D.C. United’s unique preseason: Prepping in Saudi Arabia raises questions

In some ways, the specific location of professional clubs’ preseason training camps is immaterial — what really matters is high-quality fields and facilities, mild weather and the opportunity to focus on the daily grind of fitness and tactical preparation. Some coaches actually prefer isolated destinations far from home, to limit distractions and foster team-building.

Modern sports doesn’t exist in a vacuum, however. And beyond the long-haul travel and eight-hour time difference from home, there was inevitably at least one elephant in the room when D.C. United set up shop in Saudi Arabia this winter for a 17-day preseason stint with little precedent in MLS history.

“This is not a normal trip,” United midfielder Russell Canouse said on a media availability in the first week of the Saudi camp.

Last month the Washington Post cited two inside sources to report that “Saudi entities are covering all expenses and paying appearance fees” for the trip. This fits into a larger push toward “building a business relationship” with the Saudi federation and the Saudi Pro League — whose top clubs were nationalized by the government’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) last year as part of a massive initiative to raise the profile of Saudi soccer via billions of dollars in spending on infrastructure, star players and the eventual hosting of the 2034 FIFA World Cup.

While the Red Sea port city of Jeddah offered the usual opportunities for sunny training sessions and beach outings, players and staff also visited ancient bazaars and likely 2034 venue sites. All in all, it marked a major shift from United’s past preseasons in more conventional locales like Bradenton, Florida, and Palm Springs, California.

“The differences probably are obvious on the one hand,” said first-year head coach Troy Lesesne at the dawn of his substantial rebuilding project with D.C. United. “Which is just being so far away, and in a completely different part of the world, and a part of the world that myself, and many of us, it’s the first time that we’ve been in this area of the world.

“But in terms of a preseason camp itself,” he added, “in terms of what our focus is, wherever we would be, we would try to be as insulated as possible and really focus on ourselves. And so that’s really what has consumed our time, is trying to really reset many, many things here and give a clear direction going forward … when you’re in a place like this, you can actually have a really special bond that can be created between individuals and between the team. The country itself and the experiences itself here have been very positive. We’re trying to be great ambassadors for the MLS in our country. The facilities and the people here just been extremely welcoming.”

The Black-and-Red isn’t the only MLS visitor to the oil-rich desert kingdom this winter. Inter Miami whistle-stopped through Riyadh in late January and early February for two friendlies over a few days as part of its round-the-world preseason exhibition tour. But that was fleeting compared to both the length and structure of D.C.’s stay, which featured “incredible,” “perfect” facilities and infrastructure, according to Lesesne and Canouse, and four matches, including a meeting with Steven Gerrard’s Al-Ettifaq side.

“A lot of different things here that you have to prepare for; obviously being on the other side of the world is a different scenario as well,” said Canouse, “but it’s nice to be situated and really get focused on what we want to do and what we can control, which is our on-field and all the work that we’re putting in to try to get ready for the season.”

United’s place at the heart of the U.S. capital city, where Persian Gulf states are both well-connected and heavily scrutinized, is an inescapable element in any Saudi partnership.

With $700 billion in assets, the PIF is ranked as the world’s sixth-largest sovereign wealth fund. Soccer spending is just one front in its sports push, which has also accrued potent power via the LIV Golf venture and a partnership with the Women’s Tennis Association. According to Deloitte’s Sports Business Group, SPL clubs splashed $957 million in the 2023 summer transfer window alone, and last year UK outlet The Times reported that state oil firm Aramco will soon become FIFA’s biggest corporate sponsor, to the tune of $100 million per year.

Spending of this sort is not necessarily new in world soccer circles, where the concept of geopolitical influence-building, and accompanying allegations of ‘sportswashing,’ have been a hot topic for years. It draws extra attention in Washington, however, where a blacklash may be building among politicians keen to call out foreign actors cultivating power and leverage.

Monumental Sports & Entertainment, the group which owns and operates the Wizards (NBA), Mystics (WNBA) and Capitals (NHL), Capital One Arena and a Mid-Atlantic regional sports network, recently became the first major U.S. team sports franchise to sell a share of itself to a foreign sovereign fund, in their case Qatar’s.

The trend has advanced to the point that the Atlantic Council, a D.C.-based think tank, recently published a white paper seeking to contextualize Saudi Arabia’s sports gambit.

Earlier this month a Senate subcommittee questioned executives from the Boston Consulting Group — the same outfit that has helped MLS plot its long-term course on and off the field — and three other prominent U.S.-based companies whose work for the PIF drew congressional investigation, which in turn triggered litigation by the Saudi government to limit the scope of the information those companies could share with the subcommittee.

“Saudi Arabia has laws protecting that type of information and apply serious criminal penalties on those who disclose it without permission. We risk criminal and financial penalties for the firm and for individuals working or living in Saudi Arabia,” said PCG chair Rich Lesser.

This drew a scathing response from Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), chair of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.

“The position that I’ve heard expressed today is essentially that you will comply with the subpoena but only and solely so far as Saudi Arabia allows you to do so, which is not compliance with this subpoena,” Blumenthal said. “You’ve chosen the Saudi side, not the Americans.’”

For many in Washington, this subject inevitably recalls the life and death of Jamal Khashoggi, the prominent Saudi dissident, journalist and Washington Post contributor who disappeared in Turkey in 2018, with multiple, wide-ranging investigations concluding that he was abducted and murdered on the orders of Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman — a key booster of the nation’s sporting push.

“To see a team from our nation’s capital succumb to another blatant attempt at sportswashing by Saudi Arabia is extremely disappointing,” wrote Abdullah Alaoudh, director of countering authoritarianism at the Middle East Democracy Center, in a letter to Post editors published on Feb. 2.

“As a Saudi dissident all too familiar with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and his cruel treatment of Saudi people, I implore D.C. United to end its association with a government that so callously disregards human rights. … The Saudi government consistently stands in direct opposition to our values of democracy and freedom. We cannot help Saudi Arabia get away with its latest sportswashing scheme.”

D.C. officials did not respond to Soccer America’s requests for comment and details about the wider dimensions of the trip, and the accompanying relationship with Saudi Arabian soccer. Lesesne implicitly acknowledged the controversial aspects of the tour on Feb. 4, noting that it was arranged before his hiring, without sharing much about any interior deliberations around it.

The 40-year-old already has plenty on his plate.

“No, I didn’t,” he said when asked if he’d discussed the political overtones of this preseason with his team. “The primary focus for us has just been this is our preseason camp that was determined prior to me coming on board, and that’s OK. I think where we are is, we’re going to be completely present, again, in what our priorities are. … It wouldn’t be an efficient use of our time to go into too much of that, even though I think there’s probably some importance to that. But right now our full focus is on what we need to do to get ready for the 2024 season. That’s for sure.

“No matter where we are in the world, it’s going to be time that we get to know one another better and on a deeper level, and that’s going to help us going into the beginning of the year about making that next step forward in a really, really positive manner for 2024.”