[ti:Saudi Arabia's Involvement in Sports Likely to Grow in 2024]
[by:www.21voa.com]
[00:00.00]更多听力请访问21VOA.COM
[00:00.04]At the beginning of 2023, Saudi Arabia's
[00:05.00]growing influence on professional golf,
[00:08.08]and sports in general,
[00:10.36]was a concern for players and their fans.
[00:15.00]Twelve months later, discussions are very different.
[00:19.68]Worries about the supposed threat of "sportswashing"
[00:24.52]- using sports to improve a country's reputation – have declined.
[00:30.48]Concerns about moral issues
[00:33.60]- the line between "right" and "wrong"
[00:36.28]- have also gone down.
[00:38.56]Attention now is fixed on just how rich
[00:42.28]the Saudis might make the athletes.
[00:46.32]Two major events caused the change.
[00:49.68]On June 6, the PGA Tour announced
[00:53.80]it was looking to go into business with the Saudi group
[00:58.56]that was paying for the kingdom's LIV Golf,
[01:02.32]which the tour had labeled as a threat.
[01:06.20]Then, six months later, Jon Rahm,
[01:10.24]the world's third-ranked professional golfer
[01:13.64]and an early resister of LIV, decided to join LIV
[01:18.88]for a deal reported to be worth about $500 million.
[01:24.44]Other important events included the continuing talks
[01:29.40]between the Saudis and leaders
[01:31.72]of professional tennis organizations.
[01:34.80]In addition, the push into soccer
[01:38.28]will bring the world's biggest sporting event,
[01:41.36]the World Cup, to Saudi Arabia in 2034.
[01:46.64]Dan Durbin is director of the Institute
[01:49.64]of Sports, Media and Society
[01:53.12]at the University of Southern California (USC).
[01:57.84]Durbin said of the Saudi plans:
[02:01.48]"You're investing in sports,
[02:03.60]which is one of the few growth industries in the world....
[02:08.16]It is, as far as we can see,
[02:11.28]an almost endless growth industry."
[02:14.52]In early 2022, the discussion about golf
[02:19.40]centered on Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund,
[02:23.56]or PIF, in LIV Golf.
[02:26.68]At the time, six-time major winner Phil Mickelson
[02:31.16]made a critical comment about Saudi Arabia
[02:34.56]related to the murder
[02:36.28]of the Washington Post writer Jamal Khashoggi.
[02:39.96]Mickelson's comment set the dividing line
[02:43.96]in what was viewed as a moral question.
[02:47.04]And the discussion ignored how important
[02:50.24]Saudi Arabia is in the world economy.
[02:53.72]The Saudis gain much of their importance
[02:56.64]by supplying around 15 percent of the world's petroleum.
[03:01.84]Besides golf, the fund offered one of soccer's biggest stars,
[03:07.04]Cristiano Ronaldo, $200 million to join a Saudi team.
[03:13.08]And it also owns the Premier League's Newcastle soccer club.
[03:17.88]As the calendar turns to 2024,
[03:22.08]there is no sign of Saudi involvement in sports slowing.
[03:26.88]The Saudis are hosting a Formula One auto race.
[03:31.16]They are also looking to invest some $5 billion
[03:35.36]into cricket's Indian Premier League
[03:38.16]with an eye on making it bigger in other countries.
[03:42.32]The ATP, which runs men's professional tennis,
[03:46.92]has a five-year deal to hold one
[03:49.64]of its biggest events in the Saudi port city of Jeddah.
[03:54.20]Talks between the Saudis and the women's tour
[03:57.80]are reportedly ongoing.
[04:00.56]In a sign of how public discussions
[04:03.00]have changed, Billie Jean King,
[04:05.72]who fought for equal pay for women in sports,
[04:09.44]has said bringing women's tennis to the kingdom
[04:12.76]might not be all bad
[04:14.68]despite its poor record on women's rights.
[04:18.28]"I don't think you really change
[04:20.56]unless you engage," she said earlier this year.
[04:24.44]Durbin says sports is a way for the kingdom
[04:28.04]to be seen as more than an oil-producer
[04:31.60]with a bad human-rights record.
[04:33.64]"For decades, sports has been the center
[04:36.92]of soft diplomacy," he said.
[04:39.72]"You try to create a positive response
[04:42.76]and feeling about your ethics
[04:45.08]because you're holding to the rules of sports."
[04:49.60]I'm John Russell. 更多听力请访问21VOA.COM
END OF TRACK. "END OF TRACK." The two men bowed. "Whoever was that person you were talking to?" she enquired, as soon as they stood together. The took of triumph faded from her eyes, she had grown worn and weary. The roses were wilting on the walls, the lights were mostly down now. Hetty, looking in to see if anything was wanted, found herself driven away almost fiercely. I only saw Master Jervie once when he called at tea time, The year 1747 was opened by measures of restriction. The House of Lords, offended at the publication of the proceedings of the trial of Lord Lovat, summoned the parties to their bar, committed them to prison, and refused to liberate them till they had pledged themselves not to repeat the offence, and had paid very heavy fees. The consequence of this was that the transactions of the Peers were almost entirely suppressed for nearly thirty years from this time, and we draw our knowledge of them chiefly from notes taken by Horace Walpole and Lord Chancellor Hardwicke. What is still more remarkable, the reports of the House of Commons, being taken by stealth, and on the merest sufferance, are of the most meagre kind, sometimes altogether wanting, and the speeches are given uniformly under fictitious names; for to have attributed to Pitt or Pelham their[112] speeches by name would have brought down on the printers the summary vengeance of the House. Many of the members complained bitterly of this breach of the privileges of Parliament, and of "being put into print by low fellows"; but Pelham had the sense to tolerate them, saying, "Let them alone; they make better speeches for us than we can make for ourselves." Altogether, the House of Commons exhibited the most deplorable aspect that can be conceived. The Ministry had pursued Walpole's system of buying up opponents by place, or pension, or secret service money, till there was no life left in the House. Ministers passed their measures without troubling themselves to say much in their behalf; and the opposition dwindled to Sir John Hinde Cotton, now dismissed from office, and a feeble remnant of Jacobites raised but miserable resistance. In vain the Prince of Wales and the secret instigations of Bolingbroke and Doddington stimulated the spirit of discontent; both Houses had degenerated into most silent and insignificant arenas of very commonplace business. "It certainly will be. Miss Widgeon," answered Maria, with strictly "company manners." "One who has never had a brother exposed to the constant dangers of army life can hardly understand how glad we all feel to have Si snatched from the very jaws of death and brung back to us." "Just plug at 'em as you would at a crow, and then go on your way whistlin'?" persisted Harry. "Hurroo!" echoed Hennessey; "that's the ticket." "Come forward, keeper," continued the baron, "and state how these arrows came into your hands!" "Yes." HoMEJULIA京香2018下载
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