The Saudi sovereign wealth fund on Sunday introduced a brand new sports activities funding firm designed to attract “major global events” to the dominion, which has spent current months luring high soccer stars.

The firm, SRJ Sports Investments, “will invest in acquiring and creating new sports events IP (intellectual property), commercial rights of popular and prominent sports competitions and hosting major global events in Saudi Arabia,” the Public Investment Fund (PIF) mentioned in a press release.

It will “target businesses specialised in offering unique fan engagement activities and transformative sports technology across the industry, bolstering Saudi Arabia’s position as one of the world’s leading sports and entertainment destinations.”

Sports have been a significant focus of the oil-rich kingdom’s effort to rebrand as a worldwide enterprise and tourism vacation spot below the Vision 2030 reform agenda pursued by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the PIF chairman.

Football golf equipment within the Gulf state, the world’s greatest crude exporter, have signed a bunch of main stars starting with Cristiano Ronaldo final yr and persevering with with Karim Benzema, Jordan Henderson and Sadio Mane this yr, although overtures to Kylian Mbappe and Lionel Messi have been unsuccessful.

Saudi Arabia has additionally brought on shockwaves in golf with its financing of the insurgent LIV sequence and hosts a Formula One Grand Prix.

The ATP and the WTA, which run the lads’s and girls’s skilled tennis excursions, have been focused by the Saudis, who hosted an exhibition for high males’s gamers exterior Riyadh final yr.

The flurry of offers and negotiations have spurred allegations of “sportswashing”, or utilizing sports activities to distract from Saudi Arabia’s ceaselessly criticised human rights report.

The Public Investment Fund is likely one of the world’s largest sovereign wealth autos with greater than $620 billion in property.