Introduction

The research examines the British press coverage of sports events hosted by Saudi Arabia. This study contributes to the communication and public relations literature by providing new information about the British press coverage of sports events hosted by Saudi Arabia in the era of the Saudi Vision 2030.

In 2016, Saudi Arabia published its latest development programme, Saudi Vision 2030, to develop several economic sectors, attract investment, diversify revenue, and become a more vital trade centre. As stated officially, the vision of this campaign was to make the Kingdom an integral driver of international trade and to connect three continents: Africa, Asia, and Europe. Thus, the Vision states:

We will continue to enable citizens and businesses to unleash their fullest potential, and we will work on diversifying the economy, supporting local content and develop innovative opportunities for the future. This will be through creating an attractive environment for local and foreign investments, in addition to the Public Investment Fund developing and unlocking new sectors. (Vision 2030, 2022).

As a result of this extensive campaign and programme of development, several events and programmes have been organised, including the development of the entertainment sector, changes in tourism laws, planning of renewable energy projects, implementation of housing programmes, development of the financial sector, initiation of privatisation programmes, the establishment of public investment programmes, and launch of programmes to improve quality of life in the Kingdom, which includes the hosting of international sports events. Quality of Life Programme has ten objectives, two related to sport. The first objective of the Quality of Life Programme is to promote sports activities in society. The second is achieving excellence in numerous sports locally and worldwide (Vision 2030, 2023).

The Kingdom managed to host several events of a unique global character; more than 50 global sports events were hosted from 2018 to 2020, with more than 2 million visitors. On the other hand, the percentage of citizens undertaking weekly workouts rose from 13% in 2015 to 19% in 2019. From the economic perspective, the involvement of the sports sector in the Gross Domestic Product increased from 2.4 Billion to 6.5 Billion SR. (Vision 2030, 2021). Alyusuf (2021) stated that hosting international sports events also improves the position of Saudi Arabia regionally and internationally and its capability to organise these major international events to make a lively society with the highest quality of life. Moreover, an annual report of the Ministry of Sport (2020) shows the global media impact of Saudi Arabia hosting international sports events. The report illustrates that in 2020, there were 60 thousand articles, 1.7 billion impressions and 163 broadcasting channels across 190 countries (Ministry of Sport, 2020). Therefore, this study looks at sports events hosted by Saudi Arabia in the era of the Saudi Vision 2030 and how the British press covered it.

A couple of researchers sought British media coverage before 2016. Al-Saud (2009) analyses the depiction of Saudi Arabia in the British newspaper after 9/11. The UK press indirectly propels and strengthens the readers’ desire that Islam is fiendish. For that reason, the portrayal of Saudi Arabia in all four daily papers was seen as, to a great extent negative. Bashatah (2017) studied the representation of Saudi females within the UK press. Bashatah found that the representation of Saudi ladies in the UK news media is negative, as well as any Muslim female worldwide. Examining the photos in the news stories revealed that journalists regularly utilise photos irrelevant to the accurate content of the news stories.

The main research question driving this study is: how the development and implementation of the Quality of Life programme, particularly hosting sports events, have been covered by the British press? This study fills the gap in the literature on the British press coverage of sports events hosted by Saudi Arabia in light of the country concept model.

Literature review

Soft power strategy and sports events

The concept of ‘soft power’ has been identified in the literature when investigating how different governments use or adapt various cultural components to enhance their global image and in the context of foreign policy. The term’ soft power’ was coined by political scientist Joseph Nye in 1990, with Nye describing two main approaches that a state could adopt to influence events and the behaviour of local populations: the exercise of hard or soft power. While hard power could be described as coercive, deploying military or economic control, soft power requires the implementation of more attractive means, such as cultural assets, values, or innovative ideologies (Nye, 2004). Specifically, Nye defined soft power as the ability to affect outcomes consciously and, if necessary, to change the behaviour of others to produce those outcomes (Nye, 2004, 2008). However, Grix et al. (2019) recommend that states combine soft with hard power to create what Nye called ‘smart power’.

