Fabrizio Romano criticised for video promoting Saudi Arabia’s humanitarian projects

Fabrizio Romano has earned a reputation for being the transfer market expert: the man who has the inside line on all the major moves.

However, his latest video has seen him dip his toe into the murky world of political public relations.

The Italian, made famous by his ‘Here We Go’ catchphrase when announcing a big deal, this afternoon posted a video on X in which he highlights the work of the King Salman Humanitarian Aid & Relief Centre.

The centre describes itself as ‘leading the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s humanitarian role in serving people & communities in 113 countries across the world’.

Romano talks about various projects, and says it “reflects the leading humanitarian role of Saudi Arabia”.

This is, of course, in direct conflict to other reports focusing on human rights inside Saudi itself.

A report from the European Saudi Organisation for Human Rights (ESOHR) in January claimed the country, led by de facto leader Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, car­ried out 347 exe­cu­tions in 2025, mark­ing a new high for the nation, after a record-break­ing 345 exe­cu­tions in 2024. 

The ESOHR add that the major­i­ty (79%) of exe­cu­tions in 2025 were for crimes fail­ing to meet the inter­na­tion­al legal thresh­old of a “most seri­ous crime” and pre­dom­i­nate­ly includ­ed exe­cu­tions for drug-relat­ed charges (69% of all exe­cu­tions).

Romano criticised for controversial video

Romano’s video marks another venture into the word of sport in an attempt to change the perception of Saudi Arabia, known by critics as sportswashing.

Saudi has become a major player in global sport with its Public Investment Fund (PIF) investing heavily over recent years.

PIF are major stakeholders in four Pro League clubs – Al-Ahli, Al-Ittihad, Al-Hilal and Cristiano Ronaldo’s Al-Nassr. They are also part of a consortium that owns Premier League club Newcastle as well as making a splash in the world of golf with the introduction of LIV. They have also staged several major sporting events in Saudi Arabia, including world title fights and Formula One.

Romano was widely criticised on X for the video with replies that included “Stick to transfers and not propaganda” and “Saudi and humanitarian in the same sentence, should be ashamed taking money for this”.