The Saudi Pro League Spending Spree: Stars, State Money and Sportswashing

Timeline

1. Dec 2022Cristiano Ronaldo signs for Al Nassr; he is unveiled in Riyadh in early January 2023.
2. Jan 4, 2023Amnesty International says the signing fits a wider pattern of sportswashing.
3. Jun 5, 2023PIF takes 75% of Al Hilal, Al Nassr, Al Ittihad and Al Ahli under a state privatization project.
4. Jul–Sep 2023Saudi clubs sign dozens of players from Europe, including Benzema, Kanté, Henderson and Neymar.
5. Sep 8, 2023Deloitte reports Saudi clubs spent $957 million in the summer window, second only to the Premier League.
6. Sep 2023Mohammed bin Salman tells Fox News he will 'continue doing sport washing' if it adds to GDP.
7. Jan 2024Henderson leaves Al Ettifaq for Ajax after less than six months.
8. Sep 2, 2024The summer 2024 window closes with spending expected at about a third of 2023's.
9. Jan 27, 2025Al Hilal and Neymar end his contract by mutual consent after seven appearances.

The ethical issues

• Sportswashing: whether state investment in sport is used to improve a government's image.
• Player agency and responsibility when accepting very high pay from a state-owned club.
• Competitive and financial effects on other leagues and the transfer market.
• Consistency of athletes' public values, such as LGBTQ+ advocacy, with their employment choices.
• Governance when a sovereign fund controls several clubs in one league.

Stakeholders

Stakeholder	Interests & obligations
Players and their agents	Pay, career opportunity and reputation.
PIF and the Saudi government	Economic diversification, tourism and international profile under Vision 2030.
Saudi Pro League and its clubs	Growing a competitive, commercially valuable league.
Saudi fans	Watching stars and stronger domestic football.
Human rights groups and people affected by abuses	Attention to executions, detentions and restrictions on rights.
European clubs and leagues	Transfer income, talent retention and competitive balance.

The case

In the summer of 2023, a league that most European fans had barely watched became the second-biggest spender in world football. Clubs in the Saudi Pro League signed a Ballon d’Or winner, a World Cup winner, a Liverpool captain and one of the most expensive players in history, and made a record bid for another. The money came largely from Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, which had just taken control of the league’s four biggest clubs. Supporters called it the fastest league-building project in the sport’s history. Critics called it sportswashing. For the players who went, the question was personal as well as professional.

Background

Cristiano Ronaldo set the pattern. He signed for Riyadh club Al Nassr in December 2022 and was unveiled in January 2023, calling Saudi Arabia an “amazing country.”^[6][11] Amnesty International responded on January 4, 2023. “Al-Nassr’s signing of Cristiano Ronaldo fits into a wider pattern of sportswashing in Saudi Arabia,” said Amnesty’s Dana Ahmed, urging him to use his platform to draw attention to human rights. Amnesty pointed to the execution of 81 people in a single day in 2022 and to the imprisonment of human rights defenders and women’s rights activists.^[5][6]

The state’s plans were much larger than one player. On June 5, 2023, Saudi Arabia launched a Sports Clubs Investment and Privatisation Project under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, part of the Vision 2030 economic plan. The Public Investment Fund (PIF) took 75% of Al Hilal, Al Nassr, Al Ittihad and Al Ahli, with non-profit club foundations keeping 25%. PIF would appoint five of each club’s seven board members.^[1][2] Other clubs were to be linked to state-backed entities, including oil company Aramco and the AlUla, Diriyah Gate and Neom development projects. The stated goals were to make the league one of the world’s top 10 and to raise its revenue from about 450 million riyals ($120 million) to more than 1.8 billion riyals, and its market value from 3 billion to 8 billion riyals by 2030.^[1] “The transfer of the four clubs will unleash various commercial opportunities, including investment, partnership and sponsorships across numerous sports,” PIF said.^[1]

The rules and governance

Nothing in football’s transfer rules stopped the spending. Clubs registered international transfers through FIFA’s system like any others, and the league set its own limits on foreign players. In 2024 each Saudi Pro League team was allowed 10 imports, two of whom had to be 21 or under.^[11] European competitions have rules on multi-club ownership and financial sustainability, but the Saudi league was outside UEFA’s jurisdiction, and one owner controlling four clubs in the same league was a domestic decision. For players, the governing documents were their own contracts. Their choices were legal; whether they were wise or right was a separate question.

