We have become accustomed to images of professional cyclists in front of sand dunes, camels and glittering skyscraper facades. The races in the Gulf region in January and February are a welcome opportunity for many pros to clock up their first competitive kilometres in the heat - including board and lodging in some of the world's most luxurious hotels.
Cycling stars at the Tour of Qatar
Former Belgian classics king Tom Boonen also enjoyed laying the foundations for his success in the one-day races in April at the Tour of Qatar, which was held for the first time in 2002. From 2009, a women's race was also held, which was popular with the participants. "The race ties in with the men's race and gives us the feeling of belonging," said German professional rider Lisa Brennauer, who has since retired.
Her compatriot Trixi Worrack, the last winner of the tour in 2016, was also full of praise at the time: "When we changed in the car park in the early years, we were met with astonished looks. Now it's normalised." Worrack could not remember any nasty scenes, such as angry men accusing her of immorality. Of course, the cyclist, who lives with a woman, is also unlikely to have tested the extent to which the country's customary laws, which criminalise homosexuality, apply to her.
The Tour of Qatar ushered in a whole wave of cycling investments by the Gulf states: the Tour of Oman was added in 2010, followed by the Dubai Tour in 2014, the UAE Tour in 2019 and the Saudi Tour in 2020. The races in the Emirates are organised by Giro d'Italia organiser RCS, while Tour de France organiser ASO operates in Qatar, Oman and Saudi Arabia.
Bahrain has been funding the Bahrain-Victorious racing team since 2017 on the initiative of Crown Prince Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa. The team was also founded in 2017 UAE Team Emirates. According to Statista.com, it was in second place in the budget ranking of racing teams in 2021 with the equivalent of 35 million euros, behind Ineos Grenadiers with 50 million euros. Bahrain-Victorious came in tenth place with 18 million euros; the German team has the same budget. Bora-Hansgrohe to.
Cycling in the Gulf States: Poor working conditions
In the list published by the British Global Change Data Lab, a non-profit educational organisation, which documents the global human rights situation, the Gulf states look completely different. Out of 192 nations, Oman ranks 137th, Qatar 161st, the UAE 165th, Bahrain 173rd and Saudi Arabia 187th.
The reasons for the poor ratings include the working conditions of migrant labourers, which are reminiscent of slavery and, in the case of Qatar, received greater attention during the World Cup. They can also be found in other countries in the region. The structural discrimination of women also plays a role. In Saudi Arabia, the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi by suspected confidants of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the strongman behind the kingdom's sporting offensive, is an additional issue.
Bahrain has been criticised as a repressive regime ever since the brutal suppression of demonstrations during the Arab Spring in 2011. According to torture victims, Crown Prince Nasser played an active role in this. "Prince Nasser is throwing money at international cycling to whitewash his past in Bahrain. It is the UCI's duty to deny the Bahrain racing team its World Tour licence!" demanded Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei, Director of the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy. Although Article 6.1 of the UCI's Code of Ethics obliges all licence holders to respect human dignity, the racing team was awarded the licence.
Unpredictable donors
Finally, the United Arab Emirates has also been pilloried for its practice of abducting and interning rebellious princesses. In 2000, Princess Shamsa, daughter of the Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates, was abducted back to the Emirates after fleeing from Dubai to London. In 2018, the same thing happened to her sister Latifa. In this context, it sounds like a mockery that the UAE Team Emirates women's team advertises itself as empowering women to become heroes through cycling. In cycling, the new sponsors were welcomed with open arms.
Associations and event organisers should commit to applying the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. (Sylvia Schenk, Tranparency International Germany)
The petrodollars from Bahrain led to the reestablishment of the Bahrain-Merida team, which has been operating under the name Bahrain-Victorious since 2021. Money from the United Arab Emirates ensured the survival of the former Team Lampre as UAE Team Emirates. The Australian team Jayco-AlUla is currently benefiting from money from Saudi Arabian co-sponsor AlUla, a tourism project that also co-financed the 2022 Tour of Saudi Arabia. Saudi money also ends up with Team Saudi Arabia thanks to a contract with the local cycling association. Movistar.
Giro organiser RCS took in around €4.5 million from the first staging of the Dubai Tour in 2014 alone, more money than the start of the Giro d'Italia in Belfast in the same year (€3.1 million). No figures are available from the ASO. But as long as the Tour of Qatar was jointly organised with cycling legend Eddy Merckx, money flowed in such quantities that even journalists, including the author, were accommodated in luxury hotels that were far above the travel budget of media representatives.
