Saudi Arabia unveils SAR 2.5 bln package to support sports clubs

Saudi Arabia’s General Sports Authority (GSA) has allocated SAR 2.5 billion to support 170 sports clubs across the kingdom, the Saudi Press Agency reported.

GSA’s strategy aims at empowering the sports sector and attracting new investments, said Chairman Prince Abdulaziz bin Turki Al Saud.

He added that the strategy also targets encouraging Saudi sports clubs to operate within an efficient governance framework that will pave the way for developing various types of sports and boosting global rankings. 

The financial allocations will be distributed according to the total points collected by each club in various competitions and games, he noted. 

A total of 16 clubs in the Saudi Professional League (SPL) will receive SAR 50 million in financial support, Prince Abdulaziz added, when speaking of the Support Clubs Strategy details. 

Another SAR 80 million will be equally allocated for the 20 clubs of Prince Mohamed Bin Salman division one League, SAR 36 million for division two league and SAR 55 million for division three league.

In addition, the SPL clubs can receive additional SAR 20 million in support upon development of governance standards, infrastructure, fan base and various games. 

The amount will be allocated as follows: SAR 10 million for development of infrastructure and clubs' institutions, SAR 5 million for organization of events coinciding with games at the host club stadium and SAR 3 million for increasing attendance participation, he added. 

The plan also includes development of governance, infrastructure and performance standards.