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By Thomas Word

In the last few years, The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) has made significant investments into markets such as entertainment and tourism. 

Saudi Arabia’s Deputy Crown Prince and Minister of Defense Mohammed bin Salman. Photo credit: Defense Visual Information Distribution Service.

Historically, Saudi Arabia has been a nation heavily reliant on oil to stimulate their economy. The nation is now moving away from the resource due to the fact that it is nonrenewable and cannot be relied upon forever. To fill in the gap that oil will leave behind, the country has begun to focus on new markets to stimulate its economy. To do this, Saudi Arabia is using its Public Investment Fund (PIF) to fund its projects.

The PIF is a sovereign investment fund, which means it was created to finance investments that will strengthen and benefit the Saudi Arabian economy. Many of these recent investments from the PIF are a part of a large plan, named Vision 2030, created by the Saudi government in 2016. According to the Saudi Arabian Embassy’s website, Vision 2030 will focus “on unlocking underdeveloped industries such as manufacturing, renewable energy and tourism.” The notable focus in this plan is the tourism aspect, which has involved the KSA getting more involved in the international sports world. 

Saudi Arabia’s investment in the sports industry has been very noticeable over the past few years. One example of this is the country’s investment into the Saudi Pro League (SPL), the top domestic soccer league in Saudi Arabia. The Saudi Arabian government owns four clubs in the SPL: Al-Hilal, Al-Ittihad, Al-Nassr, and Al-Ahli. These clubs have access to a sizable amount of funds which recently have lured some of the world’s top soccer players. Some of these players include Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema, Sadio Mané, Neymar, and many more. The goal of implementing these players into the SPL is to draw spectators to Saudi Arabia to watch these games and bring more recognition to other Saudi sports programs. 

It has also been announced that Saudi Arabia is likely to host soccer’s 2034 World Cup. The 2022 World Cup, hosted in Qatar, had massive viewership numbers in the billions. Knowing this, Saudi Arabia jumped on the opportunity to host the tournament. This World Cup will likely greatly benefit tourism, which is one of the key goals of Vision 2030. 

Soccer is not the only sport that Saudi Arabia has begun to allocate funds to. Formula 1, an extremely popular racing series, began to host a Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in 2021. This Grand Prix is hosted in Jeddah, an incredibly modern city with beautiful architecture. This was most likely done to promote tourism to Saudi Arabia, but a dark reality can overshadow the race. During the 2022 Grand Prix weekend, there was a missile strike that hit an oil depot extremely close to the track. This raised questions about the safety of tourism and sporting events in Saudi Arabia.

According to the U.S.Department of State, there is a level three travel advisory for traveling to Saudi Arabia. Level three is the second most dangerous ranking that can be given to a country and warns that tourists must take extreme caution during their trip. The U.S Department of State’s website warns that those who travel to Saudi Arabia are at risk of “missile and drone attacks,” along with “being arrested for social media activity and importation of prohibited items.” 

Saudi Arabia also has a very poor record when it comes to human rights. Women have few freedoms, and every woman is legally required to have a male guardian. In fact, it wasn’t until the year 2015 that women gained the right to vote, and they couldn’t legally drive a car until 2018. Unfortunately, women’s rights is not the only human rights issue present in the kingdom. 

Unlike many Western nations, Saudi Arabia does not protect free speech. Freedom of speech against the government is often met with severe punishments. One example of this is the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi. Khashoggi was a Saudi Arabian journalist who was very well respected and close with high-ranking members of the Saudi Arabian government. Unfortunately, this relationship fell apart, and Khashoggi fled to the U.S. As a writer for The Washington Post, Khashoggi spoke out against the Saudi Arabian government, calling out its cruel practices. This caused the Saudi Arabian government to target Khashoggi and assassinate him. Saudi Arabia even denied that they had murdered him until an investigation proved the kingdom was involved. 

Some believe that Saudi Arabia’s recent investment into markets like sports and tourism could be the kingdom trying to cover up their poor human rights record. This practice has been called “sportswashing.” According to Britannica, sportswashing is when “an athletic event by an individual or a government, a corporation, or another group to promote or burnish the individual’s or group’s reputation.” With Saudi Arabia’s recent controversies regarding human rights, it is likely these new leagues are an attempt to sportswash. 

This potential sportswashing has caused many of the world’s most famous athletes and journalists to question the morality of these new leagues. One example of this is golfer Phil Mickelson. Mickelson called out the kingdom by saying “we know they killed Khashoggi and have a horrible human rights reputation.” Unfortunately, these leagues are offering so much money that people are willing to overlook these atrocities. Even Mickelson decided to join the Saudi Arabian LIV Golf tour soon after he made these comments.

Saudi Arabia’s sports leagues don’t look like they are going anywhere anytime soon, and this may be hinting towards the future of sports. High budget leagues like the ones run by Saudi Arabia could cause the collapse of historic leagues all across sports and forever change the landscape of athletics.