Saudi wealth fund expected to withdraw financial support from rebel league
Vivian Nereim, Lauren Hirsch And Alan Blind
Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund is on the verge of announcing it will withdraw financial support from LIV Golf, a new golf course it launched four years ago to compete with the PGA Tour, a person familiar with the matter said Wednesday.
The Saudi league has leapt into professional golf in 2022, attracting some of the sport’s biggest stars with contracts that exceed career earnings by tens of millions of dollars with more established circuits such as the American-run PGA Tour.
The move comes after Saudi Arabia’s $1 trillion sovereign wealth fund announced a new five-year strategy on Wednesday; The fund manager said it would slow down some of its biggest projects as it focuses on “improving the efficiency of investments.”
Saudi officials said the oil-rich kingdom was reassessing its priorities amid mounting financial pressures, including the cost of committing to host the World Expo in 2030 and the men’s soccer World Cup in 2034.
Earlier Wednesday, LIV player Sergio Garcia, who won the 2017 Masters Tournament, suggested that athletes were in the dark about the league’s fate as speculation swirled online about the league’s future.
Garcia said wealth fund leader Yasir al-Rumayyan assured players that LIV was part of a broader, longer effort. “To be honest, we haven’t heard anything other than what Yasir told us at the beginning of the year,” Garcia said at a press conference on the eve of the LIV tournament in Mexico.
“Honestly, you know how these rumors are. There are always so many. And I can’t tell you any more than we already know.”
LIV did not immediately announce plans to cancel the event in Mexico.
The kingdom’s wealth fund did not respond to a request for comment after hours local time.
More to come…
New York Times
