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Saudi Arabia: Domestic Factors Underpin Its Sudden Interest in Sports

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Saudi Arabia: Domestic Factors Underpin Its Sudden Interest in Sports News Analysis December 2019 Saudi Arabia: Domestic factors underpin its sudden interest in sports Martin Hvidt News On Saturday the 7th of December the hyped boxing event, the World Heavyweight Championship match between Anthony Joshua and Andy Ruiz Jr. was staged. For the millions of spectators behind their television screens, the match looked as any other world boxing event - except for the missing ring card girls, a reminder that the match was held in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia. While Dubai already in the late 1990s began to use sports as a way of branding itself internationally by hosting international sporting events specially in sports like Golf and Tennis, Qatar began in a decade later hosting events like the 2006 Asian Cup, World men’s Handball Championship 2015, and latest the 2019 Athletics World Championships and the 2019 World Beach Games. Qatar is going to host the FIFA 2022 World Championship in Football. For Saudi Arabia, hosting international sporting events is a completely new strategy. While sports will be a part of the government’s tools to international image building, this article takes a closer look at the domestic factors that forms the background for this strategy. Key Words Saudi Arabia, sports, Vision 2030, Women, empowerment, jobs, reforms About the Author Martin Hvidt Dr. phil et PhD is Associate Professor at the Centre for Contemporary Middle East Studies at the University of Southern Denmark. He is specialized in the economic and social development of the Arab Gulf countries, and served as a Professor at Zayed University, Dubai, 2013-2016. Martin Hvidt: Saudi Arabia: Domestic factors underpin its sudden interest in sports 2 Summary The current emphasis on attracting international sporting events to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is a very new feature in the politics of Saudi Arabia. After King Salman ascended to the throne in January 2015 he made his son Mohammad bin Salman the Crown Prince and later trusted him to spearhead the development of the kingdom. In June 2017 Muhammed bin Salman, as head of the Council of Economic Affairs and Development, released the development plan Vision 2030 which aims to transform Saudi Arabia from a highly oil dependent society to one where skills, entrepreneurship and hard work by the citizens are the foundation of the wealth creation in society. While Dubai, and later Qatar, have used sport events very consciously to brand themselves internationally, and especially Qatar having soft power strategy, to gain friends among the international community, the situation is quite different in Saudi Arabia: While there is no doubt that decision makers in Saudi Arabia believe that sports can be one among several ways to improve/normalize their international standing following first a 5 year long war in Yemen with immense human suffering and more recently the brutal killing of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi Embassy in Turkey, this paper will argue that there are solid domestic drivers behind the new policy. International or local sports events with both men and women as spectators are to offer entertainment and as such make life in Saudi more ‘liveable’, and second, and probably of more importance, to spearhead an active participation among the ordinary citizens to engage in sport activities themselves. A low life expectancy at birth and significant obesity in society are just some of the drivers behind the new emphasis behind sports. Analysis: The new emphasis on sports is an integrated part of the comprehensive reform process initiated by Mohammad bin Salman to transform the Saudi society from an oil dependent society to a post oil society. In the latter type of society, the wealth of the nation is created by the skills, entrepreneurship and hard work of the population, whereas the oil dependent society amasses its income from the fortunate situation of being located on top of some of the most profitable oil fields in the world. The Kingdom outlines their plan to achieve this transformation in the so-called Vision 2030. The task of turning a society which for the past 60 years has relied on a constant flow of income from oil is no easy task. Among the most visible problems in the Saudi economy is that oil has ‘crowed out’ other economic activities. Oil money is easily earned, because it is primarily a matter of lifting the oil out of the ground. Thus, oil money lavishly distributed into society has dampened the eagerness among the younger generations to excel in education and to be entrepreneurial and especially dampens the state’s efforts to foster a strong manufacturing sector in the country. As such, the Martin Hvidt: Saudi Arabia: Domestic factors underpin its sudden interest in sports 3 situation today is that the