What goal is Saudi Arabia trying to score with football?

Saudi Arabia stepped into the world of football with a loud proclamation after star Portuguese striker Christiano Ronaldo joined the Al Nassr club in the Saudi Pro League. According to Sky Sports, the oil-rich kingdom aims at having the 100 best players in its Pro League and also plans on hosting the 2023 World Cup together with Greece and Egypt. Real Madrid’s star player Karim Benzema turned down another offer from the club to reportedly join the Saudi Pro League. Four Chelsea players, including Kalidou Koulibaly and Hakim Ziyech, are set to leave for the Middle Eastern country. Sergio Ramos, Bernardo Silva and Heung-Min reportedly facing similar offers. Lionel Messi also had a $400 million offer to move to Saudi Pro League, which he turned down to go to the Major League Soccer (MLS) in the United States instead. What is Saudi Arabia trying to do here? Saudi Arabia’s economy is almost entirely dependent on oil and it earns the Kingdom a lot of wealth. But it is also a non-renewable resource, meaning that sooner or later they will run out of it and then they’ll need other sectors to support the economy. That’s exactly what the Saudis are trying to achieve with all these big investments in football. Around 70 per cent of Saudis are under 40, and the kingdom wants to tap into this potential consumer base by developing a local leisure and entertainment industry. Sports are a big part of this plan and this includes the Pro league. In the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, the Saudi team was the best supported and they even pulled off a major upset by beating the eventual champions Argentina in a league match. So football seems to be offering a promise to the oil-dependent kingdom desperately looking for diversification. The kingdom also last year announced an ambitious project called NEOM, which features futuristic cities, in order to attract foreign investment. The project also includes an artificial ski resort called Trojena, which has already secured the 2029 Asian Winter Games. Not just the money Obviously, the economic promise is the main driving force, but developing a sporting image can also offer a good PR for the Kingdom infamous for poor human rights records. International human rights agency Amnesty International has accused the country of “sportswashing to try to obscure its extremely poor human rights record.” “Saudi Arabia spends billions of dollars hosting major entertainment, cultural, and sporting events to deflect from the country’s poor human rights record,” said Human Rights Watch. The Kingdom was also held responsible for the cold-blooded murder of Jamal Khashoggi in 2018 by a UN investigation. Given the abysmal record on this front, building a thriving sporting industry does offer the Kingdom an opportunity to develop global influence and project soft power. Read all the Latest News , Trending News , Cricket News , Bollywood News , India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.