Two-time major champion Greg Norman said the new Saudi-backed golf league that he’s CEO of is not attempting to “sportswash” Saudi Arabia’s human rights abuse.
Norman – chief executive of the LIV Golf Invitational, funded primarily by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund – appeared to downplay the 2018 killing of Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi during a media day on Wednesday. The LIV Golf Invitational is scheduled to have its inaugural event next month at Centurion Golf Club outside of London.
“Everybody has owned up to it, right?” Norman said, according to London-based newspaper The Times. “It has been spoken about, from what I’ve read, going on what you guys reported. Take ownership, no matter what it is. Look, we’ve all made mistakes and you just want to learn from those mistakes and how you can correct them going forward.”
Norman, 67, shared similar comments during an interview with Sky Sports when asked about Khashoggi and other human rights abuses by the Saudi Arabian government, including the mass execution of 81 people in March.
“It’s reprehensible what happened with Khashoggi. Own up to it, talk about it,” he said. “I’m not going to get into politics, I don’t know what the Saudi government does. I don’t want to get into that. Every country has a cross to bear.”
Norman, who won the British Open in 1986 and 1993, said LIV golf is non-political and is not associated with Saudi Arabian crown prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud.
“They’re not my bosses. We’re independent. I do not answer to Saudi Arabia. I do not answer to MBS (Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud),” he said. “I answer to my board of directors, and MBS is not on that. Simple as that.”
Norman, however, said Saudi Arabia is undergoing “a cultural change” through golf.
“The generation of kids that I see today on the driving range, they don’t want that stigma going on into generations and their kids,” he said. “They want to change that…
Source : yahoo
