Drew
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Saudi Arabia’s bid to take over sport has moved on to tennis as the head of the men’s tour revealed he held talks with the kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund.
The Public Investment Fund (PIF) of Saudi Arabia have already swallowed up golf, taken over Newcastle United, lured star footballers like Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema to their own domestic league while there are reports of a £16billion offer to buy the rights to Formula One.
Mail Sport reported last month that tennis’s NextGen finals, the end-of-year competition for the world’s eight best under-21 players, looks set to move to Jeddah.
ATP Tour chair Andrea Gaudenzi said he held ‘positive’ discussions with PIF over potential investment in tennis. It was only a few weeks ago that golf’s PGA Tour finally relented in their civil war with breakaway Saudi-backed LIV.
Gaudenzi warned any investors must ‘stick to respecting the history of the sport and the product, working with the current stakeholder rather than against’.
Saudi Arabia bid to buy into tennis as they hold talks with ATP chief
Saudi Arabia's bid to take over sport has moved on to tennis as the head of the men's tour revealed he held talks with the kingdom's sovereign wealth fund.
www.dailymail.co.uk
Seems inevitable at some point that they’re going to try to get directly involved in American sports, no? MLS would seem like a pretty good opportunity for them to flex their muscle to a degree where you can buy/sell global players and they’re in fairly desperate need of a shot in the arm for global relevancy