After LIV Golf, What Will Be the Next Saudi Sports Bet? LIV併PGA後 沙烏地銀彈攻勢的下個目標是誰?


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2023/08/18 第446期 訂閱/退訂看歷史報份
 
 
紐時周報精選 After LIV Golf, What Will Be the Next Saudi Sports Bet? LIV併PGA後 沙烏地銀彈攻勢的下個目標是誰?
The Taliban Government Runs on WhatsApp. There's Just One Problem. 美國制裁打亂神學士政權WhatsApp溝通網
紐時周報精選
 
After LIV Golf, What Will Be the Next Saudi Sports Bet? LIV併PGA後 沙烏地銀彈攻勢的下個目標是誰?
文/Lauren Hirsch, Michael J. de
譯/陳曉慈

LIV併PGA後 沙烏地銀彈攻勢的下個目標是誰?

When the Saudi Arabian-backed LIV Golf series announced an agreement to join with the PGA Tour, it shocked deal makers across the sports world.

沙烏地阿拉伯支持的LIV高球巡迴賽宣布與美國職業男子高球巡迴賽PGA(美巡賽)合併協議,消息震撼了整個體育投資界。

"It's been a mix of stunned and in disbelief," Alex Michael, a managing director at the investment bank LionTree, talked about the general reaction.

投資銀行「獅樹」董事總經理麥可談到大家普遍的反應,「參雜了震驚和不可置信」。

Industry insiders quickly moved on to wondering which sport could be next.

但業界人士很快就接受這項事實,開始猜想沙國下一個體壇目標。

Saudi Arabia's enormous sovereign wealth fund, which is known as the Public Investment Fund, or PIF, has an appetite for sports. It has made investments in WWE, Formula 1 and a national soccer league.

沙國主權財富基金「公共投資基金」財力雄厚,且對體育賽事展現高度興趣,包括世界摔角娛樂、一級方程式賽車及沙國國內足球聯賽之一都有其投資。

But the kingdom's history of human rights violations has been an obstacle to some deals in the United States. In 2019, the entertainment giant Endeavor returned the fund's $400 million investment after the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. And until recently, the PGA Tour was eager to use Saudi Arabia's record against it.

但這個王國侵犯人權的歷史,一直是在美國部分交易的障礙。華盛頓郵報專欄作家哈紹吉遭殺害後,美國娛樂巨頭奮進公司2019年退還了沙國基金4億美元投資。直到最近,美巡賽都還熱中以人權紀錄對付沙國。

That moral concern seems to have been overridden by the PGA Tour's business concerns. The deal with LIV Golf came together after the rival circuit picked up traction and lured players away with lofty purses, ultimately making it infeasible for the PGA to compete.

但道德疑慮顯然比不過美巡賽的商業考量。隨著對手聯賽逐漸成氣候、選手接二連三被重金挖角,美巡賽終於難以競爭,同意與LIV合併。

"The Saudis didn't change history or change who they were," said Lyle Ayes, CEO of Verance Capital, which invests in sports. "The deal just made sense."

體育投資銀行「維倫斯資本」總裁艾斯說:「沙烏地人並未改寫歷史,也沒有改變身分;這筆交易十分合理」。

Effectively a commercial partnership, the deal may open the door for more sports businesses to accept PIF funds, Ayes said.

艾斯表示,這筆交易實為商業合作,可能為更多體育產業接受公共投資基金打開大門。

It would be difficult to pull off the LIV Golf playbook in another sport. Baseball faces challenges that would make an investment in a rival league risky: Its fan base is aging, the regional sports model is collapsing, and there aren't a lot of spare baseball stadiums big enough for a major-league team. A rival to the National Football League would require a large number of players, and past efforts to create competitor leagues have flopped.

但要在其他運動項目套用LIV的劇本恐怕十分困難。棒球面臨的挑戰,讓投資對手聯盟頗有風險:美國棒球迷年齡層正在老化,區域體育模式搖搖欲墜,也沒有很多夠大的閒置棒球場能容納大聯盟隊伍。要成立國家美式足球聯盟的對手需要不少球員,而過去類似的競爭者聯盟嘗試都失敗。

The National Basketball Association might be the easiest team league to challenge. Basketball requires fewer players than baseball or football, and courts are fairly easy to find or build. But given how much U.S. players are already paid, it's unclear what a rival league could offer.

