Saudi Arabia’s heavy investment in everything from soccer to snowboarding has been one of the major sporting topics in the last decade.
The oil-rich Gulf state has offered huge salaries to footballers in the final stages of their careers, won the right to host football’s World Cup after developing strong ties with FIFA, bought a Premier League club, divided the golf world and sought to host all manner of events from snooker to women’s tennis to wrestling.
This extravagance was linked to the country’s recently adjusted Vision 2030, a strategy to diversify its interests away from oil, and is widely considered a form of sportswashing, whereby a country uses sports to deflect attention from allegations of human rights abuses.
Saudi Arabia has withdrawn its name from which sport?
The most high-profile comeback came last week in golf. LIV Golf, run by the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF), an arm of the kingdom, was cancelled, with PIF noting that the “substantial investment” required for the event in the long term is no longer “consistent with the current stage of PIF’s investment strategy.” Established in 2021, LIV broke away from the established PGA Tour and lured some of its top players with hefty pay packages. With LIV folding, those players’ return to the PGA Tour is a point of some controversy.
In football, PIF sold a 70% stake in Saudi Pro League side Al Hilal in April, framing it as a “strategy to maximize returns and redeploy capital within the domestic economy”. The PIF has made no move to sell English club Newcastle United and appears to want to continue making some investments in football ahead of hosting the 2034 World Cup. Other popular sports like MMA also seem to be in a safe situation at the moment.
But many events originally scheduled for the state will no longer be held there. Snooker’s Saudi Arabia Masters was canceled last week, two years into its 10-year deal; Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) funding has been frozen and the end-of-season event cancelled; And Saudi Arabia has abandoned plans to host the 2035 Rugby World Cup and the Asian Winter Games in 2029.
Why is Saudi Arabia stopping investment in sports?
The reasons appear to be both economic and political. Last week, PIF Governor Yasser Al-Rumayyan said he was “reviewing his investments and deals” and “reevaluating his priorities” as a result of the consequences of the US–Israel war on Iran in the Middle East, as well as minimal returns on sports investments.
“The 2026-30 Strategy marks a natural evolution as PIF moves from a period of rapid growth and acceleration to a new phase of sustained value creation, with an emphasis on maximizing impact, enhancing the efficiency of investments, and applying the highest standards of governance, transparency and institutional excellence,” PIF said in a press release.
In typical Saudi style, Al-Rumayyan Newcastle is also chairman of Saudi Arabia’s state oil company Aramco and its largest mining company, Maaden. He is a close ally of Saudi ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. These types of interconnected jobs and relationships help the government maintain control over their sports assets, while Aramco is also a sponsor of several high-profile sporting events. Such wide and diverse investment makes Saudi Arabia’s relationship with sport difficult to pick out.
Why has Saudi Arabia’s investment in sports been controversial?
Human Rights Watch (HRW), like most other rights organizations, sees this as a clear case of sports washing.
According to HRW, “PIF investments in high-profile sports and entertainment events both domestically and internationally are used to whitewash the country’s dismal human rights record.”
Although there is some discontent within the sports world, Saudi money has been able to move substantially into most sports. In football, Saudi Arabia has had to develop close ties with global governing body FIFA, but for other cash-strapped sports the financial lure has become impossible to resist. Critics have sometimes argued that many sports would be left in a precarious position if the Saudi cash tap were turned off, as is now happening.
What other sports could be in jeopardy due to losing Saudi funding?
The situation in Formula One could be worsened by the cancellation of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in April as a result of the war in Iran. As well as racing, PIF has stakes in two teams and Aramco is a major F1 sponsor. Horse racing, chess, handball and many other sports also depend on sporting relations with Saudi Arabia to some extent.
From the noise made by the PIF it seems that these and other sports run on Saudi investment will need to show profitability like they never have before if they are to avoid becoming the next LIV Golf.
Edited by: Chuck Penfold