Several reasons are given for this combined approach. For example, states need the support of their populations before engaging in international conflict since many societies no longer tolerate the use of force. This means that states place increasing emphasis on the use of soft power. Some examples of this include South Korea’s successful promotion of K-pop music; the spread of interest in the Korean martial art, taekwondo, to Europe and the US; Japan’s investment in its Japanese brand across international universities worldwide; India’s investment in its film industry; national investment in business and technology, and global exposure to US entertainment and news (Fullerton et al., 2017; Porteux and Choi, 2018; Grix et al., 2019). In addition, one may cite the stated goal of the UK “to be the leading soft power nation”, according to its National Security Strategy (HM Government, 2015, p. 47).

Nevertheless, the concept of soft power has yet to escape criticism from researchers. In particular, neither Grix et al. (2019) nor Al-Dosari (2021) considers the concept to have been fully developed or further theorised by academics, and there needs to be a clear definition of soft power or its application. Moreover, researchers argue that Nye based and developed the concept on Western debate and theories, leading to a purely Western-centric perspective. However, it is essential to note that Nye clarified that soft power was not synonymous with marketing (Nye, 2004). Neither does the term equate to persuasion. Instead, it refers to attraction, leading to imitation. This means that soft power cannot be achieved through an international public relations campaign to promote a country’s culture or values; instead, soft power must be credible, which a public relations campaign cannot achieve. Consequently, soft power is more effective for enabling national leaders to communicate with their foreign audiences and build believable and trustworthy relationships.

Abdi et al. (2019) attempted to theorise soft power and point out that governments have historically used it as a diplomatic tool to improve their countries’ global image. An illustration of this would state using sports events as soft power in their foreign policy, returning to Greece’s earliest athletics competitions (Murray, 2012). Dubinsky (2019) and Abdi et al. (2019) also note that most soft power strategies have focused on regular sports events, as well as on sports mega-events, such as the FIFA World Cup competitions (for example, hosted by Qatar in 2022). Most soft power events consist of first and second-order sports mega-events. First-order mega-events include the FIFA World Cup and the Olympic Games.

Meanwhile, second-order mega-events include the Commonwealth Games and the Rugby World Cup. States use these events to showcase their values and culture, as well as to build bridges, create cooperation and commitment between nations, and for diplomatic purposes (Arning, 2013; Deos, 2014; Buhmann and Ingenhoff, 2015; Boykoff, 2016; Murray, 2018). This narrative unfolds during sports events through the dissemination of imagery while communicating a nation’s vision and achievements. However, cultural promotion may also consist of promoting language institutes abroad. For example, Germany, China, and the UK have language institutes worldwide that promote the home nations’ cultural values.

Hence, soft power packages usually include cultural components (the promotion of cultural values, language, sports, arts, and religion); tourism and branding (the promotion of business and trade, national identity, and investment opportunities); diplomacy (sports events, institutions, policies), and trade (technology, infrastructure such as stadiums) (Dubinsky, 2019; Grix et al., 2019). Here, sports events are most commonly targeted because they relate to all soft power strategies of a state, encompassing culture, tourism, branding, diplomacy, and trade. Events of this nature can also influence tourism and trade relations (Chalip, 2006; Arning, 2013). Instances, where sports events have been used for diplomacy, include table tennis championships organised by the US and China or events to promote technology, which are equally designed to enhance a country’s image (Chalip and Costa, 2005; Carter and Sugden, 2011). Moreover, De-San-Eugenio et al. (2017) study looks at the nature of FC Barcelona Peace Visit 2013, which it characterises as a workout in sports diplomacy, propelled by civil society and enunciated through the club. De-San-Eugenio concludes that FC Barcelona has been able to act as an arbiter between two contradicted communities due to the all-inclusive values connected to its brand and its nature as a “civic religion”. Regardless, the political issues that emerged amid the activity arranging highlight the Centre East’s geopolitical complexity and, by expansion, the limits of sports diplomacy. Voets (2023) analyses why Rwanda, a destitute African nation that’s for the most part known for the terrible genocide that took place there in 1994, has chosen to sponsor Arsenal, one of the wealthiest football clubs in the world, utilising “Visit Rwanda” informing. It subsequently examines the relevant circumstances, which clarify the Rwandan government’s choice for profiling itself by utilising this way of country branding. As such, the article traces how the commercial deal is seen as part of a state-led strategy for the long-term improvement of the nation. By displaying Rwanda as a destination, the negative picture of the genocide will be supplanted by the image of a more steady nation, which is alluring to guests and ventures. Thus, Voets (2023) found that the Rwandan government’s choice for branding the nation in this way is vague and seemingly limits itself to showcasing to realise national benefits that are likely to be genuine.

