Saudi Arabia’s takeover of world sport: Football, golf, boxing and now tennis?
Target Tabloid – Saudi Arabia is attempting to rebuild its image and prepare for a world without oil — and sport is a key part of its strategy.
Although other nation-states have exerted influence on global sport in the past, we have never seen anything as comprehensive as Saudi Arabia’s vast investments in a multitude of different sports over the past few years.
Saudi Arabia’s smaller neighbour Qatar hosted the 2022 men’s football World Cup and many other competitions, but Saudi has even more cash to splash and limitless ambitions in doing so. This may be a lifeline for some sports, but for critics, this is all an exercise in sportswashing, a distraction from the country’s terrible human rights record.
As reported by The Athletic, the women’s professional tennis tour is preparing to announce that the season-ending WTA Tour Finals will take place in Saudi Arabia, marking the latest step in the country’s huge investment in elite sport.
So which sports are already receiving Saudi money — and which ones might be next?
Football
Saudi’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) bought Newcastle United in 2021 after years of legal wrangling. The club has spent over £400million on transfers since the takeover, a figure that would likely be considerably higher were it not for the Premier League’s increasingly stringent profit and sustainability Rules.
The Saudi Arabian national team has qualified for the past six World Cups, but its domestic league previously had little international profile. That suddenly changed in January 2023 when Al Nassr signed Cristiano Ronaldo and kicked off a revolution in the Saudi Pro League.
The 2023 summer transfer window began with an overhaul of the league, which saw the PIF taking control of the four founding members: Al Ahli, Al Ittihad, Al Hilal and Ronaldo’s Al Nassr. Several other clubs received investment from state-run industries.
This change kicked off a vast spending splurge as Saudi clubs signed some of the biggest names in European football including Neymar, Karim Benzema, Sadio Mane and N’Golo Kante.
In that summer window, Saudi Pro League clubs spent a record US$957million (£754m), according to Deloitte’s Sports Business Group, resulting in a net spend of $907million. This was second only to the Premier League’s net transfer spend ($1.39 billion).
As well as all this, Saudi Arabia will host the 2034 World Cup, having been announced as the sole bidder. Linked to this, Aramco, Saudi Arabia’s state oil firm, is expected to become the biggest sponsor of FIFA with a $100million-a-year deal, according to a report in The Times last year.
Given the huge infrastructure demands of a tournament expanding from 32 teams to 48, this will require vast amounts of cash.
Saudi Arabia already hosted the 2023 Club World Cup and will prepare further by staging the 2027 Asian Cup. The country has already hosted the Italian and Spanish Super Cups, too, both of which are mini-tournaments featuring four teams.
Golf
In October 2021, the same month the PIF bought Newcastle United, the Saudis dropped a bombshell on the world of golf by pledging to invest $2billion in a new competition called LIV Golf.
After an acrimonious period when LIV existed in competition with the PGA Tour, LIV is now on the brink of taking over the global game. In June 2023, LIV, the PGA Tour and the PGA European Tour agreed to merge into a single commercial entity, with PIF the “exclusive investor” with the first right of refusal on new investors.
Eight months on, though, and a deal has not been finalised and the new LIV season begins on Friday (February 2).
Cricket
Aramco is almost entirely owned by the Saudi government and the PIF. A study cited by Amnesty International said the company is responsible for more than four per cent of all global greenhouse gas emissions since 1965.
Aramco became the International Cricket Council’s naming sponsor last year and its logo has been plastered over events run by the organisation, including the recent World Cup in India.
As well as this, Saudi Tourism, a government body, is a main sponsor of the Indian Premier League, which is one of the wealthiest sporting organisations in the world. It has even more revenue than football’s Premier League because of the huge value of India’s domestic broadcasting market.
The Daily Mail has also reported that the PIF is in “advanced talks” for a huge investment to finance a second IPL, which would take place in the autumn, although nothing tangible has been confirmed.
Horse racing
Leaders in the Gulf have long taken a big interest in horse racing, with Dubai and Qatar hosting major events.
The biggest prize pot in the history of the sport is the Saudi Cup at the King Abdulaziz Racetrack in Riyadh — $20million. HRH Prince Bandar bin Khalid al-Faisal, chairman of the Jockey Club Saudi Arabia, has said his country wants to “become a leading player on horse racing’s world stage”.
Boxing
Saudi Arabia is the new home of elite boxing. A ‘Day of Reckoning’ in Riyadh on December 23 involved huge names like Anthony Joshua and Deontay Wilder, while Tyson Fury beat UFC star Francis Ngannou in controversial circumstances in the same city in October. Fury is now scheduled to take on Oleksandr Usyk in a historic unification contest in Saudi Arabia later this month.
The story started back in 2019 when Joshua visited Riyadh for the ‘Clash of the Dunes’, winning his IBF, WBO and WBA heavyweight titles back from Andy Ruiz Jr.
The sport is driven by feuds and rivalries, which often come down to disputes over money — which Saudi’s vast riches can solve.
Boxing’s biggest names have dismissed accusations of sportswashing, with Joshua saying “I don’t know what that is” and Fury saying Saudi Arabia is a “very safe place”. Fury also lavished praise on the government for being more welcoming to him than his native UK.
Saudi Arabia’s move into boxing has been led by Turki Al-Sheikh, chair of the General Entertainment Authority, who has become one of the most influential figures in the sport.
Source: https://theathletic.com/