Estimates on (World Cup 2034): 82.5 billion riyals is the contribution of the sports sector to the Saudi economy by 2030

Amid anticipation of the vote of the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) to officially approve Saudi Arabia to host the 2034 World Cup, available data indicate that the contribution of the sports sector to the Kingdom’s GDP reached about 21.6 billion riyals by the end of 2023, while the target by 2030 is 82.5 billion riyals. Accordingly, the sports sector needs an annual cumulative growth of 21% to achieve the target.

The size of the sports sector is expected to reach about 26.1 billion riyals by the end of 2024, and in 2025 it is expected to reach 31.6 billion riyals, a growth of about 21% over the previous year, while in 2026 the sector’s contribution to the national economy is expected to grow by about 38.2 billion riyals.

During 2027, the contribution of the sports sector to the national economy is expected to rise to 46.3 billion riyals, and during 2028, the sector is expected to grow to 56 billion riyals, while in 2029 it is expected to contribute approximately 67.7 billion riyals, a growth of about 21% over the previous year. In 2030, the sports sector is expected to grow by approximately 82 billion riyals, a growth of about 21% over the previous year.

Comparing the current size of the sports sector with the target by 2030, the sector is expected to grow by 280%.

The Kingdom’s vision aims to diversify the local economy and move all economic variables of all kinds to raise their contribution to the gross domestic product and diversify the local economy. Thus, the sports sector is one of the vision’s goals for diversification, and the Kingdom’s vision aims to raise the contribution of the sports sector by 2030 to 1.5%, reaching a total value of approximately 82 billion riyals.

The sports sector is one of the sectors that help diversify the local economy away from oil. Therefore, the vision sought to pay attention to the sector and give it priority through legislation and regulations and attracting investment to this sector. One of the goals of the vision is that the Kingdom seeks to privatize sports clubs. Within the framework of the goals of the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 in the sports sector, the investment and privatization project for sports clubs was launched last year, to build an effective sports sector, by stimulating the private sector and enabling it to contribute to the development of the sports sector, which is based on three strategic and fundamental goals, represented in providing an attractive environment for investment in the sector, towards achieving a sustainable sports economy, in addition to achieving organization, raising the level of professionalism and administrative and financial governance in sports clubs, in addition to working to develop the infrastructure, which is positively reflected in improving the experience of sports fans. It is noteworthy that the Kingdom officially submitted its candidacy file to host the 2034 FIFA World Cup in July of this year, and it was announced a few days before the official announcement, which will be tomorrow, December 11, that the file to host the 2034 World Cup received a rating of 419.8 out of 500, noting that it is the highest technical rating given by the International Federation throughout history to a file submitted to host the World Cup.