To those still reeling at a week when Saudi financial muscle has been flexed in the world of sport, there is a message that can’t be ignored.
The de facto takeover of golf announced on Tuesday was really just the start.
“The shocks haven’t finished yet,” one observer with knowledge of the intentions of the Public Investment Fund (PIF) tells i.
No-one wants to get into specifics just yet but the implication is clear: there is more to come. Much more.
For all the surprise at the merger announced by the PIF-funded LIV Golf tournament and the PGA Tour, there is amusement among those who have long seen the direction of travel in this particular dispute and wider Saudi sporting aspirations.
“It’s seismic but it’s also just logical,” one source says. The goal of the PIF, they explain, is not to disrupt existing orders from outside but to eventually influence things from inside the tent. That means seats on boards or having the loudest voice in the room rather than the squabbling and sniping that has beset golf in recent months.
It is why Newcastle, the 80 per cent PIF-owned Premier League club, speak so often about sticking to Financial Fair Play rules, which are the ultimate tool of the established order to maintain the status quo. They seem to pick their battles carefully.
The same train of thought applies to PIF’s decision this week to assume control of the four biggest Saudi clubs as a precursor to building a domestic league that can rival some of Europe’s biggest.
The ambition mapped out in the Vision 2030 programme intended to wean Saudi Arabia’s economy off its dependence on oil placed sport, leisure and entertainment at its heart.
An investment of around $30billion was pledged in 2019 and four years later it is starting to be felt.
While many feel distinctly queasy about football’s embrace of Saudi Arabia given its human rights record, the huge contracts handed out to Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema prove money talks. More elite players are expected to join the league this summer and one Premier League director told i it has the capacity to turn this summer’s transfer window “upside down”.
But PIF intentions are not just to shock and awe. Those who have heard their vision in Newcastle will be well aware that they are a process-driven fund, methodical in their approach and demanding detail about how their investments will reap long-term rewards.
“These are serious people with a serious strategy,” a source told i.
Proof of the already growing spheres of influence emerged when Yasir Al-Rumayyan – nicknamed “H.E.” by Newcastle insiders on account of his official title of “His Excellency” – namechecked the success they’ve had at St James’ Park in his first interview after golf’s truce was announced.
Indeed Magpies co-owner Amanda Staveley, a close ally of PIF governor and Newcastle chairman Al-Rumayyan, emerged as the key broker in talks between the PGA and LIV.
Staveley’s knowledge of golf before she stepped into that role was fairly minimal but her modus operandi, as she did during the dispute between the PIF and Premier League that stalled the takeover of Newcastle, is to encourage cooler heads to prevail.
And that proved pivotal in engineering the deal between LIV Golf and the PGA Tour that was announced.
“Undoubtedly good for golf,” was how once source described it to i. Another pointed out that it was a sport that, unlike football, did not naturally embrace conflict between rival factions so an agreement was always likely, it just needed the right people to propose it.
Amnesty International branded the LIV Golf deal sportswashing while a 9/11 survivors group called out the hypocrisy of the PGA Tour’s leaders. But how many athletes or supporters will have noted that those who spoke of their principles and turned down the LIV cash ended up the losers?
For all the noise it feels like a simple tale of money and influence. Saudi Arabia has one and craves the other. The eventual outcome feels inevitable.
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