The 2023 window

The signings came quickly. Karim Benzema, N’Golo Kanté, Jordan Henderson, Sadio Mané and Roberto Firmino all moved to Saudi clubs. Riyad Mahrez left Manchester City for Al Ahli, and Al Hilal signed Rúben Neves, Kalidou Koulibaly and Sergej Milinković-Savić for big fees. Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola said the league’s financial muscle had “changed the market.”^[7] In July Al Hilal made a world-record £259 million bid for Paris Saint-Germain’s Kylian Mbappé, who stayed in Paris.^[7] On August 15 Neymar joined Al Hilal from PSG for a fee understood to be about €90 million plus add-ons, on a two-year contract reportedly worth €150 million a year, six times his PSG income. “I want to write new sporting history,” he said.^[7][10]

Deloitte calculated that Saudi clubs spent $957 million in gross transfer fees that summer, with net spending of $907 million second only to the Premier League’s $1.39 billion. The clubs signed 94 overseas players, 37 of them from Europe’s “big five” leagues, and Premier League clubs received $312 million from Saudi clubs. “This is the first time since 2016 that another international league has outspent any of Europe’s ‘big five’ leagues in a summer transfer window,” said Deloitte’s Izzy Wray.^[3] FIFA’s annual transfer report put Saudi clubs’ spending for the calendar year 2023 at $970 million, up from $50.4 million in 2022, the first time the country entered the global top five.^[4]

Henderson and the question of values

The move that drew the most personal criticism was Jordan Henderson’s. The former Liverpool captain had been an outspoken advocate for the LGBTQ+ community, and Saudi law criminalizes homosexuality. He joined Al Ettifaq, managed by his former Liverpool teammate Steven Gerrard, in July 2023, and said he was not motivated solely by money. He was booed by some England fans at Wembley that October.^[7][8] In January 2024, less than six months after arriving, he ended his contract and signed for Ajax. “It was very much a football decision,” he said of leaving, adding that he would not criticize the Saudi league. He repeated an apology: “If any people from that community feel let down or hurt, I apologise. I did that six months ago, I’ll do it again. … I haven’t changed as a person.”^[8]

“Call it whatever you want”

In a September 2023 interview with Fox News, Mohammed bin Salman addressed the criticism directly. “If sport washing is going to increase my GDP by way of 1%, then I will continue doing sport washing,” he said. Asked about the term, he said: “I don’t care … I’m aiming for another 1.5%. Call it whatever you want, we’re going to get that 1.5%.” He said sport’s share of GDP had grown from 0.4% to 1.5% and tourism’s from 3% to 7%, and framed sport as part of diversifying the economy. Amnesty’s Felix Jakens responded that the crown prince also did not seem to care about jailed activists, “the 196 people executed in the country last year,” or the family of murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi.^[9]

Aftermath

Some of the biggest signings did not last. About two months after arriving, Neymar ruptured the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee on international duty and missed a year. On January 27, 2025, Al Hilal ended his contract by mutual consent after seven appearances and one goal, set against a reported salary of $104 million a season. He returned to Santos in Brazil.^[10]

The 2024 summer window was quieter. Spending was expected to be about a third of 2023’s, and leading targets such as Mohamed Salah and Vinícius Júnior stayed in Europe. Clubs still signed Ivan Toney from Brentford for a reported €40 million, João Cancelo from Manchester City and Moussa Diaby from Aston Villa for $60 million, while Aramco-backed Al Qadsiah signed Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Nacho Fernández. Many teams had already filled their foreign-player quotas. “This is only the beginning,” said league CEO Omar Mugharbel, noting that most of the 2023 signings were still in the league.^[11]

