Lionel Messi visiting Saudi Arabia with his family in May 2023. Lionel Messi visiting Saudi Arabia with his family in May 2023. (Lionel Messi on Instagram.)
FeaturedInternationalPoliticsSoccerBy Andrew Bucholtz on

In 2021, Lionel Messi signed a deal to promote tourism to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. As with other sports things involving Saudi Arabia, such as LIV Golf, that deal was bashed by many with a label of “sportswashing,” or the regime using its money and influence in sports to try and minimize criticisms of its human rights record, its role in the killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, and more. And it actually led to on-field consequences too, with Messi’s club Paris Saint-Germain suspending him in May after he returned from an “unauthorized” absence to go visit Saudi Arabia.

Messi is now heading to MLS, and chose to sign with that league’s Inter Miami FC rather than take reported billions to play for Saudi Arabia’s Al-Hilal. That has the future status of his tourism deal a bit unclear. But, around that, Karim Zidan and Tariq Panja of The New York Times were able to obtain and review one version of Messi’s tourism contract with Saudi Arabia. It’s unclear if the version they received is the current or implemented one (it’s dated January 2021, and signed by Messi and his business manager and brother Rodrigo, but not by Saudi officials), but it does seem to match some of what Messi has done to promote the country, and it spells out requirements and compensation for him:

Zidan and Panja spell out that in more detail in the piece, and detail a key condition where Messi can’t “tarnish” the appearance of Saudi Arabia:

The contract shows that Messi could receive as much as 22.5 million euros, about $25 million, over three years for little actual work: a few commercial appearances, a handful of social media posts and some all-expenses-paid vacations to the kingdom with his family and children. He is expected to share images of those trips — marked with a Saudi-approved hashtag — with his vast online following.

But the document also contains a condition important to Saudi officials: Messi cannot say anything that might “tarnish” Saudi Arabia, a country that has faced widespread criticism for its human rights record.

Of course, non-disparagement clauses and clauses involving a player or coach’s impact on the organization’s perception are not unknown. Many in sports have been lost jobs for off-field behavior, and sometimes even for comments alone. But the “tarnish” language here is quite broad, and is particularly interesting given the wider discussion around Saudi Arabia and “sportswashing.” And so far, Messi has appeared to abide by that, just posting about how great the country is to his 473 million Instagram followers:

We’ll see if Messi maintains this contract, these visits, and these posts now that he’s playing in MLS.

[The New York Times; top photo of Messi and his family visiting Saudi Arabia in May from his Instagram]

About Andrew Bucholtz

Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.

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