However, the new sponsors also bring new risks. After the controversial 2016 UCI World Championships in Doha, the flow of Qatari money dried up abruptly. The Tour of Qatar simply ceased to exist. "We didn't receive any information about the reasons," says Ronny Lauke, head of the Canyon-SRAM racing team. "I suspect that they had reached their peak with the World Championships and had squeezed cycling dry in the media. They were also miffed by the negative atmosphere at the time due to a lack of safety on the roads and few spectators," recalls Lauke. His conclusion: "It's all completely unpredictable."
The petrodollars are also influencing the structures in cycling. "You have to be careful not to create a two-tier society in the World Tour," warns Ralph Denk, team boss of Bora-Hansgrohe. The possibilities of teams with money from the Gulf States are so considerable that they can buy together the best squads, while traditional cycling sponsors from the middle class are running out of money. Denk is therefore calling for a budget cap of 25 to 30 million euros. Lauke also believes that a budget limit makes sense for women's cycling in the long term. "Otherwise we'll have middle classes against royalty," he says dryly.
Everyone has to decide for themselves which races they travel to. When travelling, you have to respect the conditions in such countries. (Ralph Denk, team manager of Bora)
However, when asked about the disastrous human rights records of many Gulf states that invest in cycling, the German team bosses are noticeably reticent. Lauke points to the "300, 400 people who would be out of work" if the racing team sponsors pulled out. Denk says: "Everyone has to decide for themselves which races they want to go to. And if you are travelling to such countries, you have to respect the local conditions. If you want to stay with your neighbour and he demands that you put on your slippers, you put on your slippers."
Associations have a responsibility
In the opinion of the Bora boss, the important decisions and course-setting in this context should be made at an earlier point in time and elsewhere anyway - namely when it is decided which countries are allowed to organise international UCI competitions. "Federations and event organisers should commit to applying the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and develop a human rights concept," demands Sylvia Schenk, former president of the German Cycling Federation and head of Transparency International Germany's working group on sport for nine years.
These United Nations Guiding Principles (UNLP) were established in 2011 as the basis for the human rights responsibility of companies. They also form the basis of the German Supply Chain Act. According to Schenk, individual sports associations such as UEFA, FIFA and the IOC have already included these UNLP in their bidding criteria for major events.
However, nothing of the sort has happened in international cycling so far. The 2025 World Championships have been awarded to Rwanda. The Central African country, still threatened by famine, ranks 172nd in the human rights list, one position ahead of Bahrain. Seven million euros will go to the UCI as a licence fee.
What is sportswashing?
Sportswashing is actually just a new name for an old activity: many countries that have organised major sporting events have wanted to cleanse their own image in the world by using the positive image of sport. This was the case with the 1936 Olympic Games in National Socialist Germany, the 1934 Football World Cup in fascist Italy and the 1978 World Cup in Argentina, which was ruled by a military dictatorship.
Since the 2000s, Russia, China and the oil states of the Middle East in particular have used sport to distract attention from human rights violations and autocratic structures. Sportswashing is not only possible through the organisation of major events; criticism is also directed at investments such as the takeover of the Paris Saint-Germain football club by the Qatari sovereign wealth fund, the Premier League club Newcastle United by Saudi financiers or the financing of road cycling teams such as Bahrain Victorious, UAE-Emirates and Astana by state or state-affiliated actors.
Sportswashing is based on the term greenwashing - the attempt by companies and states to create a greener, more sustainable image. The boundaries between sportswashing, greenwashing and traditional sports sponsorship are blurred. After all, the aim of sports sponsorship has always been to create a positive image and reach potential consumers. In a political context, sportswashing can also be described as a soft power strategy.
The term was coined in 1990 by political scientist Joseph Nye; it describes the intention to improve one's own position in the world not through wars - hard power - but through softer forms of exercising power and influence. Sporting events can be used for both foreign and domestic political image building. In Qatar, the UAE and Saudi Arabia, activities in world sport are all integrated into such soft power programmes.
Soft power and hard power are not mutually exclusive, as demonstrated by Russia's continued aggression against Ukraine since 2014, which had no impact whatsoever on the 2014 Winter Olympics and the 2018 Football World Cup in Russia. The murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi by confidants of the Saudi crown prince, the strong man behind his country's sports offensive, has also had no impact on the international sports scene.
