What's behind West Asia's multibillion push to attract global sports stars?

Coco Gauff’s moment of glory was hard-earned. She had to fight numerous battles: Indifferent form, inner demons, Riyadh’s sweltering heat and a rampaging opponent in China’s Olympic gold medallist Zheng Qinwen.

 

The 20-year-old American displayed guts, gumption, and mental fortitude to come from 2-0 and 5-3 down in the final set to clinch the WTA Finals trophy a fortnight ago.

 

The triumph was a cataclysmic moment in tennis. Gauff walked home with an eye-popping $4.8 million in prize money — the largest sum awarded in women’s sports and the highest earned by any tennis player, male or female, at a professional event.

 

Last month, world’s top ranked male tennis player Jannik Sinner laughed his way to the bank, pocketing $6 million by winning the Six Kings exhibition tournament, which was staged in Riyadh.

 

These events underscore Saudi Arabia’s vaulting ambitions to reshape the tennis landscape, with the oil-rich kingdom’s deep pockets and strategic investments playing a key role in the sport’s evolving narrative. And the vaulting ambitions are not confined to tennis.

 

This weekend, the Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise honchos will be jetting off to Jeddah for the mega IPL auction. Next year will see the Saudi Cup, a $20 million horse race, followed by the fifth consecutive Saudi Arabian F1 Grand Prix, further illustrating Saudi’s unstoppable march in the world of sports.

 

“Sports is a multi-billion-dollar charm offensive,” Dubai’s ruler Sheikh Mohammed ibn Rashid Al Maktoum, prime minister of the United Arab Emirates and Emir of Dubai since 2006, once said. Through sport, he believes he can improve the region’s image and reduce its dependence on oil by driving tourism.

 

Neighbouring petro-states such as Qatar and Bahrain have also invested staggering sums to usher in a galaxy of sporting stars to their region.

 

Ronaldo, Messi

 

Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, and Tyson Fury are part of this ambitious push. The jewel in the crown, however, was the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.

 

The marquee tournament, which drew a global audience, marked the first time a football competition of such a gargantuan scale was staged in West Asia, thus cementing Qatar’s place on the global sporting map.

 

In the true sense, it marked a tectonic shift, wherein the Gulf nations are now morphing into power centres in the world of sport, giving Europe and North America a run for their trophies.

 

“These nations have been reliant on oil for decades, and they have reached a point where it is wise to look for diversification,” David Smerdon of the University of Queensland’s School of Economics explained in a research paper. “As they look towards the future, investing in sports — a sector with an enormous global audience and an equally significant revenue generation potential — is economically sound.”

 

To understand how the Gulf nations, especially Saudi Arabia, turned the region into a sporting hub, one must go back to the 2008 global financial crisis.

 

Seeds of the ambition

 

The bedrock of businesses in the western world had crumbled. In turn, they gravitated towards West Asia for investments. That was when rulers of the Gulf nations turned the financial crisis into an opportunity.

 

“Slowly, but surely, these countries began to normalise their presence in the West,” Daniel Moya Lopez, a journalism professor at the University of Seville, told TRT World: It began with the Abu Dhabi United Group buying English Premier League club Manchester City in 2008. This big-ticket investment would change the face of football.

 

Three years later, French football club Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) was acquired by Qatar Sports Investment (QSi), a sovereign wealth fund. QSi splurged close to $2 billion in transfers. It was instrumental in PSG winning eight French League titles in the past decade, catapulting the club into a global brand.

 

Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund picked up English club Newcastle United in 2021, while a Qatari fund made an offer worth almost £6 billion for Manchester United in the following year.

 

Big on cricket

 

West Asia is also a cricket hub, considering that the International Cricket Council (ICC), the sport’s governing body, has its headquarters in Dubai. Sharjah and Dubai hosted numerous ODIs in the 1980s and 1990s, including the famous ‘Desert Storm’ fixture in 1998 which saw two of Sachin Tendulkar’s most famous blitzes against Australia.

 

These days, the UAE is the home venue for the Pakistan cricket team. A major part of the 2014 IPL edition was staged in this country because of the General Elections in India. The Board of Control for Cricket in India had no hesitation staging the 2021 edition of this marquee league there as well due to the pandemic.

 

“It is the eyeballs they are attracting. It follows a lot of other things like tourism. Half of Europe is in Dubai in December because of the weather and the beaches. It is a chain reaction,” Zeeshan Ali, national tennis coach, Olympian, and Asian Games gold medalist, told Business Standard. “These countries have realised that the oil is not going to last forever, so they are channeling their investments into sports. Each country is trying to outdo the other.”

 

Sportswashing at play

 

There’s little doubt that the Gulf nations’ strategic investments in sports has bolstered their economies and provided a fillip to tourism. But there is another side to it.

 

Smerdon noted that it was impossible to ignore the political economics at play, and talked about sportswashing. It is a term used to describe nations’ use of sports to burnish their reputations.

 

Qatar's hosting of the football World Cup was marred by allegations of corruption. The tournament became embroiled in controversy, with reports of widespread abuse and exploitation of migrant workers in the construction of new stadiums.

 

There were accusations that the Qatari government had bribed FIFA officials to secure the rights to host the tournament, raising questions about the integrity of the bidding process. These issues have drawn criticism from human rights organisations and the global community.

 

Similarly, Saudi Arabia has been condemned for its stand on homosexuality. Members of the LGBTQIA+ community in the country face the death penalty, life imprisonment, deportation, and public flogging.

 

"There is a significant degree of sportwashing happening here," Smerdon said. “By associating with globally loved sports entities, these nations can soften their international image and improve their global standing.”

 

After all, there is no taint that a little bit of stardust cannot wash.