Is Saudi Arabia Trying to Grow Beach Soccer, or Is It Just Another PR Stunt?

Between 2021 and 2023, Saudi Arabia spent at least $4.9 billion on sports deals—four times its total sports investments prior to this period. That’s about the same as the entire GDP of Fiji ($5.4 billion) or Barbados ($6.7 billion).

But Saudi’s involvement in sports started earlier. In 2014, it signed a $50 million per show deal with WWE, bringing wrestling events to Riyadh. Since then, it has invested in golf, football, boxing, Formula 1, tennis, cricket, horse racing, winter sports, and even beach soccer.

Many believe this has little to do with developing sports and more to do with distracting the world from Saudi Arabia’s human rights issues. The murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018 damaged the country’s reputation, with several companies cutting ties. Yet, in the years that followed, financial incentives appeared to shift opinions.

Even U.S. President Joe Biden, who once promised to isolate Saudi Arabia, ended up fist-bumping Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in 2022, despite his alleged involvement in human rights violations.

What Is Sportswashing?

Reports suggest Saudi Arabia has spent at least $6.3 billion on sports, but the actual number is likely higher. The Public Investment Fund (PIF) isn’t always transparent, and not all deals are made public.

Journalists have given a name to this kind of spending: sportswashing, using sport to improve a country’s reputation and make people forget about more significant problems, such as human rights abuses and corruption. And in 2025, it looks like this strategy is working better than ever.

What About Beach Soccer?

It’s not just football, boxing, or motorsports, Saudi Arabia has also set its sights on beach soccer. The country hosts the Neom Beach Soccer Cup, which brings international teams to play in Neom, a futuristic mega-project.

But Neom isn’t just about sports either. Neom is a $500 billion city project, the centrepiece of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030, with artificial ski slopes, luxury apartments, and high-tech everything, all in the middle of the desert. It’s supposed to be a vision of the future—shiny, bright, and impossible to ignore. Perhaps The Weeknd’s 'Blinding Lights' should be playing in the background during the games.

Is This Helping Beach Soccer?

One Saudi official once told The Guardian:

“This is not a fad. It’s not just something rich people are doing for fun. It’s a real plan to use sport to improve health, wellbeing, and participation.”

In all fairness, there have been some positive changes:

Saudi Arabia created a women’s football department, and around 50,000 girls now play in school leagues.
More football academies and coaching programs are opening, which could help young players develop.
Some argue these investments promote physical activity, which benefits the country’s population.

However, there is not much sign of investment in youth development or domestic leagues for beach soccer.

Unlike Brazil, Spain, or Portugal, Saudi Arabia lacks a beach soccer culture. Something difficult to build from scratch out of a country with a history of oppression, threats, and for some, death, and a city, Neom, which does not even exist on the maps yet.

Here is the question:

Is Saudi Arabia interested in growing beach soccer? Or is it just another polished PR move to shift focus away from bigger issues?