Session 11: Scoring Opportunity: Sport in the Gulf’s Soft Power Armoury

Saudi Arabia is late to the football game but it is here – with its recent takeover of Newcastle United – the kingdom now joins Qatar and the UAE in the mega business of sport. That Riyadh’s sovereign wealth fund, known as the Public Investment Fund, stuck around for two years before finalising this acquisition suggests that the move is a strategic one. What are Saudi Arabia’s wider political and economic goals connected to sport? What value does ownership of a team bring to its Gulf owners? The recent hype surrounding the KSA deal follows Lionel Messi’s lucrative move to Qatar-owned Paris Saint Germain (PSG) earlier in August but football is only the tip of the iceberg as far as Gulf involvement in sport is concerned – Formula 1 racing, cycling and handball are additional examples. What is the end goal? What are the challenges and criticisms? When investing in sport without an underpinning culture, how does the GCC contend with the issue of sustainability? Finally, considering their respective national visions and converging economic diversification trajectories, will sport be the next proxy battleground among the Gulf states?

Professor Simon Chadwick examines the politics of sport between the Gulf states and the discussion aims to map out how sport sponsorship constitutes a projection of the Gulf’s soft power.

Speaker: Simon Chadwick, Global Professor of Eurasian Sport, Emlyon Business School, Paris

Simon Chadwick is Global Professor of Eurasian Sport at Emlyon Business School in Paris. He also directs the school’s Centre for the Eurasian Sport Industry (CESI), based in Shanghai. He previously founded and directed the University of London’s Birkbeck Sports Business Centre, and Coventry University’s Centre for the International Business of Sport. In addition, he has worked at several of the world’s most prestigious business schools, including IESE in Spain, Otto Beisheim in Germany, Tsinghua in China and COPPEAD in Brazil. Professor Chadwick has held various positions across Asia and has direct experience of working in the Middle East. His research, writing, consultancy and teaching focuses on the geopolitical economy of sport.