How Saudi Arabia buys influence in US Sports
For years, Saudi Arabia has leaned on lobbying firms, marketing agencies, and PR companies to secure influence in the United States. Today, it extends this strategy into the realm of sports.
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Today, I wanted to take a moment to share an article that I recently published for Play the Game about the army of lobbying firms and PR agencies that Saudi Arabia is deploying in the United States. The article is particularly relevant as the kingdom continues its unprecedented expansion across all sports.
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This article was first published in Play the Game.
Over the past eight years, Saudi Arabia has demonstrated its capacity to shape some of the world’s most prominent professional sports. Through its Public Investment Fund (PIF), a state-owned investment fund which boasts assets exceeding 950 billion US dollars, the kingdom has acquired significant stakes in major sports organisations and teams, lured high-profile athletes to Saudi Arabian teams and even attempted a hostile takeover of the PGA Tour, the professional golf league that is among the United States’ oldest pastimes.
Some of Saudi Arabia’s most notable achievements in the sports world include acquiring Newcastle United, a prominent football team in the English Premier League, establishing itself as a hub for elite boxing, and securing the 2034 FIFA World Cup.
Beyond its attempted takeover of the PGA Tour, it is only a matter of time before the kingdom shows interest in U.S. sports, particularly the National Basketball Association (NBA) and the National Football League (NFL).
Saudi Arabia's influence in the sports world largely stems from its substantial financial power. In recent years, the kingdom has spent lavishly on lucrative contracts to attract some of the world's top athletes to its domestic football league. Additionally, its vast financial resources have solidified its presence in the realm of combat sports.
However, Saudi Arabia's strategy extends beyond its monetary might. According to Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA) documentation obtained through the U.S. Department of Justice, the kingdom has also employed an extensive network of lobbying firms to bolster its presence in the American sports landscape. This approach not only facilitates potential acquisitions of U.S. sports leagues but also intertwines with American political dynamics.
This article will explore these associations and their broader impact on American politics, including the political pushback from key US senators.
Princess Reema & Saudi’s sports lobby
In 2018, Saudi Arabia enlisted the services of the Churchill Ripley Group, an international consulting firm “specializing in growth” that boasts “unique access to Hollywood, Silicon Valley and the Middle East”.
The LA-based firm worked with Saudi’s General Sports Authority (GSA)—a precursor to the Ministry of Sports—and Saudi Princess Reema bint Bandar Al Saud, the daughter of former US ambassador Prince Bandar, to help set up meetings in the US with various companies and executives to discuss the development of Saudi’s burgeoning sports and entertainment sector.
At the time, Princess Reema served as the GSA’s Deputy of Planning and Development, where she led the development of the Kingdom's sports economy and strategic partnerships. She also served as the president of the Saudi Federation for Community Sports and the vice president of women's affairs at the GSA before following in her father’s footsteps as Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the US in 2019.
According to the foreign registration documents, the Churchill Ripley Group was responsible for preparing Princess Reema for her high level meetings during her visit to the US in 2018, as well as finding “direct investment opportunities.”
The firm’s services, which are done without a formal contract, cost the Saudi government 22,000 US dollars a month.
Princess Reema, along with Prince Abdulaziz bin Turki Al Saud, the kingdom’s soon-to-be minister of sports, went on to have conversations with the likes of Kobe Bryant regarding the “development of basketball in Saudi Arabia”; Sophie Goldschmidt, the former CEO of World Surf League, regarding the “development of the sport of surfing in Saudi Arabia”; the CEO of Thinkwell regarding the “development of a sports mall in Saudi Arabia”; Bing and Twitch about advancing esports in the kingdom; the NHL commissioner on developing floor hockey in Saudi; Madison Square Garden regarding the development of “stadium infrastructure”; and many more.
The foreign registration documents also revealed that Saudi Arabia’s General Sports Authority held several press events in 2018, including a public event with the Atlantic Council—an American think tank that receives partial funding from Saudi Arabia—the Middle East Policy Council, and another event hosted by the Saudi government for the Saudi US CEO forum.
Princess Reema was also interviewed by MSNBC, Reuters, NPR, ESPN, and the Washington Post as part of her media campaign to promote sports development in Saudi Arabia, and by CNN about women driving in Saudi Arabia.
Although the FARA documentation utilised for this report outlined Churchill Ripley's strategic consulting proposal and detailed the business calls and meetings involving Princess Reema and various sports entities, it omitted any subsequent updates about the outcomes of these interactions.
Nonetheless, given the kingdom's remarkable push into sports and its expanding influence within the global sports sphere, it is evident that Churchill Ripley, and other lobbying groups, played a notable role in facilitating Saudi Arabia's entry into the US sports market.
Buying influence
There was a brief moment in 2018 when Saudi Arabia’s political influence in the US appeared to be faltering.
The trouble began with the assassination of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, who was assassinated inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey. The subsequent fallout, which saw US officials conclude that Crown Prince and de facto ruler Mohammed Bin Salman authorised the assassination, led sports leagues and athletes to temporarily reconsider their association with the kingdom.
Several lobbying and public relations firms even stopped working for the kingdom, prompting the Saudis to double down on the firms that remained on their payroll. This included Qorvis Communications, which had previously helped salvage Saudi’s image following the 9/11 attacks, as 15 of the 19 hijackers were from the country.
According to a FARA filing in 2019, the firm received nearly 18 million US dollars to help rehabilitate the kingdom’s image.
