A British national newspaper journalist has claimed he was refused entry to Anthony Joshua’s knockout defeat against Daniel Dubois after criticising Saudi Arabia for ‘sportswashing’. The Daily Telegraph’s Oliver Brown was barred from Wembley Stadium after dubbing the build-up to the Riyadh Season event ‘Saudi Disneyland’.
Prior to the fight, Brown wrote an article headlined: “Joshua-Dubois is an unashamed sportswashing exercise transforming London into Saudi Disneyland.”
Saudi Arabia has pumped money into a variety of sports, from boxing and football to tennis and golf. ‘Sportswashing’ refers to nations and individuals using sport to improve a reputation that has been tarnished.
The gulf kingdom has been accused of human rights abuses, including executions of political activists, discrimination against women and religious minority groups, and poor treatment of migrant workers.
Brown described Joshua vs Dubois as “a convenient vehicle for projecting the kingdom’s cachet to the world”. He claims that a senior PR executive working on the fight sent him an email a little over three hours after his article was published.
The message allegedly read: “Shall I presume from your opinions that you no longer wish to attend as clearly you do not agree with Saudi Arabia’s involvement in boxing?”
Brown responded by telling the PR that he still wished to attend to cover the event. He claims he was given assurance that his accreditation remained active by Frank Warren’s Queensbury Promotions, with details on where to collect his pass.
But the journalist continued: “As I arrived on fight night as arranged, a publicist prepared to hand me an orange wristband to enable access to the upstairs media lounge. But then people began to appear in the lobby to say that I was being denied entry and that there was nothing they could do.
“I made multiple calls and sent multiple texts asking if somebody would come downstairs so that the situation could at least be discussed in person. All went unanswered.”
It is understood press seats were oversubscribed and a number of ringside seats were lost last minute, reducing the press list further.
Fans were left bemused when the Saudi Arabian national anthem was played ahead of the all-British fight. Wembley was also lit up in the green colours of the country’s flag as singer Rashed Al-Majed sung to the crowd.
Dubois cemented his IBF world heavyweight crown by knocking Joshua to the canvas in the fifth round in front of 96,000 people. Promoter Frank Warren says that while there is no contracted rematch clause, Dubois would be open to another fight with Joshua.
Matchroom Boxing has been contacted for comment.