By examining the use of large-scale sports events as a tool of soft power in Brazil (Olympic Games 2016), China (Olympic Games 2008), and South Africa (World Cup 2010), Grix and Lee (2013) concluded that winning a bid to host an international sports event of this calibre establishes the status of the host country as an emerging power. Sports events like the Olympics have been used to rebrand nations, thereby changing their image and opening up more development opportunities beyond the immediate region (Knott, 2014).

However, Grix and Lee (2013) highlight that in the past, sports organisations like the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) were obliged to work hard to convince nations to host their sports events. In contrast, the last 30 years have seen countries bidding and competing to host events for political reasons, seeing these events as a cost-effective means of promoting themselves, raising their international status, and enriching local economies. Another trend change may be observed in the locations of significant sporting events. At one time, it was usually Western countries that hosted these events. However, in more recent times, some have taken place in the developing world, such as the Olympic Games in China in 2008, the Commonwealth Games in India in 2010, the FIFA World Cup in Qatar in 2022, and both the 2014 FIFA World Cup and 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Brazil (Grix and Lee, 2013; Brannagan and Giulianotti, 2015; Hahm and Tasci, 2019).

Consequently, a country’s capacity to host a significant sports event is linked to its status as an emerging power. This capacity demonstrates a nation’s economic resources and increasing political authority in world affairs (Grix and Lee, 2013). On the sports field, soft power has been significantly demonstrated in the sponsorship of soccer clubs (Krzyzaniak, 2018). Research conducted in Qatar, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Azerbaijan has revealed that teams sponsored by solid brands are more successful in building soft power. In addition, soft power is considered especially effective if the sponsorship is by state-owned rather than private corporations. Sponsorships are beneficial for building soft power because they are cost-effective and constitute a means to associate a country with an established and successful brand (Krzyzaniak, 2018). The soft power in sponsorship is generated by the number of teams sponsored, the strength of the soccer team brand, and the fact of whether the sponsor is a private or state-owned company.

Soft power and Saudi Arabia

In this regard, Saudi Arabia has formulated a foreign policy grounded in a soft power framework (Gallarotti and Al-Filali, 2013). Thus, the Kingdom has sought to strengthen relations with its fellow Gulf States and elsewhere while maintaining an active role in international organisations such as the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). Saudi Arabia has likewise hosted summits with the aim of exercising its soft power, as in the case of the Fourth Extraordinary Session of the Islamic Summit in 2012, hosted in Mecca and Medina. During this Summit, guests were given presentations of Saudi cultural traditions and guided tours of the cities’ holy sites (Gallarotti and Al-Filali, 2013).