最容易挑戰的也許是美國職籃「國家籃球協會」。比起棒球與美式足球,籃球隊需要的球員較少,要找到或建造新籃球場也比較容易。但鑑於美國球員的待遇很高,對手聯盟能提供什麼仍然不清楚。

Tennis is probably the best candidate for a rival tour. Like golf, it's an individual sport, which makes it easier for PIF to lure athletes with big checks.

網球或許是成立巡迴賽打對台的最佳選項。如同高爾夫球,網球是個人運動,公共投資基金比較容易以重金挖角選手。

 
The Taliban Government Runs on WhatsApp. There's Just One Problem. 美國制裁打亂神學士政權WhatsApp溝通網
文/Christina Goldbaum, Safiulla
譯/高詣軒

美國制裁打亂神學士政權WhatsApp溝通網

The team of Taliban security officers assembled on the outskirts of Afghanistan's capital to prepare for a raid on an Islamic State group hideout.

神學士政權安全人員團隊在阿富汗首都市郊集結,準備對一個伊斯蘭國集團藏身處發動突襲。

The leader, Habib Rahman Inqayad, scrambled to get the exact location of their target. He grabbed his colleagues' phones and called their superiors, who insisted they had sent him the location pin of the target to his WhatsApp.

團隊領袖伊卡亞德急著要掌握他們目標的確切位置。他一把抓過同僚手機,撥電話給他們的上級,而上級堅稱已將目標位置定位點透過WhatsApp傳給他了。

But WhatsApp had blocked his account to comply with U.S. sanctions.

然而,WhatsApp為了遵守美國制裁,已將他的帳戶封鎖。

"The only way we communicate is WhatsApp — and I didn't have access," said Inqayad, 25, whom The New York Times has followed since the Taliban seized power in August 2021.

25歲的伊卡亞德表示:「我們唯一溝通方式就是WhatsApp,而我無法使用」。神學士2021年8月奪權以來,紐約時報就持續追蹤採訪他。

In recent months, complaints from Taliban officials, police and soldiers of their WhatsApp accounts being banned or temporarily deactivated have become widespread, disruptions that have illuminated how the messaging platform has become a backbone of the Taliban's nascent government. Those interruptions also underscore the far-reaching consequences of international sanctions on a government that has become among the most isolated in the world.

近幾個月來,神學士政權官員、警察和軍人普遍抱怨他們的WhatsApp帳戶遭禁用或暫時停用;這波混亂顯示這款通訊平台如何成為神學士新生政府的支柱。那些干擾也凸顯出,國際制裁對這個已成為世界上最受孤立政府的深遠影響。

The United States has long criminalized any form of support for the Taliban. Consequently, WhatsApp, which is owned by Facebook, scans group names, descriptions and group profile photos on the messaging app to identify users among the Taliban and block their accounts, according to a spokesperson for the company.

美國長久以來將任何形式支援神學士視為犯罪。因此,根據該公司發言人指出,臉書旗下的WhatsApp會在這款通訊應用程式上,掃視群組的名稱、描述與群組的檔案相片,辨識出隸屬神學士的用戶並且封鎖他們的帳戶。

The policy has been in place since U.S. sanctions were enacted more than two decades ago.

20年多前美國制裁實施之後,這項政策就已存在。

But over the past two years, the Taliban's reliance on WhatsApp has become even more far-reaching as smartphone use has proliferated and 4G networks have improved across Afghanistan with the end of the U.S.-led war. As the Taliban have consolidated control and settled into governance, the inner bureaucratic workings of their administration have also become more organized — with WhatsApp central to their official communications.

但過去2年來,因為智慧手機使用增長,加上美國主導的戰爭結束,4G網路在阿富汗各地都有所改善,神學士對於WhatsApp的依賴也變得更加廣泛深遠。時值神學士鞏固其控制並且逐步熟絡治理體制,其內部的行政官僚運作亦漸趨有序——而WhatsApp正是他們官方溝通的核心。

The cat-and-mouse game of shutting down accounts has become a headache for officials in the Taliban administration — an almost daily reminder that the government they lead is all but shunned on the world stage.

這類宛如貓捉老鼠遊戲的帳戶停用,讓神學士政府官員們頭痛,也幾乎每天都在提醒,他們所領導的政府被屏除於世界舞台。

Many who have had their accounts shut down have found workarounds, buying new SIM cards and opening new accounts, and turned the ban more into a game of Whac-A-Mole.

許多帳戶遭關閉的人找到變通辦法,會去購買新的SIM卡並開設新帳戶,讓禁用變得更是像一場打地鼠遊戲。

 
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