The title of this blog is the first line of the UK footballer fans chant when the visiting top team favoured to win – is losing.
Saudi Arabia’s $925bn (£682bn) sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund (PIF), which invests a chunk of the kingdom’s oil riches, on Wednesday confirmed that it was now time to stop spending big and start spending smarter.
Speculation quickly began to circulate that the PIF would call time on its $5bn loss-making investment in the rebel LIV Golf league, a flagship of Saudi Arabia’s high-flying sports diplomacy.
“LIV is a test case,” says Daniel Brett, of the research firm Global SWF. “It fits in quite neatly with the broader PIF story, which is: more discipline, more scrutiny and tougher choices.”
Mohammed bin Salman faces a much tougher road to emulate and surpass Dubai as the region’s magnet for investors Credit: Win McNamee/Getty Images
The PIF’s shift to thrift will ripple through global markets, where the fund has bought into everything from hotels and airports to banks, tech companies and football teams
LIV Golf just the start. Saudis abandon sportswashing after huge losses
Giles Turner
Apr 17, 2026
London | Saudi Arabia’s potential reversal on its costly golfing venture is part of a wider pullback on sports investing as it looks to prioritise returns rather than cultural influence.
LIV Golf, the upstart league that challenged the supremacy of the PGA Tour, has cost the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) more than $US5 billion ($7
Retired, living in the Scottish Borders after living most of my life in cities in England. I can now indulge my interest in all aspects of living close to nature in a wild landscape. I live on what was once the Iapetus Ocean which took millions of years to travel from the Southern Hemisphere to here in the Northern Hemisphere. That set me thinking and questioning and seeking answers.
In 1998 I co-wrote Millennium Countdown (US)/ A Business Guide to the Year 2000 (UK) see https://www.abebooks.co.uk/products/isbn/9780749427917
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