Saudi Arabia should not have been able to bar our reporter from Wembley

Free speech may not exist in the desert kingdom but is a foundation stone of our liberties

Wembley Stadium has hosted many great sporting events over the years and not just football matches. Boxing has also featured prominently, perhaps most famously the fight between Henry Cooper, the British heavyweight champion, and the then Cassius Clay in 1963, notable for the latter being floored by a left hook and saved only by the bell.
Last Saturday, Wembley was the setting for another titanic scrap – between Anthony Joshua and Daniel Dubois for the world heavyweight title, with Dubois winning by a knockout. Despite being staged in London between two British fighters the event was actually hosted by Saudi Arabia whose influence in elite sport, from football to golf, is growing by the year.
It is averred by many that the Saudis are using elite sport to burnish their image following accusations of despotic behaviour and an intolerance to criticism. This so-called “sportswashing” is a legitimate subject for curiosity and comment.
Yet when this newspaper’s chief sports writer Oliver Brown called the Dubois-Joshua clash “a convenient vehicle for projecting the kingdom’s cachet to the world” he found himself prevented from entering Wembley to report on the fight. Moreover, the Saudi national anthem was given precedence over God Save the King as though this was actually happening in Saudi Arabia.
Barring our reporter was an affront to free speech. It may not exist in the desert kingdom but is a foundation stone of our liberties. A venue such as Wembley, owned by the FA and the centrepiece of national sporting culture, cannot be used in this way.