ATHENS — Greece’s conservative government has been slammed by opposition parties after POLITICO revealed a secret offer by Saudi Arabia to pay for stadiums for Greece and Egypt if they agreed to team up with the Gulf heavyweight to host the 2030 football World Cup.
The main opposition Syriza party called on the ruling New Democracy party to reveal details about the personal contacts between Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, noting that in the wake of the Qatargate scandal there is an even more urgent need for clarity.
“We want to find out why Greece is giving away the powerful brand name of a European country that is synonymous with freedom and democracy to Saudi Arabia,” Syriza said in a statement.
POLITICO revealed that the oil-rich country offered to “fully underwrite” the infrastructure costs for Greece and Egypt helping to host the sports mega-event in all three countries, but would in exchange get to stage three-quarters of all the matches.
The dramatic offer — likely worth billions of euros in construction costs — was discussed in a private conversation between Mohammed bin Salman, the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, and Mitsotakis in summer 2022, according to a senior official familiar with the matter. The Greek government denied repeated requests for comment before publication of the story.
“There is a general sports cooperation with Saudi Arabia, it involves various actions but there has obviously not yet been any final decision on these issues,” State Minister Giorgos Gerapetritis told local radio. “There is no discussion at the moment about anything definitive, we are at the level of negotiations.”
“POLITICO’s article on Greece’s ‘buyout’ by Saudi Arabia for the 2030 World Cup is full of inaccuracies,” Deputy Sports Minister Lefteris Avgenakis said in a Twitter post. “Contacts are ongoing between the two countries and Egypt, but they are still in the early stages of exploring possibilities for a bid,” he added.
Asked by POLITICO to elaborate on the inaccuracies, a spokesman for the sports ministry later said that “the main inaccuracy is that the Crown Prince suggested to the PM that Saudi Arabia would bear the costs of the event.”
As POLITICO noted in the story, published Wednesday, it is not clear whether the offer was taken up by Greece. But the three countries are now working on a joint proposal to host the 2030 tournament, a move that has triggered a backlash against Greece.
Opposition fumes
In an attempt to persuade the members of football’s world governing body, FIFA, of the virtues of the Saudi-led bid, the proposed tournament would see matches held across three continents, providing geographical balance. A Middle East-only World Cup bid would be unlikely to succeed just eight years after Qatar hosted the tournament in 2022.
Syriza said that when in power they had promoted a bid to host the World Cup with Balkan countries in order to strengthen peace and stability in the region.
“What exactly is the purpose, values and objective of the bid to co-host a World Cup with Saudi Arabia?” it asked.
The opposition socialist PASOK party is against the common bid, a senior party official told POLITICO.
“The organization of such events as the World Football Championship, the Olympic Games, can only be organized with countries with which we share a common code of values, we have a common understanding of democracy, respect human rights and the rule of law,” the official said.
And there was more criticism from the left wing.
“It is not possible that we have learned nothing from the Qatargate of [Greek MEP Eva] Kaili and the Greek government is discussing the joint participation of our country with a country that murdered Jamal Khashoggi, treats women and LGBT+ people brutally and mistreats migrant workers,” said the small left-wing party MeRA25 in a statement.
