Saudi Arabia claims to be one of the industry centers

One of the most striking trends of the past year was the emergence of a new center of power in world sports, primarily financial. We are talking about Saudi Arabia, which, thanks to generous injections from government-controlled structures, has become a major player in football and golf, has maintained its position in boxing and motorsports, and is also close to achieving a solid position in tennis, cricket, and in general, it seems , any sports that can attract an audience. All these are consequences of the implementation of the Vision 2030 program, which, as Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is sure, should transform the country’s economy. A lot of attention is paid to sports in this program.

One of the most notable events in sports in 2023 had an indirect relationship directly to goals, points and seconds. However, its importance should not be underestimated. European summer transfer window football ended with unexpected results. Yes, it reaffirmed the hegemony of the English Premier League (by the way, one of its teams, Newcastle United, is controlled by Saudi Arabia), whose clubs spent more than £2 billion on strengthening. But this is just routine. What I remember about the window was that clubs from the Saudi Arabian championship were in third place in terms of spending on purchasing football players. Its clubs have invested €873.5 million in recruits.

And they could well have reached the billion dollar mark, and therefore taken second place, if they had merged with a couple of transactions, the preparation of which was constantly written by various sources, who claimed, for example, that Al-Ittihad was about to acquire from Liverpool the famous forward Mohamed Salah for almost €200 million.

One may recall that similar upswings have occurred in countries that do not have a rich history of club football. In 2016, the Chinese burst into the football market almost as aggressively as the Saudis. But their fuse lasted for a couple of years, and now Chinese football, which once aimed at world domination, is more dead than alive. But there is every reason to believe that in the case of Saudi Arabia, a quick curtailment of the sports expansion project will not happen. After all, it is a general sport, and not just a football game, although Saudi Arabia will invest actively and for a long time in the most popular game in the world – it is not for nothing that it won the right to host the 2034 World Cup.

We can recall other sectors of the sports industry in which Saudi investors made their mark in 2023. Although, in fact, there is only one investor there – the state investment fund Public Investment Fund (PIF; for example, it owns controlling stakes in the An-Nasr, Al-Hilal, Al-Ittihad and Al-Ahli clubs, which occupy four of the first five places in the current Saudi Arabian championship), whose assets exceed $700 billion. So, if the Europeans were most impressed by the expansion of the Saudis in the football market, then in North America there was much more noise due to the fact that the PIF undertook an attempt to actually seize control over the professional golf. The LIV Golf structure, created with PIF funds, has attracted many top players in just a couple of years (the most recent example is signing in early December, a huge contract with world number three Jon Rahm, which could bring the Spaniard about $600 million over several years) and actually forced the “old” PGA golf structure to agree to the merger. Although in fact we are talking about absorption. The deal, however, stalled a little, as American senators intervened in the matter, even organizing special hearings on the golf issue, and the US Department of Justice. But the PGA, as the latter’s leaders admitted, does not have many real chances to fight off the claims of LIV Golf.

In another region, the Indian subcontinent, Saudi investors are trying to gain influence cricket. This is one of the most popular sports in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh – countries with a total population of about 2 billion people.

Saudis expressed their readiness acquire a large stake in the Indian Premier League (IPL) and invest in the tournament, the potential full value of which they estimated at an impressive $30 billion, $5 billion. Note that, despite the fact that cricket is not popular all over the world, in terms of finance it can give odds to many much more popular sports. In terms of revenue generated, the IPL is already the second largest in the world and second only to the National Football League (NFL, American football).

In addition, Saudi Arabia is actively promoting tennis. Already this year the country could get the right to host the final tournament of the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA). The parties have not yet agreed, but there is a high probability that starting in 2024, Saudi Arabia will receive the WTA Finals under a long-term contract. In men’s tennis, the country is negotiating to host a Masters 1000 tournament on its territory (there are currently nine of them, Saudi Arabia could become the tenth). Plus Saudi Arabia retains its strongest position in the organization boxing events. Riyadh and Jeddah remain the most important and richest venues for top boxing matches. Let’s say, already in February next year in Riyadh, Tyson Fury and Alexander Usik should fight for the title of absolute world heavyweight champion. It is fixed in motorsport, still remaining the hostess of the most prestigious Dakar rally-raid, but also claims not one Formula 1 race, but two at once (a new track is being built, again, in the suburbs of Riyadh). Moreover, PIF had previously approached Formula 1 owners Liberty Media with an offer to buy the entire series for $20 billion. The offer was rejected, but it is very likely that a new, improved one will follow.

Of course, the question arises: why did the country pour such huge funds into sports projects (according to The Guardiansince 2021, Saudi Arabia has spent more than $6 billion on them) and is ready to spend even more?

In Western media, the actions of the Saudi authorities are called sportswashing (using sports to improve their reputation), meaning that Saudi Arabia is trying to change the image of a country in which, according to Western ideas, not everything is good with human rights.

But as Mohammed bin Salman explained, the goal is more prosaic – the development of tourism. “If you want to diversify the economy, then it is important to work in all directions: mining, infrastructure development, manufacturing, transport. Tourism is part of the transformation plan. And sport is important here. He creates a calendar, reasons for visits,” Prince Salman noted in an interview with Fox News. “And if what is called sportswashing brings us an increase of 1.5% of GDP, then I will continue to do it. Let them call it whatever they want.”

Alexander Petrov