The LIV golf tour is the latest example, not just his intent to do that, but the lengths he is willing to go to achieve it. That was until King Salman empowered MBS, not his oldest, but his chosen son, to fix it. The largest and most powerful of all the Gulf kingdoms was a cultural outlier, decades behind its neighbors in business and development, punching woefully below its weight. The royals feared for their future and pacified the Islamists by giving conservative religious scholars an outsized role in running the Kingdom.īy the time King Salman came along, the 21st century was passing Saudi Arabia by. The country had got stuck in a cultural time warp ever since its rulers panicked when Muslim radicals stormed Mecca in 1979. On the streets, conservative Islamist police held sway and women were banned from driving.
In 2015, when King Salman took the throne, the nation was ossifying, its royal court and bureaucracy bloated, sclerotic and by the accounts of many Saudis, deeply corrupt. Khashoggi’s killing tarnished MBS’s reputation, and potentially set back his father King Salman’s ambitions for him to modernize the kingdom.
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MBS denied any personal involvement in the killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi but took full responsibility as the country’s leader. To them, he is seen as being responsible for sending the hit team that killed, dismembered and burnt Khashoggi, who was becoming critical of MBS’s high-speed reforms. It’s fair to say among MBS’s erstwhile Western partners he is still seen as a potentially hazardous interlocutor. The result was that formerly flamboyant and talkative royals with potentially powerful royal pedigrees have far less influence today and little chance of acquiring it. More than 200 royals and businessmen were locked up at the Ritz hotel in Riyadh that year on allegations of corruption. Indeed, he shored up his power by shaking down the old guard in 2017, many of whom were potential rivals for power. Decisions can take years to mature to benefits. Conversely, in politics stripes are typically earned slowly. In sports, reputations are built on moments of brilliance. The speed and scale of his changes has earned him popularity among many of the country’s youth that is as unexpected as it is rare in Saudi’s history. He has already landed a slot on the Formula One circuit, hosted all-star boxing fixtures as well as staging a string of global and regional musical events to wow local audiences to whom all of this is almost out of reality.īefore MBS got power, none of this was possible. Golf's new Saudi deal presents questionable political, business and sporting realities (Photo by Eric Espada/Getty Images) Eric Espada/Getty Images The kingdom’s golfing coup is perhaps the crowning sporting achievement so far of heir apparent Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman (MBS).ĭORAL, FL - OCTOBER 29: A detailed view of a Liv Golf flag during the semifinals of the LIV Golf Invitational - Miami at Trump National Doral Miami on Octoin Doral, Florida. The last time most people paid this much attention to the kingdom was 2018 when Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi was murdered by Saudi government agents in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
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The shock partnership has set tongues wagging in capitals and on links courses around the world.Īlready home to Portuguese soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo, who is reportedly on a $200 million-a-year package, the Saudi Pro League this week also welcomed Ballon d’Or winner and France international Karim Benzema.
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In an announcement that shocked the sporting world on Tuesday, golf’s US-based PGA Tour announced a merger with its rival, the Saudi-backed LIV Golf and the Dubai-sponsored DP World Tour (formerly known as the European Tour), ending a feud that has dogged the men’s professional game for the past year. Saudi Arabia has been in the headlines a lot lately – this time for trying to find its place in the sporting world.
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