Messi and Ronaldo Lead Saudi Arabia's Multibillion-Dollar Makeover

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Saudi Arabia’s habit for using icons of western popular culture to enhance its stature and sway on the global stage could soon rise by another nine figures.

The kingdom is reportedly willing to pay Argentinian maestro Lionel Messi $400 million-a-year for the twilight of his career. While a huge sum, even by football’s bloated standards, it’s just the latest in a string of moves by the petrostate’s rulers, who are plowing billions into sports, art and music.

Saudi Arabia hopes the spending, powered by excess revenue from its role as the world’s biggest crude exporter, will excite its burgeoning younger generation and supercharge its tourism industry. Critics say the efforts are aimed at varnishing an international image battered by a brutal war in Yemen and murder of Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi in 2018.

Overseeing this  soft power play is Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who’s simultaneously spending billions to build Saudi Arabia’s military capabilities, with what is now the world’s fifth-largest arms budget, and pursuing a more opportunistic diplomatic track that’s repeatedly put Riyadh at odds with Washington.

“It’s a complete reorientation of the kingdom,” says Kristin Smith Diwan, senior resident scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington. “They want to convince people this is a welcoming place, not a threatening one.”

The magnitude of its spending has made Saudi Arabia impossible to ignore for the world’s political and business elite. The kingdom’s economy was one of the world´s fastest growing last year, boosted by the highest oil prices in about a decade, and it now boasts the world’s seventh-largest wealth fund,  spending billions both at home and abroad.

In late 2022, Portuguese football superstar Cristiano Ronaldo signed a contract with Al-Nassr FC worth around $200 million a year. Little more than a year prior, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund led a consortium that acquired English Premier League football club Newcastle United FC for more than £300 million ($373 million). Saudi Arabia is considering a joint bid to host the 2030 FIFA World Cup, having witnessed the recent success of the tournament in neighboring Qatar.

Saudi Arabia offered to pay for new sports stadiums in Greece and Egypt if they agreed to team up with the oil-rich Gulf heavyweight in a joint bid to host the tournament.

In exchange, the Saudis would get to stage three-quarters of all the matches, under the proposed deal. 

The dramatic offer is likely worth billions of euros in construction costs. 

The Saudis’ main rivals are a joint Spain, Portugal and Ukraine bid from Europe, and a South American bid from Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Chile.  

The PIF has also reportedly earmarked billions of dollars to finance its LIV Golf tour, which has attracted stars including Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson, and last year considered a $20 billion attempt to add Formula 1 motor racing to its growing portfolio of sports investments. Elsewhere, venues in and around Jeddah and Riyadh have hosted mega-money boxing bouts featuring everyone from heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua to up-and-coming fighters Jake Paul and Tommy Fury.

“Sport is essential to what Saudi is doing as it moves toward a world where it is less dependent on oil revenues,” according to Simon Chadwick, professor of sport and geopolitical economy at Skema Business School in Paris.

Saudi Arabia wants tourism to account for 10% of its gross domestic product in 2030, by which time it hopes to be attracting 100 million visitors a year. In 2022, the kingdom hosted about 16 million visitors, including tourists, business travelers, those coming to see relatives residing in the country and overseas Muslims on the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca, a Saudi Tourism Authority representative said at a press briefing in Dubai this month.

To reach its target, Saudi Arabia has been looking beyond just professional sports. From an Andy Warhol exhibition, art biennale and electronic music concerts in the desert, to celebrity chef restaurants in Riyadh and partnerships with top culinary schools, it’s spending heavily to create an entertainment and leisure industry from scratch.

And it’s not just the private sector. In recent years, the UK and France have signed cultural cooperation agreements with Saudi Arabia.

The sudden influx of sporting and cultural events is popular in the country, which until only recently enforced rules forbidding men and women from mixing together in public.  

But not everyone is buying the hype. Campaigners say Saudi Arabia is deflecting attention from a poor domestic record on free speech and other human rights.

1.Vocabulary

    Paragraph 1

1.	bloated	a.	a period of gradual decline
2.	twilight	b.	excessive in size or amount.
3.	dissident	c.	a small oil-rich country in which institutions are weak and wealth and power are concentrated in the hands of a few.
4.	plowing	d.	move in a fast and uncontrolled manner
5.	varnishing	e.	beginning to grow or increase rapidly; flourishing.
6.	burgeoning	f.	a person who opposes official policy, especially that of an authoritarian state.
7.	petrostate	g.	to cover something unpleasant with something that gives an attractive appearance

    Paragraph 2

8.	opportunistic	h.	a persuasive approach to international relations, typically involving the use of economic or cultural influence.
9.	soft power	i.	exploiting immediate opportunities  regardless of  principles or morals.
10.	consortium	j.	possessing a feature that is a source of pride
11.	boasts	k.	an association, typically of several companies.
12.	team up	l.	​to join with another person or group in order to do something together
13.	gross	m.	present a performance or competition
14.	stage	n.	income, profit, or interest without deduction of tax or other contributions; total.

 Paragraph 3

15.	buying the hype	o.	free time for enjoyment when one is not working or occupied
16.	enforce	p.	an arrival or entry of large numbers of people or things.
17.	leisure	q.	to make something compulsory
18.	influx	r.	Participate enthusiastically in a temporary and artificial wave of interest

2. SYNONYM MATCH: Match the following synonyms from the article.

1. sum
2. sway
3. oversee
4. supercharge
5. battered
6. at odds
7. threatening
8. boosted
9. abroad
10. aquire
11. bid
12. from scratch
13. up-and-coming

1. supervise 
2. in conflict
3. damaged
4. strengthen
5. buy
6. helped to increase 
7. hostile
8. influence
9. overseas
10. amount of money
11. offer
12. promising
13. to  start at the beginning wthout anything

3.Role play: Which one of these options is best way for Saudi to improve its world influence,  image and  tourism industry?

Role  A – Investing in Football

Role  B – Legalizing Alcohol

Role  C –  Updating its Human Rights Laws  .

Role  D – Make the Hijab Optional for Women Role E- Invest in Artistic and Cultural Events Role F- Something Not on the List

4.Make a list about things that take place in Saudi that you would find strange. 

What kind of things would people find strange about your culture. 

Compare your culture with other cultures. 

5.Questions:

1. What images come to mind when you think of Saudi Arabia ? 

2. How can Saudi improve its image?

3. What do you think about their strategy of improving their image?

4.  If you were in the position of the Saudi royal family, what would you do to increase tourism in the country ?

5. What do you think Messi and Ronaldo can do to improve the situation in the country?

6. How can foreign countries influence Saudi to modernize?