British journalist 'barred' from Joshua-Dubois fight at Wembley after Saudi criticism

Oliver Brown says he was denied entry to the fight on Saturday in the wake of a Telegraph article

SOFT POWER: Turki Alalshikh looks on as the national anthem of Saudi Arabia is sung prior to during the IBF World Heavyweight Title fight between Daniel Dubois and Anthony Joshua, on the Riyadh Season - Wembley Edition card at Wembley Stadium. Picture: Richard Pelham/Getty Images

A British journalist says he was 'barred' from attending Anthony Joshua's world title fight against Daniel Dubois at Wembley Stadium on Saturday after criticising Saudi Arabian sportswashing. 

Well-known sports writer Oliver Brown — who has attended several prizefights in Saudi Arabia in recent years — published a column in the Telegraph on Friday that criticised the regime's attempts at sportswashing.  

He was subsequently refused entry to the “Riyadh Season: Wembley Edition”. 

"'Saudi Disneyland' was how I had described the build-up to Joshua versus Dubois," Brown writes. "A convenient vehicle for projecting the kingdom’s cachet to the world.

"Having attended three fights involving Joshua or Tyson Fury in Saudi Arabia since 2019, I had become fatalistic at the sell-out of it all. But this London chapter of the circus smacked of sportswashing on steroids, a grisly conduit for glorifying the Saudi regime on British soil.

"And so I wrote just that, in the full knowledge that the PRs fronting this production would bristle, but that it still needed saying.

"The article was published on The Telegraph website at 11.02am on Friday. At 2.28pm, an email arrived from a senior PR executive working on the fight. 'Shall I presume from your opinions,' the message read, 'that you no longer wish to attend as clearly you do not agree with Saudi Arabia’s involvement in boxing?' 

"Tempting as it was to reply in the strongest terms — given the clear indication here that accreditation of a British writer at a British fight involving two British boxers was now conditional upon what view you expressed about the Saudis — I chose moderation. 'Perfectly willing to have a conversation about any of this,' I said. 'You have my number. Yes, I would still like to attend the event to write a fight report. Best, Oliver.' 

"No such offer of a telephone conversation was taken up. There was no mention in the exchange of the credential, already confirmed by two different people, being cancelled. On the contrary, a message arrived from Frank Warren’s Queensberry Promotions at 2.39pm to say where it could be collected.

"As I arrived on fight night as arranged, a publicist prepared to hand me an orange wristband to enable access to the upstairs media lounge.

But then people began to appear in the lobby to say that I was being denied entry and that there was nothing they could do.

"I made multiple calls and sent multiple texts asking if somebody would come downstairs so that the situation could at least be discussed in person. All went unanswered. After an hour of this charade, I left the stadium."

Before the fight, the Saudi national anthem was played after a tribute to King Salman and the arena was illuminated in green and white. 

Oasis frontman, Liam Gallagher played a three-track set before the main event which saw Joshua ultimately stopped by Dubois at the famous stadium, having been floored four times.