President Trump will tell Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman that any deal between the PGA Tour and PIF will “be on the Tour’s preferred terms, and those terms will not include a long-term future for LIV,” according to Eamon Lynch of GOLFWEEK. Trump arrived yesterday in the Middle East, visiting Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, with a LIV Golf deal “on his agenda.” If Trump “actually delivers the message he has promised,” the Saudis “have a call” to make. They can “consent to terms that would ultimately mean LIV’s demise” or “balk and face the prospect of continuing to fund a worthless enterprise as both sides proceed on their separate pathways.” Rising TV ratings and sponsors re-upping have the PGA Tour “swaggering where a year ago it was staggering.” The board has “wearied of tortuous negotiations in which the PIF has not submitted a single proposal on how to bridge the divide.” There’s a “growing internal sentiment that it’s time to cut a deal or cut bait” (GOLFWEEK, 5/13).
WORLD CUP DIPLOMACY: In N.Y., Shear, Rasgon & Panja note during Trump’s visit to Qatar, Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani and other top Qatari officials “are expected to celebrate” Trump as the “host of the next World Cup.” Trump is being accompanied to Qatar by FIFA President Gianni Infantino. Qatar’s “surprising victory” in the 2022 World Cup bidding context relied on “wielding” cash. Qatar, which “vigorously denied allegations of bribery in the process,” outspent its rivals, including the U.S., to convince members of FIFA, several of whom would “later be indicted on corruption charges,” to choose the desert state as host. Qatar, which is still a FIFA sponsor, has “continued to spend on sports and use it for global influence” (N.Y. TIMES, 5/14).
FIFA UNDER FIRE: THE ATHLETIC’s Matt Slater writes two leading human rights groups have “accused FIFA of being ‘utterly negligent’ in its responsibility to the millions of migrant workers who will build the stadiums and infrastructure Saudi Arabia needs for the 2034 World Cup.” The “scathing criticism” of world football’s governing body is detailed in two new reports on migrant-worker deaths in the Gulf state published yesterday by FairSquare and Human Rights Watch (HRW). This comes a day after Infantino accompanied Trump on visit to Saudi Arabia’s capital Riyadh, where they met Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman. The two studies “also criticise FIFA for failing to learn the lessons from the 2022 World Cup in Qatar,” where government officials “eventually admitted that hundreds of migrant workers had died while working on projects linked to the tournament” (THE ATHLETIC, 5/14).
