Saudi Arabia eyes SAR 500M returns from club privatization: Minister

Prince Abdulaziz Al-Faisal, Minister of Sports

Prince Abdulaziz Al-Faisal, Minister of Sports, said the Kingdom is working on privatizing six clubs at the first phase of its plan to privatize 14 clubs.

The Kingdom plans to generate returns of SAR 500 million from the club privatization, Al-Faisal said during the 2025 Budget Forum.

He explained that the investment returns from the privatization process could exceed the target, depending on the locations, facilities offered, and the private sector’s interest in diversifying its investments in this field.

As many as 25 local and international companies showed interest in the privatization, which will be announced soon, the minister said.

He added that the bid evaluations are currently underway, and the procedures will be completed in the coming months to move to the second phase of the offering.

A total of 2,000 academies were licensed, of which 1,500 already started operations. In addition, licenses were issued for 500 clubs, with 250 of them actively functioning.

Al-Faisal highlighted the Kingdom’s progress in promoting sports tourism over the past four years, hosting approximately 80 international sports events that attracted 2.5 million tourists from around the world.

The Sports Clubs Investment and Privatization Project was launched through two main tracks, the first entails approving the investment by companies and development entities in sports clubs in exchange for transferring ownership to them. This included eight clubs, according to data available with Argaam.

The second track includes offering a number of clubs for privatization. It began with registering the interested parties locally and internationally in this investment as a first phase of the track.