Saudi Arabia Page 3 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
IOC launches esports Olympics in Saudi Arabia
The International Olympic Committee is launching the Olympic Esports Games 2025, with the competition to be held in Saudi Arabia.,The IOC made the announcement Friday in conjunction with the National Olympic Committee of Saudi Arabia.,It is the latest foray into sports for Saudi Arabia, which funds ...
'Violently ill' Khamzat Chimaev out of UFC event in Saudi Arabia
Due to an illness, middleweight Khamzat Chimaev won't compete in the main event against Robert Whittaker at the UFC's debut in Saudi Arabia on June 22, with Ikram Aliskerov taking his place.,UFC CEO Dana White announced the lineup change in a social media video on Thursday, saying Chimaev (13-0 MMA,...
PGA Tour on PIF talks: 'We want to get this right'
A meeting between the representatives of PGA Tour Enterprises and Yasir Al-Rumayyan, governor of the Saudi Public Investment Fund, and his staff yielded "progress," the PGA Tour announced Saturday.,The meeting was held Friday night in New York as the two sides work together to form an alliance.,"Rep...
WTA signs multi-year partnership with Saudi Arabia's PIF
The WTA entered a "multi-year partnership" with Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF) that will see the PIF become the first naming rights sponsor of the WTA rankings.,The controversial wealth fund, known for bankrolling LIV Golf and pursuing a merger agreement with the PGA Tour, has worked to...
The ATP tour and Saudi Arabia agree to another round of woke pandering
We need a more menacing term than sports washing because it’s not working. Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and the ATP tour agreed to a five-year sponsorship Wednesday, with courtside ads slated for the season-ending ATP Finals, Indian Wells (of course), Miami, Madrid, and Beijing....
Saudi Arabia doesn't grant women equal rights, but plans to host WTA Finals
Saudi Arabia has already invested heavily in several sports. Now, the nation plans to make headway into women’s tennis and host the 2024 WTA Finals — if a deal can be reached....
Barcelona are selling its LGBTQ+ fans down the river
Ah, yes, we’ve gotten to that point in the European football season where most everyone asks themselves, “Why are these teams in Saudi Arabia?” before quickly correcting themselves....
Soccer stars who took Saudi blood money looking to bail on league
The idea of the Saudi Pro League being a looming threat always felt just a touch out there, even if it had come to more prominence last summer. What it certainly looked like was a fertile dumping ground for clubs to offload players who were coming around to an age where a significant transfer fee wa...
Saudi League soccer and Fox Sports: A match made in apathy
There are several analogies that could be used to illustrate the hubris of Fox Sports partnering with the Saudi Pro League, and as easy as it would be to use the retirement tours of big name soccer stars, and the marginal effect they’ve had on MLS here in the states, Lionel Messi is on a barnstormin...
Saudi Arabia poaching NBA talent is possible, but unlikely
In a jocular response to the Saudi Public Investment Fund offering a record $1.1 billion to PSG and Kylian Mbappé for the French icon to play one season in Saudi Arabia, two-time NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo offered up his services to the Al Hilal club. ...
Saudi Arabian money is bleeding into the sports world
In 2017, one of the top chess players in the world announced she wasn’t going to play at the World Championships this year in Saudi Arabia. Anna Muzychuk cited the conditions that women would have to play in on her Facebook post, she explained she didn’t want to be accompanied by a man when she trav...
With PGA-LIV merger, the sportswashing of Saudi Arabia's human rights record is in full swing
The impending merger between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf series has brought Saudi sports washing efforts to an American pro sport. The alliance between the century-old PGA Tour and the upstart series, backed by the Saudi Kingdom’s Public Investment Fund, is their boldest foothold into the American mar...
PGA and LIV merging, proving there's nothing Saudi Arabia can't buy
In a bigger shocker than Ben Curtis winning the 2003 British Open, the PGA Tour and Saudi-backed rival LIV Golf will merge to form one yet-to-be-named entity, according to CNBC. The deal between the sides is expected to be announced Tuesday and would end all litigation between the parties. The PGA a...
Karim Benzema is the latest to take the blood money
And people thought MLS was a retirement league. ...
'Visit Saudi' sponsorship furthers FIFA’s tone-deaf record ahead of Women’s World Cup
The Women’s World Cup is nearing, and as is tradition, FIFA marked the occasion with controversy. Host countries Australia and New Zealand are urging the soccer federation to back out of its sponsorship with Visit Saudi. The main issue with the deal is Saudi Arabia’s ever-present, awful record of wo...
Lotta goals in the desert - World Cup Daily Diary: Day 11
Game of the day: Mexico 2 - 1 Saudi Arabia...
World Cup Daily Diary Day 3: Whoops!
Saudi Arabia manager Herve Renard might be the most handsome manager at this tournament, and he certainly didn’t have a problem taking a page from another handsome manager, Jose Mourinho. If you recall the cold war that Barcelona and Real Madrid had when Mourinho was at the helm at the Bernabeu, th...
Golfers’ reasonings for joining Saudi Tour were nothing but excuses
Now that the Saudi Golf Tour has announced a $405 million purse and 14 tournaments for 2023, those see-through excuses and talking that defecting golfers have been tossing out at press conferences are even weaker than they were before — a feat that we honestly didn’t think was possible. ...
Nonsensical arguments are only cute when they’re harmless, Chuck
A few months ago, amongst the very early Saudi golf league discussions and defections, Charles Barkley said that he gets it — “If somebody gave me $200 million, I’d kill a relative,” he told Pat McAfee. “Even one I like.”...