Kingdom is geared toward import of most necessities, while it has a rather weak production sector. As such, probably the biggest both political and economic hurdle in Saudi Arabia as of now is the demographic growth of the Saudi population. The population is very young, where nearly 60% of the entire population is below the age of 30. So, for the next decade the Kingdom need to find jobs for nearly 400,000 young Saudis every year or a total of nearly 6 million jobs before 2030 (McKinsey 2015, p. 14). For most countries this would be a daunting or impossible task. But Saudi Arabia is in the fortunate situation that despite green technologies making inroads in the energy mix, oil money will continue to fuel their economy for decades to come, thereby making it more probable that they can succeed in the transformation of their society. The role of sports in the Vision 2030 plan The Vision 2030 plan seeks to transform the Saudi society through activities built around three main pillars, namely: a vibrant society, a thriving economy and an ambitious nation. Sports make up an important feature in the strategy to create a vibrant society. This is spelled out in the so-called ‘Quality Of Life Program 2020 – deliver plan’ which is a detailed plan covering the short term spending by the Saudi government. The Program narrows down the concept of a ‘vibrant society’ into two interrelated factors, namely that of Livability which encompass the basic living standards for leading a satisfactory life (income, education, transport, environment, access to health care, safety etc.) and Lifestyle by which is meant the options provided for people to live pleasant and comfortable lives (Quality of Life Program 2020, p. 10). Those options encompass; Entertainment activities either at home or outside; Arts and cultural activities; Provision of Recreational activities; Social engagement understood as improved community participation and; Sports, the participation of citizens and residents in diverse sports activities which positively impacts their health and wellness (Quality of Life Program 2020, p. 11) The focus on Sports But how exactly are sports going to contribute to increased lifestyle? The Program lists three aims; To increase public participation in sports and athletic activities; Reach regional and global excellence in selected professional sports, and finally; Develop and Martin Hvidt: Saudi Arabia: Domestic factors underpin its sudden interest in sports 4 diversify entertainment opportunities to meet population’s needs (Quality of Life Program 2020, p. 25). More specifically, Saudi Arabia aims to either host or to create world class sporting events and grow new business opportunities centered around sports. The specific target for 2020 is to have 880 million international viewers, and a total of 18 sporting events. This is going to be achieved by bringing in globally respected sporting brands, championships and events to the Kingdom, and specifically to host 5-10 world class events in the kingdom annually (Quality of Life Program 2020, p. 123). The World Heavyweight Championship held on the 7 December 2019 in Riyadh is a direct outcome of this strategy. But the strategy entails not only hosting events, where the population can enjoy international sport stars perform, but also that Saudi Arabia create their own stars. The plan spells out how athletes should be groomed at home through a network of elite sports institutions, so that “the numbers of athletes, both men and women, qualifying for regional and international games / competitions (e.g. Asian Games, Summer Olympics, X-games, the Paralympic games and others) will increase (p. 124). Homegrown sports heroes are fulfilling both a role in the international branding strategy of Saudi Arabia but maybe of more importance to Saudi Arabia, they will serve as role models for the population and thus to increase the number of Saudis that are physical active. The backdrop for this is that the Saudi population only to a limited extent exercise. The Quality of Life Program states that currently 67 per cent of the population bluntly express that they are not interested in physical activity (Quality of Life Program 2020, p. 127). As an outcome, over the last decades obesity has become a major health problem. In the Kingdom 35.4 % of the population is obese which places it at same level as the US. The neighboring states Kuwait, Qatar and UAE have an equally high percentage of obese people in their populations.1 And from a national health perspective, a high level of obesity dramatically decreases a person’s lifespan and leads to a lower general quality of life. In addition, obesity includes health risks, such as higher risks of diabetes, heart diseases and even cancer. Obesity in the region is usually attributed to a changed lifestyle, where less physical work in combination with the arrival of American fast food restaurants has resulted in a 1 Obesity is measured as a person with a Body Mass Index higher than 30.
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