Saudi Arabia has not stopped seeing sport as a strategic tool, but the era of unlimited cheques is beginning to fade. The gradual withdrawal of Public Investment Fund -PIF- backing for LIV Golf, the partial sale of Al Hilal and the postponement of the Asian Winter Games in NEOM all point to the same underlying shift: Saudi sport is entering a phase of adjustment, return and priority selection.
The new framework is set out in the PIF’s 2026-2030 strategy, approved under the chairmanship of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The fund now speaks of maximising financial returns, improving investment efficiency and increasing private-sector participation, with a roadmap focused on “value realisation” and the development of ecosystems within the local economy. Sport is not disappearing, but it no longer operates as a space where every project seems automatically fundable.
LIV Golf as the symbol of change
LIV Golf is the most visible symbol of this new phase. The PIF will stop funding the league after the 2026 season, following years of heavy investment to attract figures such as Bryson DeChambeau, Brooks Koepka, Phil Mickelson, Cameron Smith and Jon Rahm. The project began as Saudi Arabia’s great disruption of global sport: expensive, aggressive, disruptive and designed to buy immediate attention. But it also represents the type of asset now exposed: high cost, uncertain return and near-total dependence on Saudi public money.
The issue is no longer financial capacity, but strategic patience. Saudi Arabia can continue paying, but the question is whether it wants to sustain projects for years when they do not generate clear benefits or become autonomous businesses. LIV is trying to move towards a model based on new partners, private capital and team value, a logic that fits the PIF’s new language but also confirms that the stage of guaranteed funding has ended.
Privatising, selling and bringing capital back home
Football offers a different reading. The PIF sold 70% of Al Hilal to Kingdom Holding Company, owned by Prince Al Waleed bin Talal, in a deal based on a valuation of 1.4 billion Saudi riyals for the club’s share capital. The fund itself linked the agreement to its strategy of maximising returns and recycling capital into the domestic economy. This is not an exit from football, but a change of model: less direct PIF ownership, more local private participation and greater pressure for commercial sustainability.
That distinction matters because football remains the kingdom’s major sports asset. The Saudi Pro League, Newcastle United and, above all, the 2034 World Cup are part of a broader platform of tourism, infrastructure, nation-branding and the entertainment economy. Saudi Arabia’s 2034 bid includes 15 stadiums across five host cities, with four existing venues, three under construction and eight new projects, a scale that makes the World Cup the country’s priority sports project for the decade.
Sports megaprojects are no longer untouchable
The recalibration also reaches the major symbols of Vision 2030. Saudi Arabia and the Olympic Council of Asia agreed to indefinitely postpone the 2029 Asian Winter Games, which had been planned for Trojena, within NEOM. The decision affects one of the country’s most striking projects: a winter sports event in a desert region, presented as a display of innovation, infrastructure and global ambition. Its postponement shows that even the most iconic ideas can be reviewed when costs, timelines and feasibility no longer align.
The same happened with the Olympic Esports Games. The International Olympic Committee -IOC- and Saudi Arabia ended in October 2025 a 12-year partnership just 14 months after announcing it during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. The agreement was supposed to bring the first edition to Riyadh, but both parties decided to follow separate paths and the IOC announced that it would work on a new approach and another partnership model. The underlying message is clear: not everything that sounds futuristic, youthful or geopolitically powerful is guaranteed continuity.
What is protected: World Cup 2034, esports, boxing and entertainment
These changes do not mean Saudi Arabia is leaving sport. On the contrary, some areas appear protected because they connect better with youth, tourism, entertainment and domestic return. The Esports World Cup in Riyadh announced for 2026 a prize pool of 75 million dollars, with 25 tournaments across 24 games, more than 2,000 players and over 200 clubs from more than 100 countries. That project fits the Saudi strategy better than the Olympic esports experiment: its own event, national host city, young audience and control of the product.
Boxing, mixed martial arts, Formula 1, tennis and major entertainment events also remain on the map, although no longer under the same logic of unfiltered expansion. The PIF is a partner of the WTA and ATP rankings, and the WTA Finals were awarded to Riyadh for the 2024-2026 period, but every property will now have to prove its usefulness more clearly within the new cycle. Saudi Arabia will have to choose which projects it wants to sustain, which assets it can privatise and which investments can survive without depending on the PIF forever.
Saudi sport is not switching off; it is becoming more disciplined. The party is not over, but the music has changed: less expansion for impact, more return, more private capital and more concentration on projects capable of explaining why sport remains useful to the kingdom’s economic and political future. In this new phase, Vision 2030 demands sport with stronger financial logic, deeper local roots and less room for ventures that cannot justify their cost.
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