The lobbying efforts worked. Within a matter of months, Saudi was back in the good graces of the US elite.
This was particularly evident in the world of sports, as Saudi began an unprecedented campaign of investments that saw the kingdom host key sports events such as a yearly Formula 1 Grand Prix, heavyweight boxing showdowns, and biannual WWE premium live events. The kingdom is also in the process of securing the rights to host the 2034 World Cup in football
The lobbying efforts to buy in through golf
Saudi’s investment in LIV Golf is particularly fascinating. When the kingdom announced the upstart golf league, it was criticized as an example of sportswashing, a term used to describe how countries deploy sports as a means to launder their reputation. Among those who criticised the league were former champion Phil Mickelson.
“They’re scary mother (insert six-letter obscenity here) to get involved with,” Mickelson said in an interview in November 2022. “We know they killed [Washington Post reporter and U.S. resident Jamal] Khashoggi and have a horrible record on human rights. They execute people over there for being gay. Knowing all of this, why would I even consider it?”
However, LIV Golf’s rollout came with the support of PR powerhouses like Edelman, which was never filed with FARA because it was done through subsidiaries that didn’t directly involve Saudi Arabia. That same year, Edelman signed a contract with the Saudi Ministry of Culture, for which the company proposed a PR campaign replete with celebrities and influencers to sell a positive image of Saudi Arabia.
Months later, Mickelson would become the face of LIV Golf, emerging as one of the highest paid athletes in the world despite not winning a single tournament.
Mickelson’s willingness to work with the Saudi regime despite a keen awareness of its human rights transgressions emphasises Saudi’s overwhelming influence in the US. It also bears a stark resemblance to President Joe Biden, who previously called Bin Salman a “pariah” on the campaign trail but later invited the crown prince to the White House in 2022 and approved a multibillion dollar weapons sale to Saudi Arabia.
Biden’s about-face regarding Bin Salman and the Saudi state coincides with a sharp increase in the kingdom’s lobbying efforts. In 2021, Saudi Arabia spent more than 25 million US dollars on foreign influence operatives, which is more than any prior year other than the unprecedented sum of about 39 million US dollars it spent in 2018 to rehabilitate Saudi Arabia’s image following Khashoggi’s assassination.
Saudi’s investment continues to pay off, as the kingdom has continued to buy up influence across the US, including through its primary conduit: the Public Investment Fund.
PIF’s expanding strategy
In November 2022, USSA International—the US subsidiary of Saudi’s Public Investment Fund—announced plans to expand its New York offices to meet its investment demands.
The fund, which manages a roughly 35 billion US dollars portfolio of US equities, including stakes in BlackRock Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co., and Uber Technologies, aimed to add a team of about 50 staff to help manage the burgeoning portfolio. This included hiring former hedge fund executive Jason Chung to head the New York office and recruiting former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. alumni Mark Cranley and Vesa Helin as a senior economist and head of risk.
Within a matter of months, USSA International was issued a subpoena by the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, requesting documents related to PIFs and USSA International’s investments in professional sports in the US.
The subpoena also requested the names of all the lobbyists and PR firms working with the subsidiary, noting that there was little transparency regarding the PIF’s investments in the United States.
”Beyond outright suppression of potentially negative press, investment can also be used as a tool of influence to promote positive stories and thereby suppress or distract from negative ones,” Chair Sen. Richard Blumenthal wrote in the letter.
“PIF’s PGA Tour investment fits in this bucket because it appears to be a classic attempt at a practice known as ‘sportswashing,’ a ‘phenomenon whereby political leaders use sports to appear important or legitimate on the world stage while stoking nationalism and deflecting attention from chronic social problems and human-rights woes on the home front.’”
The subpoena went on to add that Saudi’s takeover of professional golf is part of a “much larger planned expansion of its investments.” It cited PIF’s investments in Starbucks, Microsoft, Activision, Electronic Arts, and Live Nation Entertainment. It also cited PIF’s growing stakes in US private equity, which includes more than 50 venture capital firms such as Blackstone, General Atlantic, KKR, Hellman & Friedman, Apollo, Brookfield, and CVC.
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia continues to recruit PR firms, lobbyists and marketing agencies to bolster its image. In January 2024, it hired RF|Binder Partners to provide a new brand identity, website and social media strategy for USSA International.
The following month, Saudi reached an agreement with Rational 360 to serve as communications manager for PIF. Among Rational 360’s duties will be to engage with the Congress and the executive branch on behalf of the kingdom. The company is managed by Patrick Dorton, who was the chief spokesperson at Arthur Andersen during its Enron accounting scandal and ensuing collapse andalso special assistant to president Clinton.
In January 2024, PIF officials urged the Senate subcommittee to retract the issued subpoenas and even went so far as to reportedly issue lawsuits against the subpoenaed contractors in an attempt to conceal the requested records. The contractors are yet to produce the subpoenaed documents required by the Senate subcommittee. These instances serve to highlight the correlation between Saudi Arabia's extensive PR and lobbying endeavours and its increasing investments in the US, including in the realm of sports.
Despite the political pushback, we will likely continue to see the kingdom continue to grow its influence on American soil, whether through shadowy investments in technology and private equity, or through its bold acquisitions of popular sports and pastimes.
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Great analysis! And with the NFL now allowing private equity investment, the PIF has an entry point to ownership in the world’s most valuable league.
Thank you again Karim for all this great reporting. I had no idea Blackstone, KKR and Goldman Sachs worked with the Saudis.