Saudi Arabia’s crown prince Mohammed bin Salman shrugged off accusations of “sportswashing” made against his oil-rich kingdom — and signaled he’s more interested in making money than in laundering his reputation.
“If sportswashing [is] going to increase my GDP by way of 1%, then I will continue doing sportwashing,” Salman said in a wide-ranging interview with Fox News host Bret Baier on Wednesday.
Through its sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia (PIF), the kingdom has been substantially increasing its investment in sports, including in Formula One, soccer, tennis and golf in a shock deal in June that saw the PGA Tour merging with Saudi-backed rival LIV Golf.
Critics of the PGA-LIV union have argued that the crown prince — who heads the PIF fund and was accused of ordering the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi — has invested in sports “to try to use all of that to somehow improve, or somehow affect your image,” Baier said.
“I don’t care, I have 1% growth of GDP from sport and I’m aiming for another one-and-a-half percent. Call it whatever you want, we’re going to get that one-and-a-half percent,” Salman told the Fox host.
PIF is believed to have bankrolled LIV with an investment of at least $2 billion to obtain a 93% stake.
And throughout its golf season, the rebel league dished out eight- and nine-figure contracts to recruit top talent like Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau.
However, the fund’s financial statements aren’t public as Gulf countries don’t typically publish information about their overall debts and assets, and it remains unclear how much PIF dished out as part of its landmark agreement with the PGA Tour, which also included the European DP World Tour.
With PIF’s financial assistance, teams in soccer’s Saudi Pro League also reportedly spent some $1 billion signing major stars.
Al-Nassr Football Club, for example, signed fading Portuguese Cristiano Ronaldo in January to a $200 million a year contract though 2025.
Brazilian forward Neymar Jr. also recently cashed in on a deal with Saudi Arabia, inking a multiyear deal with Al-Hilal Football Club for $175 million thanks to PIF, which has more than $600 billion in assets and has invested around the globe in companies including Uber, Blackstone and Japan’s Softbank.
It was also recently revealed that boxing icon Mike Tyson to open the world’s first Mike Tyson Boxing Gym in the kingdom’s capital, Riyadh.
The Association of Professional Tennis is also set to foray into the Gulf state, announcing last month that the city of Jeddah will play host to the Next Gen ATP Finals from 2023 to 2027.
And in 2021 under Salman’s chairmanship, PIF also spent $409 million on the purchase of English Premier League team Newcastle United.
Newcastle, which qualified for the Champion League this year for the first time in two decades, is run by PIF’s governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan — who will be chairman of the new LIV-PGA entity, according to a press release from the PGA Tour.
Saudi Arabia has also been hosting a Formula One Grand Prix since 2021.
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