My reply to questions about this, even ignorant ones about my own activities, is now posted here: hrf.org/press_posts/re…
Trying to distract from the risks of dictatorships like Saudi Arabia purchasing Premier League teams with uninformed accusations against me is insulting to readers who deserve information about the real matter.
The Saudis, as with Putin's cronies and more lately China, have learned that buying up sports teams in the free world is handy for laundering money and reputation—and for spreading more money for political influence.
There are consequences to such deals with the devil. Putin's sense of ownership in England led to murders in London & Salisbury that could have been mass fatality events. And we know the Saudis aren't afraid of blood either.
Dictatorships love big sporting spectacles, from the Olympic Games to the World Cup. Clean the money, the image, export corruption. They don't liberalize, they are emboldened by the approval.
