Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) continues to spend millions of dollars on sports events despite the International Monetary Fund's recommendations to reduce expenditures.
MBS recently gave the green light to buy Egyptian player and Liverpool star Mohamed Salah to join Saudi club Al-Hilal for 1.1 billion.
Along the same line, deals worth billions of dollars were recently signed after Saudi Arabia started attracting top football stars to play in the Saudi League for hundreds of millions of dollars. Saudi Arabia has offered €100 million in salary per year to N’Golo Kanté and another €100 million per year to Sergio Ramos.
Saudi Arabia has spent billions of dollars on high-profile international sporting events in a bid to bolster its reputation, amid worsening living conditions in the Kingdom.
Amnesty International has earlier described the Saudi-backed bid for Newcastle as an attempt to sportswash Saudi Arabia’s human rights record.
Sportswashing is a term used to describe corrupt or authoritarian regimes who use sport and sports events to whitewash their image internationally. Saudi Arabia has long been accused of using sport to whitewash its poor human rights record at home and abroad.
The deal with Portuguese star Cristiano Ronaldo came in this regard. Ronaldo will receive £172.9 million-a-year through 2025 as part of the deal.
Saudi Arabia recently bought English Premier League club Newcastle United and sparked controversy by attracting with vast sums of money some of the world’s top golf players to compete in a new tournament that kicked off in one of former US President Donald J. Trump’s resorts.
Much like with Formula One and professional golf, the world's biggest oil exporter has in recent years leveraged its immense wealth to assert itself on the eSports stage, hosting glitzy conferences and snapping up established tournament organisers.
Last January, the kingdom's sovereign wealth fund launched the Savvy Gaming Group, which acquired top eSports firms ESL Gaming and FACEIT in deals reportedly worth a total of $1.5 billion.
Other media reports earlier revealed that the Riyadh-based Public Investment Fund acquired more than $3 billion worth of stock in three U.S. video-game makers during the fourth quarter, according to a regulatory filing. They include Activision Blizzard Inc., Electronic Arts Inc. and Take-Two Interactive Software Inc.
