Human Rights Watch and Fairgrounds Projects called on the Premier League to adopt a comprehensive human rights policy and to include human rights as a criterion for evaluating potential buyers of football clubs, and in this regard warned against selling an English club to Saudi Arabia because of its human rights violations.
The two organizations said that the English Premier League should respect human rights in all of its work, including its assessment of a Saudi sovereign fund’s attempt to purchase Newcastle United.
They added that the English Premier League and the English Football Association should consider adopting a comprehensive human rights policy in line with the policy established by the FIFA in 2017.
The two organizations indicated that in April they separately reported Premier League Chief Executive Richard Masters regarding their concerns about a potential purchase from the Saudi Public Investment Fund, and that his answers were insufficient to allay the concerns.
They said that Masters did not say whether it would take Saudi Arabia's human rights record into consideration when considering the sale, as it was sufficient to say that the sale to a "Saudi-based company" had been subject to due process "that cannot be done publicly and comment on it."
"The English Premier League should not put FIFA's human rights policy aside and ignore Saudi rights violations while considering a sale of one of its clubs to a Saudi sovereign fund," said Benjamin Ward, director of Human Rights Watch in the UK.
"The adoption of a comprehensive human rights policy and the inclusion of human rights as a criterion for evaluating potential football club buyers may set a positive example," he added.
The two organizations recalled Saudi Arabia's terrible human rights violations at home and abroad and in Yemen, including the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi at his country's consulate in Istanbul in October 2018.
On July 6, they said, the United Kingdom adopted a new global human rights sanctions regime that includes asset freezes and travel bans against 20 Saudis linked to the Khashoggi murder, among whom is Saud al-Qahtani, a former adviser close to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and chairman of the Council. Management of the Saudi Public Investment Fund.