The core dilemma

The Saudi project offered players extraordinary pay and a chance to help build a league, and offered fans in Saudi Arabia stars they had only watched on television. It was also a state-directed investment whose leader openly accepted the sportswashing label, in a country criticized for executions and the treatment of dissidents and LGBTQ+ people. No rule barred anyone from going. When a legal job also serves a government’s reputation, what do players, clubs and the sport owe to people outside the contract?

Competing values

• Career freedom vs. complicity: players’ right to choose employers against concern about lending fame to a state.
• Development vs. image management: growing football in Saudi Arabia against using sport to soften criticism.
• Consistency vs. privacy of motive: athletes’ public values against the right to make private career decisions.
• Market openness vs. competitive balance: a global transfer market against one state’s ability to outbid others.

Strongest arguments

For the players’ choice. Football careers are short, and the pay offered was far beyond what most players could earn elsewhere. Workers in many industries take jobs in Saudi Arabia, and Western governments and companies trade with it. Singling out athletes is inconsistent. Engagement may also bring more openness over time, and Saudi fans deserve good football as much as anyone.

Against uncritical participation. Sportswashing works through famous names and positive coverage. Players who join without comment, or praise the country, become part of the image the project is meant to build. Athletes who have campaigned on equality face a particular test, as Henderson’s apology recognized. Speaking up, as Amnesty urged, is one way to accept the job without endorsing everything about the employer.

For judging the project by results. Whether this is sport development or image building depends on what lasts: youth systems, domestic players, women’s football and fans. A spending boom that fades, with stars leaving early, would suggest the goal was attention rather than a sustainable league.

Applying the frameworks

Utilitarian

A utilitarian analysis would weigh the gains to players, Saudi fans, selling clubs and the domestic game against the harms if sport helps deflect pressure over human rights abuses. The harms are hard to measure, since a link between a transfer and a change in policy or reputation is indirect. A utilitarian might lean toward accepting the moves if engagement brings real development and openness, or against them if the main effect is to entrench a government’s image while abuses continue.

Rights-based

A rights lens starts from the people whose rights are at stake: those facing execution after unfair trials, detained activists, women’s rights defenders and LGBTQ+ people. It also recognizes players’ own right to work and move freely. The lens does not require players to refuse jobs, but it asks whether institutions in football, including leagues and FIFA, give human rights the weight they give commercial opportunity, and whether athletes with a platform have a duty to avoid praising a record they know to be criticized.

Virtue ethics

Virtue ethics asks what each choice says about character. Henderson’s case tests integrity: whether a public commitment to inclusion survives a career decision that seems to contradict it. A virtue lens might see the apology as honest or as insufficient, and his early departure as a correction or as a sign the move was never about values at all. It would also ask what kind of role models players become when they describe a move purely in football terms.

Walk it through: the Simple Decision Model

1. Spot the issue. You are a senior player’s adviser in July 2023, weighing an offer from a PIF-owned club. Stakeholders include the player and family, the buying and selling clubs, fans in both countries, sponsors, and less visible ones: activists and families of detainees, and LGBTQ+ supporters who saw the player as an ally. The codes in play are the contract, the league’s rules and the player’s own stated values.
2. Gather facts. What exactly is offered, for how long, and with what obligations to promote the club or country? What has the player said publicly before? What is documented about human rights in the country? Watch for anchoring on the salary figure, which can make every other consideration seem small.
3. Test options. Decline; accept quietly; or accept and set out publicly what the player will and will not do, such as no promotional work for the government. Run each through consequences, duties to fans and teammates, and what each shows about character.
4. Check codes and law. Review the contract for image-rights and promotional clauses, the league’s foreign-player rules and any sponsor obligations. Ask whether the spirit of the player’s past advocacy is compatible with the move, even if every legal box is ticked.
5. Decide and document. Record the reasons, including the non-financial ones. Consult family, the players’ union and, if the player has campaigned on social issues, the groups he worked with.
6. Communicate and follow up. Be honest about motives rather than offering PR spin. If the move goes ahead, decide in advance how to respond to questions about human rights, and revisit the decision if the role turns out to be mainly promotional.

