Newcastle’s owners are paying out millions to their rivals – this is not normal ...Middle East

Before December 2024, and with Fifa president Gianni Infantino’s rebadged and reimagined Club World Cup only six months away, Fifa were in something of a bind: they had no global broadcaster agreed. Reportedly, Apple TV had pulled out. Also reportedly, Fifa were eyeing $4bn for the deal.

Then, to much self-appointed fanfare, Dazn came to an agreement with Fifa to pay $1bn and be the official global broadcaster of the tournament. That appeared a bold move, given Dazn had posted an annual loss of $1.2bn for 2022 and would broadcast the tournament for free.

Some good news for Dazn arrived this week with the announcement that Fifa+, the world governing body’s streaming platform that has, until now, been free at the point of contact and kept in-house, would be relaunching with Dazn as its new home. Great process, guys.

Two months after the rights award, it was announced that the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia (PIF) had purchased a 10 per cent stake in Dazn. The broadcaster already had links to the Kingdom – they sponsor the Saudi Pro League and televise Riyadh Season boxing and Six Kings Slam tennis – but this made that relationship formal. The price of the share purchase? $1bn.

A month later – more fanfare, because Fifa – the prize pot for the Club World Cup was revealed. It included solidarity payments to governing bodies across the world and merit payments according to performance which, for European clubs, would be “based on a ranking based on sporting and commercial criteria”. The size of the prize pot? That’ll be $1bn again.

You can see how this works for everyone. Fifa get the global TV audience (and a new home for Fifa+) for Infantino’s new project. Dazn get users on their platform (you have to subscribe for free to watch). Saudi Arabia are the big winners – I know, true shock: a stake in an international broadcaster, closer relationship with Fifa ahead of a home World Cup secured after an uncontested bid.

We have forgotten one stakeholder: football and its footballers. Pfft. This is old hat thinking. You’re missing the bigger picture in all this. Which, coincidentally, also happens to be Saudi Arabia winning.

The prize money, that flow of the $1bn conveyor belt, is game-changing for the Club World Cup. Non-European teams would always have taken this tournament seriously, but without handsome recompense European clubs may have played it at half-pace before short holidays.

That seems unlikely now, particularly in its later stages. Estimates suggest that an elite European team (and clubs from Europe constitute the top right favourites to win the thing) could make $100m in prize money for winning the final. That is roughly the same as they would get for winning the Champions League by playing only seven games and with no Barcelona, Liverpool or Arsenal present.

This is where the tentacles of state ownership and sponsorship grow out to leave marks upon almost everything. See here: Newcastle United are owned by Saudi Arabia through PIF. PIF also owns four Saudi Pro League clubs who have helped out several Premier League teams (Manchester City, Aston Villa, Chelsea) with the signings of Joao Cancelo, Jhon Duran, Moussa Diaby and Angelo Gabriel. Expect more of that this summer; these are now Saudi Arabia’s richest clubs.

This summer, that moves to another level. Chelsea and Manchester City are two of the five favourites for the Club World Cup. They are in line for a handsome payout that will aid any financial rule issues and fund greater spending on transfers. That money is indirectly coming from PIF funding.

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Newcastle supporters do not appear angry about any of this. They probably reason that PIF has enough loose change to go around, aiming as it is to have under $1 trillion in assets. They have also just celebrated ending a trophy drought after winning the Carabao Cup and qualifying for the Champions League again.

There is also seemingly a creeping exhaustion with this stuff, probably born out of its quantity and the general sense of helplessness. Twenty years ago, it may have been more noteworthy for a nation to be so influential within corridors of governance. Now we all just shrug and say “Yeah, things are broken – good spot”. We have seen too much. We know too much about what happens next.

But that is not really the point. We have to keep saying it because it matters. This is why state ownership – Saudi Arabia, Qatar, US or the UK – should not be allowed: it leads to messy situations in which a party has financial interests in competing, connecting relationships. And it is only going to get more intertwined. Still, good luck to Saudi Arabia in the Concacaf Gold Cup (yes, really).

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