FULL TIME +

Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund is no longer a background investor in football; it has become a central actor shaping clubs, leagues, and competitions—and, crucially, a potential instrument for reshaping the Kingdom’s heavily criticized image on the global stage.​ Although the country's long-standing reliance on oil exports to power its economy has been historically significant for many decades, it is anticipated that in the upcoming years, countries' reliance on oil would decrease and be progressively replaced by a post-carbon order. As a result, the backbone of Mohammad bin Salman's 2030 Vision is a 700-billion-dollar sovereign wealth fund known as PIF, which has rapidly started making investments in sports, notably football, and is starting to take the lead in the football investment market. Its football portfolio is anything but boring; in fact, given its magnitude, it could be described as dizzying. Its football portfolio is anything but boring; in fact, considering its size, it may be called dizzying. We arrive at an astounding estimate of 10–15 billion dollars in football-related assets solely since 2018 when we account for the PIF's direct investments (ownership and equity in clubs), player transfers, tournaments, and sponsorships.

But a further question should be asked, given Saudi Arabia's history of controversial acts, the question of why such large investments are made arises. Saudi Arabia is being questioned for making such investments and hosting such sporting events to potentially conduct sportswashing, because trying to balance a country's conservative norms with the growth of western-style entertainment and culture in the same place is not something that happens for no reason and vision. Examples of these issues include Saudi's strict sharia law restricting women's rights, the assassination of a Saudi journalist because of  its critics about the country, the interrogations about modern slavery in the construction sector, etc...