Scott O’Neil, the chief executive of LIV Golf, sent an email to staff on Wednesday attempting to quell speculation that its main funder, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), was withdrawing from the tour.
Yet despite assurances this season would continue “uninterrupted”, no funds have been pledged beyond 2026, and a sale or merger looks likely given a wider reset at the $925bn (£684bn) sovereign wealth fund.
PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan has announced a pivot towards domestic investment and rationalisation. He said Saudi Arabia is aiming for international investment to comprise 20% of its expenditure, down from a high of 30%, although he suggested they intended to raise the dollar-figure spent outside Saudi Arabia.
In a statement, the PIF said: “The 2026-30 strategy marks a natural evolution from a period of rapid growth and acceleration to a new phase of sustained value creation.” Al-Rumayyan said the Iran war “would add more pressure to reposition some priorities”, as the IMF lowered its 2026 economic growth forecast for the Gulf kingdom by a third to 3.1%, and conceded that giga-projects, such as linear city the Line, are no longer priorities.
The PIF has invested about half of its wider $10bn outlay in sport into LIV Golf, launched in June 2022 to rival the PGA Tour. Its UK entity has lost more than $1.1bn since inception, including $462m in 2024 – with total global losses believed significantly higher. O’Neil said the competition is only “funded through [to the end of] the season”, but they would “work like crazy” to secure its future.
A wider rationalisation of Saudi sports assets has been led in part by the establishment of SURJ, the PIF’s dedicated sports investment wing, in August 2023. A three-year contract to host the WTA Tour finals in Riyadh will not be renewed after it ends in November, while the 2029 Asian Winter Games scheduled to be held in Trojena, a $500bn mountain and ski resort being constructed within the Neom giga-project, was postponed in January and later moved to Kazakhstan. It has also abandoned aspirations to host the 2035 rugby World Cup.
Photograph by Hector Vivas/Getty
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