Ageing French legend Killian Mbappe leads out the Saudi Arabian All Stars in a purpose-built multi-sport stadium and his teammates include a host of sporting greats from football, golf and beyond.
The stadium can host several sports at once and it is a feast for the 200,000 live spectators in attendance. No one at the stadium really knows what’s going on but no one really cares either. They’ve been told to like it and like it they will. The millions of viewers watching on social media are getting snippets of everything from a long drive contest featuring Bryson DeChambeau and Rory McIlroy, to Mbappe taking on Ireland’s Evan Ferguson in a half-way line penalty shoot-out.
And much like a school sports day, it seems everyone is going home with a trophy, so everyone seems happy. The trillion-dollar purse divided among all competitors is also nice.
With everything in life there is scale. A scale of right and wrong and everything in between. There are many aspects of how professional football and golf have evolved to date that can be debated on this scale, such as previous breakaway leagues, ownership and funding.
However, there comes a point where the scale goes past its tipping point and both sports now find themselves at a very dubious crossroads.
From a human rights perspective, no country is perfect, but scale is important. In today’s world, criminalising same sex sexual activity and corporal punishments such as beheadings should not be happening. Yet sport is being used to devastating effect to alter public perception and deflect from these issues.
Money has been ruling football for years. It could be argued that the scale started to tip in the 2000s with Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich’s Chelsea reign. In 2008, Manchester City were bought by the Abu Dhabi United Group, an investment company for the Abu Dhabi royal family, which is owned by Sheikh Mansour.
With unlimited Saudi Arabian money pouring into the likes of Man City, domination of English football followed. The club has been charged with over 100 incidents of breaking the financial fair play rules and legal battles rage on.
Manchester City’s Champions League final in Istanbul was only the second competitive game their owner, Mansour, has attended since his investment vehicle purchased the club. Just let that sink in, he has attended two competitive matches in 15 years.
Manchester United appear to be on the verge a similar ownership buy-out with Qatar. The adage of ‘If you can’t beat them, join them’ will be enough rationale for the supporters to jump on board.
State ownership of sport is a very dangerous prospect. It is starting to become normalised and is very much unregulated at present. In 2021, a consortium led by the Public Investment Fund (PIF), the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia, became the owner of Newcastle United. Hampered by the financial fair play rules it seems Newcastle have found a loophole which could see Portuguese star Ruben Neves immediately loaned to Newcastle following his big money move to the Saudi Arabian league. Something is not right here.
Cristiano Ronaldo going to the Saudi league was groundbreaking. But it still carried the air of retirement. Recent big names such as Karim Benzema moving over and Bernardo Silva being linked, carry a different feel.
The Premier League should be concerned. What they have built is incredible and much like the PGA in golf, it may fall under threat in the future.
It’s very easy to see why a purist like Liam Brady has fallen out of love with the game. And Tom Watson’s open letter last week mirrored this on the golfing side. He questioned the Saudi Arabian involvement in golf and the direction the sport is heading.
The parallels between golf and football are clear. Everything has a price and when money is limitless, tradition will be bought and soon forgotten.
Somehow, in the mess that currently is world golf, everyone is declaring themselves a winner. The communications from all sides around the recent PGA Tour, DP World Tour and PIF partnership is conflicting. The PGA Tour commissioner, Jay Monahan, got out first to declare the win and full control of the tour. It has subsequently emerged that financial desperation may have been the lead factor in the decision. LIV Golf appeared to have been a likely casualty of the partnership but a strong declaration from them has left everyone confused.
The reality is likely to be a complicated and drawn-out process that may even be scuppered, with concerns about whether the new deal may fall foul of competition law. The United States Senate has already opened an investigation into it.
With all stakeholders putting a positive spin on it, the big picture here is the direction sport is heading in. While money is what makes the world go round, it is hard to see how all of this is good for football and golf. Unlimited money and power from State institutions taking the game in whatever direction they please were not exactly in the script. It begs the question: where does the story end?
One of the side effects of this will be an uncertain period for sponsorship globally. Will global brands be able to afford sponsorships of these assets in the future? Will they even be needed?
Newcastle recently unveiled their new shirt sponsor deal with Saudi events company Sela. It is worth £25m per year, over three times more than their last sponsor paid. The deal with Sela, which is also owned by PIF, raises more questions while also pricing out many UK companies who may have had their eye on the Newcastle shirt.
From a domestic sponsorship perspective, the market so far seems to be less impacted. Ireland has a very good infrastructure with a diverse sporting landscape that brands in Ireland have been partnering with to great effect in recent years.
The GAA built its multi-top tier sponsorship model across Gaelic football and hurling, with the average length of their partnerships lasting many years and finding replacements has not been an issue to date.
Irish rugby is thriving both on the pitch and off it from a sponsorship perspective, heading into the World Cup in France later this year. And this at a time when the professional league is under threat across the water in England.
The Olympic Federation of Ireland (OFI) has been through a badly needed restructure in recent years and very much have their house in order, with headline sponsors such as Permanent TSB signing up for the Olympic and Paralympic Games in France next year.
Irish football is on a similar rebuilding journey to the OFI. The women’s team are about to embark on their historic maiden World Cup voyage and commercially, things have never been better with equal pay for players and sponsors like Sky and Cadbury helping to promote the team and the game.
And there is still room in the market for more brands to back Irish sport, with shirt sponsorship for the men’s football team still available. Someone should get in there quick before we decide to replicate the Saudi model and the Irish Government fancies its name on the shirt.
Kevin Moore is Managing Director of Legacy Communications
