Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund is withdrawing funding from LIV, which could be a precursor to LIV considering a commitment to football
Yasir Al Rumayyan is the Governor of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and Chairman of Newcastle United (Image: Getty)
Midway through the World Championship at the Crucible, the World Snooker Tour issued a statement. It was confirmation of what had already been communicated to the players in a short email.
“Following constructive discussions between the Saudi Billiards and Snooker Federation and Matchroom after the conclusion of the 2025 competition, we have mutually agreed not to hold any future events of the World Pool Championships and the Saudi Snooker Masters.”
Is it constructive? Did you agree with each other? Yes, certainly. If the outcome is to eliminate the richest snooker tournament outside the UK, that argument doesn’t seem very constructive.
read more: LIV Golf releases urgent statement regarding next steps following Saudi withdrawalread more: Newcastle United leaders prepare for PIF meeting following LIV Golf announcement
Did you agree with each other? sorry? Have you mutually agreed to take the £2.3 million event, which was launched as the sport’s unofficial ‘Fourth Major’ with a £500,000 first prize, off the calendar?
A mutual agreement between the players did not work out. Barry Hawkins said: “I know it sounds rude, but losing that tournament meant something was wrong. What happened to the 10-year contract? It just got blown.”
“It’s inexplicable. It’s a very big tournament to lose. It would be interesting to know the reasons behind it.”
The reason is simple, Barry. Saudi Arabia decided this was a waste of money. They spent a lot of money on it, got little in return (not that they expected too much), and then walked away because that’s what they could do.
Eddie Howe and Newcastle United manager prepare for end-of-season meeting (Image: Mark Thompson/Getty Images)
All the prowling is pointless. A few players have done well from that run, but that’s about it.
On a larger scale, the same is true for LIV Golf. It has been confirmed that the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) will no longer provide funding to LIV Golf after this season.
Officially, the decision was attributed to changes in Saudi strategy and uncertainty surrounding the Middle East conflict. Saudi Arabia’s latest vision policy outlines the objectives of the PIF, whose president, Yasir al-Rumayan, is chairman of Newcastle United, and calls for its assets to generate positive economic returns.
Jon Rahm is one of the star players whose future is uncertain after Saudi Arabia halted investment in LIV Golf (Image: Manuel Velasquez/Getty Images)
In its first three years in business, LIV Golf generated revenues of £107 million and posted a loss of £1.105 billion. Now in its fifth year, the surprising thing should not be that the Saudis withdrew, but that it lasted so long.
It may be difficult for the likes of Jon Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau and Tyrell Hatton to return to the mainstream tours, especially the PGA Tour, but they’ve made so much money on LIV that they shouldn’t mess with even the tiniest violin. (If you’re going to sympathize with someone, it should be a rank-and-file employee outside the organization.)
The Saudis pretty much run big-time boxing through Turki Alarusik, a man respected by everyone in the sport. Turki obviously still wants to run the whole show since he settled the fight between Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury. But what if he loses interest? At least you won’t have to endure the constant sight of promoters bowing and rubbing their bodies.
Turki Alarusik is the Saudi government official who is the strongest man in boxing (Image: Getty Images)
And at least as many big matches will not be played in Saudi Arabia. In conclusion, Japan is not a country centered around sports. Sports are not part of everyday life there.
Would you seriously bet that the people running PIF in Saudi Arabia would lose interest in football, especially when football is supposed to cost billions of pounds? No matter what the outcome of Northumberland’s talks with Eddie Howe and the club’s current hierarchy, Saudi Arabia has no intention of spending money on Newcastle United.
And whatever decisions they make, it is unlikely that they will achieve their goal of making Newcastle one of the world’s top clubs by 2030. In fact, it is unlikely that they will continue to own the club until 2030. If any Newcastle fans are so deluded as to believe that the club is being led to the Promised Land by an exorbitantly wealthy Saudi, they will soon be set straight.
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