2023-11-03 21:01:06
Published on November 3, 2023 10:01 p.m.
It went very fast, very high, very strong. In eight years, Saudi Arabia has established itself as a key country in the economy and governance of world sport. This strategy built with hundreds of millions of dollars culminated on October 31 with the very probable obtaining of the organization of the 2034 Football World Cup, for which it was the only candidate. A victory by technical knockout because there was not even a choice, a vote, an alternative. Just an observation: Saudi Arabia is now a heavyweight in world sport.
The list of major international sporting events that the Kingdom of Saud – the dynasty in power since the creation of the monarchy in 1932 – has organized or obtained is dizzying: Next Gen Tennis Masters and Football Club World Cup in December, rally – Dakar raid since 2020 and for five years, Formula 1 Grand Prix since 2021, Asian Winter Games in 2029 in Neom and Summer Games in 2034 in Riyadh. Since 2020, Saudi Arabia has made the Saudi Cup the richest horse race in the world with $20 million in winnings. In 2021, it poured hundreds of millions of dollars into attracting the best golfers to a parallel circuit, LIV Golf, of no sporting value but too rich to be ignored and which should merge with the American and European circuits at the end of the year. Riyadh has replaced Las Vegas for boxing, as shown by the fight between Tyson Fury and Francis Ngannou on October 28.
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