In early 2023, fears of Saudi Arabia’s growing influence over professional golf, and sports in general, pose not only a moral challenge for players and their fans, but also an existential threat to multibillion-dollar golf clubs. Some people claimed that. The professional sports industry itself.
Twelve months later, the conversation is completely different, and now there are fewer concerns: The alleged threat of “sports wash” And there’s even more focus on the line between “right” and “wrong” and how rich Saudi Arabia will make all these athletes before they’re done investing.
Two major events triggered this change. Announcement on June 6th The PGA Tour is trying to do business with the very Saudi group that pays Saudi Arabia’s LIV Golf, which the tour sees as a threat. Six months later, Decision of the world No. 3 player and Jon Rahm, an early subscriber to LIV. to move to that league The contract value is reported to be approximately $500 million.
Less dramatic, but almost equally important, headlines were continued talks between Saudi Arabia and professional tennis leaders and Saudi Arabia’s continued push into world soccer. This was most vividly reflected by the decision to smooth the way for Saudi Arabia to host the sport’s biggest event. , 2034 World Cup.
Dan Durbin, director of the Institute for Sport, Media and Society at the University of Southern California, said of the Saudi strategy: “You’re investing in one of the few growing industries in the world: sports.” “As far as we can see, it’s almost a never-ending growth industry.”
As Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund (PIF), was laying the groundwork for LIV in early 2022, conversations centered around golf.Phil, six-time major champion Mickelson interviewIn it, he called the Saudis “horrible (expletive),” a reference in some quarters to the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, seen as a good versus evil line between the status quo and Saudi Arabia. I set boundaries around things. Saudi destroyer.
everything except ignored in discussion It’s because of how deeply embedded Saudi Arabia is in virtually every part of the world economy, that it gains most of its influence by supplying about 15% of the world’s oil, and that Saudi Arabia is already in the sports sector. It was said that the company was expanding into
Cristiano Ronaldo, one of soccer’s biggest stars, has joined the Saudi team, which is backed by the same investment fund that backed LIV, in a deal reportedly worth $200 million a year. Saudi Arabia reportedly played $500 million a year to bring fellow soccer icon Lionel Messi to the upstart domestic league. (Messi turned them down.) PIF Wealth Fund owns the Premier League’s Newcastle football club.
As the calendar turns to 2024, there is no sign of this momentum slowing down.saudi arabian host an F1 car race It was the subject of intense scrutiny and reportedly considered buying the entire league from Liberty Media Corporation, but the deal never materialized as Liberty did not want to sell.they are considering some investment $5 billion for Indian Premier League cricket We are also considering expanding to other countries.
ATP, which runs men’s professional tennis, has a five-year deal to host one of its biggest events in the Saudi port city of Jeddah. Meeting between Saudi Arabia and women’s tour is reportedly underway. In a sign of the changing conversation, Billie Jean King, who started the fight for equal pay for women in sports in the 1970s, is bringing sports to Saudi Arabia despite a long track record of suppressing women’s rights. He said that this may not be all bad.
“I don’t think people really change unless they get involved,” she said earlier this year.
Durbin sees Saudi Arabia’s embrace of sports as a move to help Saudi Arabia be seen as more than an oil-rich kingdom with a poor human rights record. Some might call this the classic definition of “sport wash.”
“For decades, sports have been at the heart of soft diplomacy,” he said. “Because you’re following the rules of the sport, you try to create positive reactions and feelings about your ethics.”
The following results are expected to dominate the end of 2023 and all of 2024: Months of negotiations between the PGA Tour and a Saudi investment fund. That will ultimately decide LIV’s fate.
Rahm’s move could be seen as a preemptive bet recognizing the reality that the golf world will eventually come together again (if that happens, he’ll have $500 million in the bank when that happens). There’s nothing wrong with having extra dollars on hand.)
One of the biggest concerns regarding the Spaniard’s move was that he could be excluded from the Ryder Cup. Golf’s prestigious team event, where America’s strongest teams compete with Europe’s strongest teams and where players are not paid, is considered more or less off-limits to LIV defectors, especially on the European side. Ta.
Now, even LIV’s biggest critic initially, four-time major champion Rory McIlroy, has suggested that Ryder Cup gatekeepers are considering softening their stance on LIV players competing for Europe. .
His take on Mr. Rahm: “You can’t criticize someone who has made a decision that they think is best for them.” he told Sky Sports earlier this month.. “Is that disappointing for me? Yes. But the golf landscape changed on June 6th.”
Underscoring the impact of Saudi Arabia’s entry into the golf scene, the PGA Tour’s top 10 players will have a total of $86.6 million in prize money for the season ending in 2022. In 2023, that figure increased to $124.1 million. Meanwhile, the LIV Tour’s top 10 earned $159.4 million in 2023.
This is why the debate in golf and other sports in 2024 will focus on how big a presence Saudi Arabia is in the sports world, rather than whether all this change was for the better. helps explain. A kingdom can be bought.
“When you stuff some of that money into your own pocket, you realize it can no longer be ‘dirty’ money,” Durbin said.
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