If it were up to John McEnroe, tennis would not follow in the footsteps of golf in doing business with the Saudi Arabian state.
McEnroe and Chris Evert, analysts on ESPN’s forthcoming coverage of Wimbledon, spoke to the media on Wednesday morning on a conference call for the network.
They were asked if a potential investment from Saudi Arabia would be good for tennis.
“It looked to me like the PGA were total hypocrites when they cut a deal after they’ve been fighting them, in my opinion,” McEnroe answered.
“At the same time the people that are complaining about it, a lot of the people are hypocrites because our government does business with things along with tons of other hedge funds, wealth funds, down the list, people that have dealings.”
The Saudi-backed LIV Golf and the PGA Tour announced plans to merge, which was particularly stunning in light of PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan’s previous rhetoric implying a connection between Saudi Arabia and the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
PGA Tour board member Jimmy Dunne, who lost dozens of colleagues in the World Trade Center, and survived because he was playing a golf tournament that day, vowed to kill anyone involved in the terrorist attacks himself, and said he was confident nobody he communicated with at LIV Golf was involved.
The merger still needs sign-off from United States regulators.
On the conference call, McEnroe rattled off several other sports where Saudi Arabia has made significant investments.
“What about Ronaldo? He’s being paid a couple hundred million a year. They have been buying players in other sports, brought boxing fights, you name it,” McEnroe continued. “I’m not surprised. I wouldn’t encourage it personally, the Saudi thing. I’m not surprised that tennis is being thrown into the mix after what we saw in golf.
“I don’t think that’s something that we should be pursuing, per se. It’s not in my hands.”
Evert did not immediately answer the question, but came back to it later.
“I didn’t comment on the Saudi thing [before], but I think it’s sportswashing. I don’t think we need to go there,” she said.