Over the past few years, Saudi Arabia has spent billions of dollars on high-profile international sporting events in a bid to bolster its international reputation.
A source familiar with discussions said that the momentous scale of Saudi Arabia’s investments in what they term “sportswashing,” the practice of investing or hosting sporting events in a bid to obscure the Kingdom’s poor human rights record, and tout itself as a new leading global venue for tourism and events.
The sources affirmed that Saudi Arabia plans to pay for new sports stadiums in Greece and Egypt and intends to stage three-quarters of all fixtures if it wins hosting duties for the 2030 FIFA World Cup.
This came as the Saudi PIF, a giant $600 billion sovereign wealth fund, had committed more than $2 billion to sponsorship deals over the first eight months of 2022, most of which was directed toward domestic soccer competitions.
Meanwhile, the Saudi Cultural Fund is looking to invest billions of dollars into Hollywood movies and entertainment, with the aim of turning Saudi Arabia into another China for Hollywood.
It has already spent billions of dollars to stand up a new golf league, invested billions more into video-game publishers and is now turning its attention to Hollywood, the sources said.
The country is also offering generous incentives to filmmakers and studios if they shoot there and these incentives have already enticed a couple of productions, including a film starring Anthony Mackie.
Saudi Arabia’s Cultural Development Fund is poised to launch a new $233m ($879m Saudi Riyal) film industry financing program in the first quarter of 2023, which will be open to both local and international entities.
According to the sources, the move was part of a wider strategy to open up the country and move its economy away from a reliance on oil. Other key supports include a 40% rebate for production.
Riyadh is now seeing more than $64 billion in entertainment investment, with a significant proportion of that going to the live music industry.
The shocking reports on MBS's huge spending on film making have drowned sharp criticism among Saudis.
The oil-rich country is regularly criticised by human rights groups for its detention and torture of political opponents and for its intervention in the military conflict in Yemen, which has led to thousands of civilian deaths.The murder of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018 also led to worldwide outrage.
Saudi Arabia has long been accused of using sport and entertainment to whitewash this poor human rights record at home and abroad.
