Saudis don’t need the money that flows in modern sport, but they do crave the kudos | Kenan Malik

Their sportswashing seduces players and leagues - and its ultimate target: the policymakers

Jordan Henderson has been captain of Liverpool FC for eight years. He is a senior member of the England squad. He has been one of the most a vocal champion of LGBT rights within football. I do believe when you see something that is clearly wrong and makes another human being feel excluded you should stand shoulder to shoulder with them," he wrote two years ago in a Liverpool matchday programme about his support for gay rights.

Yet, to the dismay of many of his admirers, Henderson is on the verge of a move to Al-Ettifaq, a club in Saudi Arabia, a country in which homosexuality is banned, and in which gay men have been beheaded. His decision has no doubt been made easier by a reported weekly wage of 700,000. But it has led to condemnation from LGBT organisations and to denunciations of his hypocrisy".