Ashraf AboArafe
His Royal Highness Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Crown Prince and Prime Minister – may God protect him – today launched the investment and privatization project for sports clubs, after completing the executive procedures for the first phase, in order to achieve the goals of Saudi Vision 2030 in the sports sector, aimed at building an effective sports sector. By stimulating and enabling the private sector to contribute to the development of the sports sector, in order to achieve the desired distinction for national teams, sports clubs and practitioners at all levels.
The project at the current stage includes two main tracks; The first is to approve the investment of major companies and development agencies in sports clubs, in return for transferring ownership of the clubs to them. The second is to offer a number of sports clubs for privatization, starting from the last quarter of 2023.
The project is based on three strategic objectives, represented in creating quality opportunities and an attractive environment for investment in the sports sector to achieve a sustainable sports economy, raising the level of professionalism and administrative and financial governance in sports clubs, in addition to raising the level of clubs and developing their infrastructure to provide the best services to sports fans, which is reflected in a positive way. Positive to improve audience experience.
The transfer and privatization of clubs in general aims to achieve qualitative leaps in various sports in the Kingdom by 2030, to create a distinguished generation in sports at the regional and global levels, in addition to developing the football game and its competitions in particular, to bring the Saudi League to the list of the best (10) leagues in the world, Increasing the revenues of the Saudi Professional League from 450 million riyals to more than 1.8 billion riyals annually, in addition to raising the market value of the Saudi Professional League from 3 billion to more than 8 billion riyals.