What’s settled and what’s contested

Settled

• PIF took 75% stakes in Al Hilal, Al Nassr, Al Ittihad and Al Ahli on June 5, 2023.
• Saudi clubs spent about $957 million in the 2023 summer window, second only to the Premier League.
• Mohammed bin Salman said he would “continue doing sport washing” if it raised GDP.
• Henderson left after less than six months, and Neymar’s contract was ended after seven appearances.

Contested

• Whether the recruitment is primarily sportswashing, economic diversification or both.
• Whether individual players bear any moral responsibility for the image their moves create.
• Whether the project will produce a sustainable league or fade after its initial spending.

Why this case matters

The Saudi Pro League’s 2023 summer turned the sportswashing debate from mega-events, which governing bodies award, to individual contracts that players sign. It shows how commercialization at state scale can reshape a global labor market in one window, and it puts a hard question to every athlete with a public voice: what does it mean to say one thing and sign another, and who gets to judge?

Key terms

Sportswashing

Using sport, through events, teams or sponsorship, to improve the reputation of a state or company and distract from wrongdoing.

Commercialization

The process of turning sport into a product and a business enterprise, with profit pressures that can compete with principle.

Stakeholders

Everyone with something at stake in a decision: athletes, coaches, parents, officials, fans, employees, sponsors, media, communities and regulators, including the less visible ones.

Authenticity vs. PR spin

The tension between communicating truthfully and managing perception. Spin may protect a brand short term while eroding trust.

Legal but unethical

Law sets out what can be punished; ethics asks what is right. Compliance is a minimum, so an action can be lawful and still wrong.

Agency

An athlete’s ability to make decisions and act independently about their body, career and voice.

Definitions from the Ethics Cases glossary.

Discussion questions

1. Is a player who joins a state-owned Saudi club responsible for what the move may do for the state's image? Why or why not?
2. Amnesty urged Ronaldo to use his platform to speak about human rights. What, if anything, do star athletes owe the public in that situation?
3. Henderson called both his moves career decisions and said he had not changed as a person. Can a career choice be separated from its wider meaning?
4. Mohammed bin Salman said he did not care about the sportswashing label. Does that openness change the ethical analysis?
5. How should European leagues respond when another league can outbid them with state funds?

Sources

1. PIF takes control of Al Hilal, Al Nassr, Al Ittihad and Al Ahli in Saudi Pro League — The National
2. Saudi Arabia's PIF takes over Al-Ittihad, Al-Nassr, Al-Hilal and Al-Ahli — BBC Sport
3. Saudi Pro League clubs spend US$957 million in record-breaking football transfer window — Deloitte
4. Global Transfer Report 2023 — FIFA
5. Saudi Arabia: At Al-Nassr, Cristiano Ronaldo should draw attention to human rights issues — Amnesty International
6. Amnesty urges Ronaldo to speak out over human rights in Saudi Arabia — The Guardian
7. Neymar transfer news: Al-Hilal complete signing of Brazil forward from Paris St-Germain — BBC Sport
8. Henderson: Leaving Saudi for Ajax was 'a football decision' — ESPN
9. Mohammed bin Salman says he will 'continue doing sport washing' for Saudi Arabia — The Guardian
10. Neymar set for Santos as Al Hilal contract is terminated — The National
11. Saudi Pro League remains as ambitious as ever despite quiet transfer window, CEO says — Arab News (AFP)