The head of Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority, Turki al-Sheikh, unveiled a major flag football tournament in Las Vegas this week alongside retired quarterback Tom Brady as the kingdom works to expand into American football.
Announced on Monday, the Fanatics Flag Football Classic is set for March 21 at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh. It will feature a round-robin tournament followed by a championship between the top two teams, according to a press release from FOX Sports, which will broadcast the games.
Sheikh said that the kingdom is “pleased” to be supporting the growth of flag football, adding that the goal of the tournament is to “bring the game to a wider audience around the world.”
Brady, now minority owner of the Las Vegas Raiders, will play in the tournament alongside other American football stars, including Philadelphia Eagles running back Saquon Barkley, according to the release.
Flag football is a non-contact version of American football in which defensive players strip a flag from their offensive opponents rather than tackling them.
Brady is the latest sports star lured by Saudi Arabia, joining the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, who plays in the Saudi Pro League, and Bryson DeChambeau of Saudi-backed LIV Golf. Athletes are often enticed by lucrative offers for playing in Saudi leagues, and Ronaldo signed a two-year extension with his club, Al Nassr, in June reportedly worth more than $900 million.
The compensation for players in Fanatics Flag Football Classic has not been released.
American football ambitions
Saudi Arabia has invested in a number of professional sports in recent years as part of its Vision 2030 economic diversification strategy. The Saudi sports sector is currently valued at $8 billion, up from around $1.3 billion in 2016 when the initiative was launched, according to the local news outlet Arab News.
The kingdom has not cracked into American football and the National Football League, however, partly due to rules that prohibit investment by state entities.
The NFL is the world’s most lucrative sports league, generating more than $20 billion in revenue during the 2024 season. Last August, the league announced for the first time it would allow private equity funds to take up to 10% stakes in teams, a move that paved the way for Gulf investment in American football, Samuel Wendel wrote for Al-Monitor.
Sovereign wealth funds such as Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund are still prohibited from investing in the NFL under the league’s rules, but could invest in the private equity funds that are now able to buy stakes in teams.
Speculation about looming Saudi investment in the NFL accelerated in 2023 when the PGA Tour announced plans to merge with the PIF-backed LIV Golf and the Qatar Investment Authority purchased a 5% stake in the Washington Wizards basketball team. However, the merger has yet to go through and Qatar remains the sole Gulf state whose sovereign fund owns part of a major North American sports franchise.
The kingdom is eyeing the sport at a time of growth. Flag football will feature at the Summer Olympics for the first time in 2028. NFL stars are rumored to be considering participation in the games, as are players in the semi-professional American Flag Football League.
The game is growing in the Middle East, and the San Francisco 49ers announced earlier this month a program to support flag football development in the United Arab Emirates. The team’s head coach, Kyle Shanahan, will coach one of the teams in the Saudi tournament.
Both flag and contact American football are particularly popular in Jordan and Israel, the only Middle Eastern members of the International Federation of American Football.
There are around 20 million flag football players in more than 100 countries around the world, according to a US State Department platform ShareAmerica.
New sports targets
Saudi Arabia has invested in golf, tennis, soccer and mixed martial arts for years, but entities in the kingdom are seeking to expand beyond those sports. R360, a breakaway rugby league, is expected to launch next year and is reportedly backed by private Saudi investors. Co-founder Mike Tindall, a former player and member of the royal family, has openly backed Saudi investment in the sport. The league is offering players around $1 million a year, according to British media reports.
Saudi Sports Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Turki Al-Faisal said in April that the kingdom is interested in hosting the 2035 Rugby World Cup.
The Financial Times reported in February that PIF was serving as a strategic partner for an investment group seeking to create an Asian and European basketball league to compete with the National Basketball Association.