(Riyadh) Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund has acquired a minority stake in the PFL, an American AMM (mixed martial arts) league, demonstrating the scale of the rich oil country’s sporting ambitions, the two parties announced on Wednesday.
This investment, the amount of which has not been disclosed, is the first led by SRJ Sports Investments, an entity created in early August by the Public Investment Fund (PIF), the Saudi sovereign wealth fund, to attract “major sporting events”.
The objective is also to support the economic diversification strategy of the powerful crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, at the head of the PIF.
The agreement “aims to nurture the local and regional talent pool in martial arts, promote gender equality in sport and create new opportunities for Saudi Arabia and the region,” said the president of SRJ, Bander ben Mogren, in a press release.
The AMMs, which combine several combat sports such as boxing, wrestling or Muay Thai, were little known in the kingdom until the organization of the regional competition Desert Force in 2014.
They have gained popularity with the emergence of fighters from the Middle East and the creation of a Saudi AMM foundation to support local talent.
Two Saudis, Abdallah al-Qahtani and Mostafa Rashed Neda, won fights this month organized in Madison Square Garden in New York by the PFL (acronym for Professional Fighters League, editor’s note), one of the main organizations in the discipline after the prestigious Ultimate Fighting Championship.
The PFL plans to launch a regional league next year and hold other “mega-events” in Saudi Arabia, according to the statement released on Wednesday.
The amount of the investment has not been disclosed, but according to the Financial Times it is $100 million.
Saudi Arabia has been in the news a lot in recent years by investing in golf and Formula 1. In recent months, the country has shaken up the world of football with massive recruitment into the local championship of world stars like Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema and Neymar.
But the astronomical spending has earned him criticism from activists who accuse Saudi Arabia of instrumentalizing sport to improve its image, tarnished by serious human rights abuses in the kingdom.
