Vision 2030: Saudi Arabia's master plan to use sports to boost their economy

With Karim Benzema being the latest to join the Saudi Arabian football league, the emphasis on bringing more top football names into the country's league is at an all-time high.

There are reports from transfer guru Fabrizio Romano that seven more footballers are on the radar for Saudi Arabia and they want to bring them to their top-flight football league. 

Sergio Ramos, Sergio Busquets, Jordi Alba, Iago Aspas, N'Golo Kante and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang are the players they want this summer.

And then there is the pursuit of Lionel Messi, and all of these players are reportedly being offered record money, much more than what other top clubs would offer. 

But why is there a sudden rise in interest from this Middle-Eastern country towards footballers?

Let's take a closer look.

Hosting the 2030 FIFA World Cup

Saudi Arabia's national football team caused one of the biggest upsets in World Cup history when they defeated eventual champions Argentina in their first group-stage match.

While that was a triumph to be remembered for a lifetime, they have been steadily building their football landscape in other ways as well.

The acquisition of Premier League club Newcastle United and their qualification for the UEFA Champions League in just their second season under the new Saudi-backed owners is another bit of good news for the long term.

There have been calls that the club's ownership is another attempt at sports washing, but the way they have gone about their business in the transfer market and in building the club's infrastructure has been nothing short of exemplary.

Despite having an abundance of cash, they have not splashed it on big-name players but rather tried to build things as homogeneously as possible.

All of this, along with wanting top names coming to their domestic league will only strengthen their league's popularity and increase their chances of hosting the FIFA World Cup. 

Not just football but in other sports too

One might think that Saudi Arabi are only focused on football, but the reality is that they have increased their emphasis on promoting other sports in their country too.

The Saudi Arabian Grand Prix is a prime example of that.

The ten-year partnership with WWE is also something notable, where per event, the company is reportedly making multiple times more than what they would earn in their flagship event, Wrestlemania. 

However, for the rulers of Saudi Arabia, sport is a key part of their national development strategy 'Vision 2030', and a vehicle in international relations to gain political goodwill, and create diplomatic relations, and investments.

Saudi Arabian Football Federation (SAFF) General Secretary Ibrahim Alkassim is a man on a mission. As the country moves towards achieving its National Vision 2030, the Saudi FA know that football has a huge part to play as the country strides forward towards that.

Ibrahim Alkassim believes that emerging as a soft power in football will go a long way in helping Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 wherein the country aims to diversify the economy and break free from its dependence on oil.

"Vision 2030 is a strategic blueprint that will place Saudi Arabia in front of the leading countries of the world. In Saudi Arabia, the economy mainly depends on oil but part of this 2030 transformation is to diversify the economy. Vision 2030 stands on three main pillars, the first one of which is the quality of life. A part of the quality of life is sport," he said.

He felt that sports can impact a country's economy in many ways, direct and indirect. He specifically spoke about how a sporting nation ends up spending less in other fields, which in turn boosts the economy.

"When we chose the tag Vision 2030, sports was just sports. But today sports is a bigger part of the economy. If you talk about the total ecosystem in any culture and any country, sports not only directly impacts the economy but also indirectly impacts other fields."

The Saudi Arabian regime and crown prince Mohammed bin Salman has realised that sport provides a fantastic vehicle for political imagineering and for gaining political goodwill. Through sport, you can stay out of the normal political spotlight and bin Salman also uses sporting events to create new diplomatic relations, and new trade agreements, attract tourists, and generally uses sport as a focal point for the position in the international society that the regime attempts to craft.

Therefore, the Saudi Arabian regime is in this for the long run. The question is how the sports world will deal with a regime that has a human rights record like Saudi Arabia's and that engages and invests so much in the world of sports. For now, it appears that the sports world has rolled out the red carpet.