Economy

Houthi strikes force Saudi Arabia to scale back its sporting empire

Riyadh's urban cycling world championship cancelled and Saudi International golf postponed indefinitely, five proposed stadiums for the 2034 World Cup may never be built

Images

Cristiano Ronaldo dons a Saudi scarf after the match against Neftchi Fergana that was delayed by a missile warning. Photograph: Reuters Cristiano Ronaldo dons a Saudi scarf after the match against Neftchi Fergana that was delayed by a missile warning. Photograph: Reuters theguardian.com
Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk fight in Riyadh in December 2024. Boxing is likely to survive the Saudi sporting cull. Photograph: Nick Potts/PA Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk fight in Riyadh in December 2024. Boxing is likely to survive the Saudi sporting cull. Photograph: Nick Potts/PA theguardian.com
‘We cannot just rely on one commodity’: Newcastle’s chair, Yasir al-Rumayyan, has said Saudi Arabia needs to diversify away from oil. Photograph: Lee Smith/Action Images/Reuters ‘We cannot just rely on one commodity’: Newcastle’s chair, Yasir al-Rumayyan, has said Saudi Arabia needs to diversify away from oil. Photograph: Lee Smith/Action Images/Reuters theguardian.com
Newcastle are likely to continue to be well funded by the Saudi regime but huge spending will not happen. Photograph: Richard Sellers/PA Newcastle are likely to continue to be well funded by the Saudi regime but huge spending will not happen. Photograph: Richard Sellers/PA theguardian.com

A safety warning reached the crowd 15 minutes before kick-off at Al-Nassr's Asian Champions League match against Uzbek side Neftchi Fergana, two days after Houthi strikes on Riyadh's King Khalid international airport killed 13 people and wounded more than 300. The match went ahead. Cristiano Ronaldo, with Sadio Mané beside him in Ange Postecoglou's side, scored in a 3-1 win and waved a scarf in the colours of the Saudi flag at a sparse but rapturous crowd.

That warning has since become the operating condition for the kingdom's entire sporting calendar, the Guardian reports. Riyadh's urban cycling world championship, scheduled for next month, has been cancelled, golf's Saudi International has been postponed indefinitely, the Fifa esports World Cup due to start on Friday has been pushed back, and the Six Kings Slam tennis event has slipped to late December. The 2029 Winter Asian Games have been relocated to Kazakhstan and LIV Golf has collapsed. Five proposed stadiums for the 2034 World Cup — among them the Neom ground planned at an elevation of 350 metres — are now reported as likely never to be built, a plan that already followed deep cuts to the Line megadevelopment.

In December 2024 Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk fought in Riyadh. The spending behind that calendar belongs to the Public Investment Fund, chaired by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and governed by Yasir al-Rumayyan, who also chairs Aramco and Newcastle United. Al-Rumayyan told a Washington thinktank last year that moving the kingdom off oil was existential, likening resource dependence to Portugal's gold — "that's like a disease." The premise of the whole programme was that prestige came at posted prices: stars, federations and events each carried a rate card, and the state would pay it. What the rate cards never carried was war risk. That price is now being set by insurers, artists' agents and federation lawyers, and their numbers are clearing the schedule faster than the fund can refill it.

Saudi Arabia is due to host football's Asian Cup in January and February. The kingdom insists preparations are on track.