Some call it sports washing, others call it image and reputation management. Whatever it is, Saudi Arabia ’s multibillion-dollar spending spree isn’t likely to stop any time soon.
With just three small words in a slick promotional video, one of the world’s greatest soccer players heralded his arrival in the world’s wannabe sporting superpower.
Over the past five years the Gulf state, through its sovereign wealth fund, has been steadily nabbing global sporting tournaments and events from wrestling to Formula 1, Formula E , golf, boxing and e-sports. In 2021, it secured majority ownership in a $587 million acquisition of Newcastle United. For Saudi’s Public Investment Fund, with assets of at least $US778 billion, money is no object.
Luring the world’s best sporting stars to play in one’s national league is an expensive business, and it takes more than eye-watering pay-cheques. Ever since, there has been growing competition for international sports visibility between Gulf countries, supercharged byThe kingdom’s recent moves are just the next step in a longer-term investment program in sport, to be driven by a recently launched sports division of the sovereign wealth fund dedicated to acquiring major events.
Central to Vision 2030 is NEOM, an extravagant mega-project to build a collection of cities in the country’s north-west, including a climate-controlled futuristic city with “no roads, cars or emissions”, a major manufacturing hub and an all-year mountain skiing destination.While the ballooning investment in sport is largely designed to launch Saudi Arabia onto the international investment stage, the impacts at home are not to be ignored.
Riyadh now plays host to some of the region’s largest music festivals, headlined by stars like Bruno Mars, while Saudi youth flock to cinemas, activities that were inconceivable pre-2018. In August, Saudi women donned pink abayas to attend screenings ofSaudi Arabian women flocked to see the Barbie movie.
Leveraging internationally renowned figures like Ronaldo, Messi and Neymar as influencers helps, though only on the social level, Hertog said.Credit:“I don’t think [its] perception in the West will change drastically, at least not in the politically more interested public. It could help the Saudi image in the global south, however, where it is typically already substantially more positive than in the West.
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