THE IMPLICATIONS OF CULTURAL ENTRENCHMENT THROUGH SAUDI ARABIA’S SOVEREIGN WEALTH FUND INVESTMENTS IN WESTERN SPORTS

Abstract

Saudi Arabia’s recent, massive foreign investments of its Public Investment Fund (PIF), an opaquely managed Sovereign Wealth Fund, in western nations’ cultural and sports industries raises questions about Saudi Arabia’s motives, and the geo-political implications of those investments. The PIF’s growth of its assets, and later, its substantial and comparatively disproportionate purchase of and related power over sports such as professional golf and European Football, have disrupted cultural traditions in the United States and Great Britain, and quietly courted international acceptance, as diplomatic experts criticize PIF’s investments as “sportswashing” to obscure the country’s historical disregard for human rights and authoritarian control over its citizens. The effect of sportswashing allows Saudi Arabia to cultivate soft power, using sports diplomacy to influence public perception. This thesis explores the historical context of Saudi Arabia, its complicated relationship with the West and in particular, the United States. It discusses the complexity of sovereign wealth funds as inextricably linked to the strategic goals their leaders, as well as the historical and public investments of the PIF as a tool of Saudi Arabia’s monarchy and discusses particular recent large-scale investments in western professional sports. The result of those investments, while initially challenged, are eventually accepted and even ignored by the public, while Saudi Arabia’s behind-the-scenes control of those sports industries increases it influence and further affects its role on the international stage. The political, economic and cultural ramifications of the PIF’s investments in Western nations’ sports industries include the potential reorganization of world powers; the erosion of concern about human rights abuses and deprivation of civil rights; the normalization of potential conflicts of interest; and the use of sports as solely an economic, rather than a cultural resource.