Golf, the latest link in the advanced petrodollar millionaire in the world sports elite

Clubs like Manchester City, Paris Saint-Germain or Tottenham. Major sporting events such as Formula 1, MotoGP or the next World Cup. And now, tournaments that break the status quo of your sport, like Premier Padel and the newborn LIV Invitation of golf They all have something in common: financial support from the Arab countries of the Persian Gulf.

Golf is the latest stage in these countries’ unstoppable offensive in sport. An investment of over $ 2,000 million by the Saudi sovereign fund PIF (Public Investment Fund) has created the LIV Golf Invitational, a circuit with eight events scheduled for this year, ten in 2023 and 14 in 2024 and 2025, which aims to rise to world hegemony.

with the former golfer Greg Norman as commissioner and figurehead –Jack Nicklausanother legend of the winning 18 holes majorrefused to fill that role – and a $ 255 million prize pool for this season, the new circuit, which disputes its first stop at London’s Centurion Golf Club, has Americans Dustin Johnson Y Phil MichaelsonBritish Ian Poultry Y Lee Westwood or Spanish Sergio Garcia.

The White shark Norman went on to aim even higher, at 15-time major winner Tiger Woods, who they would offer a nine-digit numberthat is close to $ 1,000 million to participate in the new tournament, as the commissioner of the LIV Golf Invitational revealed to the Washington Post in the United States.

On his first stop in London, eThe LIV will distribute $ 25 million, of which $ 4 million will go to the winnersurpassing the 3.6 million of the ‘Players Championship’ or the 2.7 million of the Masters, or the approximately two million in which the prize for the winner of the United States Open and the British Open is encrypted.

The reaction of the American circuit, the PGA, was to suspend the 17 golfers participating in London and some who plan to participate in upcoming tournaments; but it remains to be seen whether they will be accepted by large tournaments organized by non-PGA entities, such as the United States Open and the British Open (Augusta Masters has already been played).

It hasn’t been long since another sport was rocked a similar earthquake: the Premier Padel circuitorganized by the International Padel Federation and funded by Sports investments in Qatarowner of Paris Saint-Germain, he made an appearance at the start of the promising year a prize pool of € 525,000 in its four main tournamentshigher than that offered by the World Padel Tour, the predominant world circuit in the last decade, organized by the Spanish company Setpoint Events.

The new tournament had the support of the professional players association, which brings together almost a hundred players, and many of the main figures of the men’s circuit have participated in the two scales until the time of the new competition, in Doha, Qatar, and Rome. , Italy, with the next scheduled on the fields of Roland Garros in Paris, France, between 11 and 17 July, at the same time as they continued to compete in Paddle world tourdespite the warnings and claims of its organizer regarding the incompatibilities that it has contractually signed.

a long chain

These two tournaments are not, far from exceptional, but are part of a sports policy that dates back more than a decade ago. The sovereign wealth fund of Qatar took over Paris Saint-Germain football club in 2011 for a figure that seems ridiculous today: € 50 million, but it is estimated that it has since invested more than € 1,400 million in transfers, according to CIES. Football Observatory.

Three years earlier, in 2008, United Abu Dhabi Group it was done with him Manchester City for around 200 million pounds (247 million euros at the time), and has since spent more than 1,700 million euros on purchases, according to the CIES. The club blue sky It is now part of the City Football Group conglomerate, which includes Melbourne City, New York City, and with shares of Spain’s Girona or Japan’s Yokohama Marinos, among others. Qatar will also be the organizer of the next World Cup, with a revolutionary change to the calendar, given that it will be played between November and December.

Newcastle is the latest major club to be acquired by a Persian Gulf sovereign wealth fundin this case the PIF, the same that finances the LIV Golf Invitational, which in October paid out 300 million pounds to take over the ‘Magpies’ club, to which it added another 100 million to sign reinforcements in the winter market, with which it has managed to keep the category in the Premier League.

What are these countries looking for in sport? “International promotion”, explains Javier Sobrino, professor at the Pontifical University of Comillas and expert in sports diplomacy to the Efe news agency. “Sport transcends borders, through sport you can make a very natural management of diplomatic and international relations, and with sport you don’t have to explain anything (…) I think the countries of the Persian Gulf are the ones that have understood it best , and it makes me very angry that in Spain we don’t understand it so well “reflects.

Unlike Qatar, which since 1995 “has created an international positioning strategy with investments in major sporting events”, remembers Xavier Ginesta, professor of sports marketing at the University of Vic, Saudi Arabia has implemented this policy more recently, not only with the LIV Ad invitations in golf or Newcastle, but also with the Spanish and Italian Super Cup in football.

“Saudi Arabia has a geostrategic need for international positioning, it knows it is not an internationally approved democracy and is doing what some call ‘sportwashing’, but I don’t know to what extent there is a premeditated strategy like that of Qatar, which was tied to making its economy less dependent on hydrocarbons, I don’t see in Saudi Arabia, “he analyzes.

It is by no means an original strategy, since many countries of contemporary history have used sport as a means of legitimizing themselves internationally, emphasizes Juan Antonio Simón, professor of history of sport at the INEF in Madrid.

“The Franco regime in Spain has also tried to do the same. Since 1960 they see that it can be interesting to organize sporting events. Spain did not play the final of the 1960 European Championships because it was against the Soviet Union, but later organized the final phase of 1964 and he wins it, just against the USSR, and in 1965 he is a candidate for the 1972 Games. Then comes the 1982 World Cup “, explains the historian.

A qualitative leap

A long-term process that could make a qualitative leap in recent months with the examples of paddle tennis or golf, as the strategy has moved from financing clubs or hosting large events to creating new competitions that substantially alter the structure competition of your sport.

For Javier Sobrino, this step may have been taken because it is a sport with “not so deeply rooted” competitions. “Paddle tennis is a good example, it’s a growing sport, the WPT is the international circuit, but it’s not as well established as the Champions League or the Grand Slam of tennis. I don’t see these countries creating a tennis tournament that competes with a Grand Slam, for example, “he says.

“If you break the status quo of the discipline in which you are investing, you become the benchmark “, adds Ginesta, who believes that this intention to break the established order goes beyond these last tournaments.” PSG has not broken the status quo when you buy Neymar for 222 million euros from Barcelona? At that time, superinflation was generated in football which harms all those who cannot increase their capital, “he argues.

The danger of these new competitions or clubs can be dependence on these great financiers, as happened with the wave of Chinese tycoons who bought clubs at the end of the first decade of the 21st century, and then withdrew when the Chinese government curtailed foreign investment. “It’s completely different, because in that case it wasn’t the Chinese state, but the Chinese entrepreneurs who invest, here are sovereign wealth funds,” explains Sobrino.

Both experts believe that this trend will continue, both due to the economic potential of these countries and their strategy. “These countries are seeing what pays off, how many protest movements have there been against the World Cup in Qatar or the Spanish Super Cup in Saudi Arabia?” Ginesta remarks.

What could be the next sport to suffer the Arab-funded disruption? “Cycling may be a coincidence, now they enter with the teams, but the day after tomorrow they can create competitions ad hoc“, emphasizes Sobrino. Only those competitions that” will transcend the participants “, such as the Champions League, the World Cup, the Grand Slams of tennis, have their future assured, says the expert, for whom this dynamic is a great threat for the Sports Federations. “The federative model must be renewed with the evolution of the sports sector towards the show”concludes.

By Miguel Ángel Moreno / EFE