswashing accusations as long as they are profitable.

The Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia said in an interview that he believes the proposed alliance between the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia can be "a game changer" and that he doesn’t "care" that the country’s efforts are viewed as sportswashing.

In a wide-ranging interview with Fox News, Mohammed bin Salman was asked what he makes of the potential alliance between the parties that has been the talk of the golf world since it was announced on June 6.

"That's a game changer for the golf industry," bin Salman, known as MBS, told Fox News’ Brett Baier. "You will not have competition and you have focus on developing the game. That's good for the players and the fans who love golf."

Asked by Baier what he makes of those who say the Kingdom’s efforts to get involved in sports as a way to normalize and are viewed as "sportswashing," MBS said: “Well if sportswashing is going to increase my GDP by 1 percent, then we'll continue doing sportwashing. I don't care. I have 1 percent growth in GDP from sport and I'm aiming for another 1-and-a-half percent, call it whatever you want, we're going to get that 1-and-a-half percent."

Mohammed bin Salman, known as MBS, pictured at the 2021 Grand Prix of Saudi Arabia, said sportswashing efforts will continue as long as they're profitable :: Cristiano Barni/Getty Images

The Public Investment Fund, or PIF, is Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund and said to be worth in excess of $700 billion. The country has systematically attempted to invest in all manner of entities as a way to be less reliant on oil.

In sports, the PIF is a majority owner of the Newcastle United football team that plays in the Premier League. It has invested in tennis, Formula One and golf, including the LIV Golf League, for which it is the primary backer.

LIV Golf has been viewed as a huge disrupter, launching last year with an eight-event series of events after signing marquee players such as Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Cam Smith, Brooks Koepka and several others to huge contracts.

One of its events, the LIV Golf Chicago tournament, begins Friday and is offering a $25 million purse.

Earlier this year, PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan as well as board members Jimmy Dunne and Ed Herlihy secretly met with Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the governor of the PIF, and struck a "framework agreement" that would see a separate for-profit entity formed known as PGA Tour Enterprises.

While Monahan would be the CEO of that company, Al-Rumayyan would be the chairman of the board.

How the new entity would look and how a PGA Tour, DP World Tour and LIV Golf alliance might move forward has been the subject of considerable conjecture. The two sides set a year-end deadline to come to a deal.

Players and many involved with LIV Golf have been criticized for associating with a regime and its known human rights abuses. The PGA Tour initially pushed back on LIV Golf by using that record against it before entering into the framework agreement.

The Fox interview dealt with far more pressing matters than golf. Baier asked MBS about the murder of U.S. resident and Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. U.S. intelligence officials blame MBS for ordering the murder which occurred five years ago.

"It was a mistake. It was painful," MBS said during the interview and that "everyone involved" in the murder served time in prison.

“We try to reform the security system to be sure that this kind of mistake doesn’t happen again, and we can see in the past five years nothing of those things happened," he said. "It’s not part of what Saudi Arabia does. We take all the league measurements that any country took ... We did that in Saudi Arabia and the case being closed."

Fox News billed the interview as the first time MBS has done one with a media outlet speaking all in English.