One source of Saudi Arabia’s soft power is its historical position as the centre of the Islamic world. While the Islamic world is ethnically and culturally diverse, it is unified by the Islamic religion. Saudi Arabia has invested in communications technology to further its diplomatic relations, for example, the private television networks MBC, Panorama FM, and Al Arabiya. These serve as vehicles for its diplomatic campaigns (Gallarotti and Al-Filali, 2013). Furthermore, the previous King of Saudi Arabia, Abdullah bin Abdulaziz al-Saud, used cultural diplomacy to promote soft power at an international level from 2005–2015 (Alkatheeri and Khan, 2019). According to the literature, Saudi Arabia generated and exercised soft power through various activities, such as granting economic aid to other nations, funding the establishment of institutions, and developing and producing biofuels (Qureshi, 2014; Nizami et al., 2016).

More recently, Saudi Vision 2030 initiatives and programmes have included the implementation of Millennium Development Goals and the revival of Saudi sports media (Alkatheeri and Khan, 2019). The Millennium Development Goals were set out in the Millennium Declaration of the United Nations in 2000 and adopted by 191 states, with the overarching aim of putting an end to poverty, hunger, and gender inequality around the world (Sayfayn, 2018).

A new term called “Sportswashing” was used by Western activists in the media to accuse certain countries that host international events. Skey (2023) stated that Sportswashing was utilised in 2015 in the Independent newspaper. Moreover, the mention was regarding hosting the European games in Azerbaijan, despite their poor human rights record. Sportswashing is defined by (Skey, 2023) as “a neologism that has begun to appear with increasing regularity in the English-language media over the past few years”. Moreover, Wertheim (2023) defined it as an “idea that countries can cover up bad acts through sports.”

At the beginning of 2022, it was declared within the British media that a Saudi-backed consortium had bought Newcastle United. The term ‘sportswashing’ appeared in numerous reports around the story, with a significant number citing Amnesty International (Skey, 2023). However, In an interview with the Saudi Sports Minster on The 60 min programme On CBS Channel. The Saudi minister rejects the ‘sportswashing’ accusation as the Kingdom has a massive investment for the main pillar of the Saudi Vision 2030 (Wertheim, 2023). Similarly, Shihabi (2023) stated that Saudi Arabia does not need to make these vast promises to hide its human rights record; instead, the Saudi government makes these commitments for two crucial reasons. Firstly, Saudi Arabia is heightening centred on advancing sports inside the Kingdom. Secondly, one of the main objectives of the Saudi Vision 2030 is to promote tourism as a critical sector of economic diversification away from oil.

A country concept model: the case of Saudi Arabia

This research contributes to the soft power literature by adopting a country concept model developed by Fullerton, Kendrick, and Broyles (2017). In using this model, this study seeks to understand how information about Saudi Arabia has been presented in the British press since the implementation of Saudi Vision 2030.

The concept of a country is formulated by measuring the country’s reputation and global image (how the country is viewed by other countries worldwide). Fullerton, Kendrick, and Broyles (2017) identify that within the country concept, there are elements that are under the control of the entity or individual, such as public diplomacy, tourism, and marketing communications. However, other elements like international politics, past relationships between countries, and foreign and social media cannot be controlled. Global citizens will have a concept of a country as a result of their internalisation of the media content presented of that country (through entertainment and news), their experiences with that country (through travel and direct or indirect cultural experiences), and the country’s past political and economic development (Fullerton et al., 2017).

Taking the case of Saudi Arabia as an illustration, this study will examine the external environment as a result of the Vision 2030 soft power campaign, starting from the year of the campaign’s launch. Saudi Vision 2030 was publicised by the media in 2016, using press releases, video content, and online channels. Forming part of the country concept model is the communications campaign. This encompasses public diplomacy and government-sponsored communication aimed at foreign audiences. It is an element that includes mediated public diplomacy, which can be paid or shared, and.

Methodology

The aim of this study was to examine UK press coverage of sports events hosted by Saudi Arabia, specifically in light of the country concept model. For this purpose, two leading UK newspapers from April 2019 to March 2020 were chosen for the data collection: The Sun, a tabloid daily with a monthly readership of 38,032, and the Daily Mail, a middle-market tabloid daily with an average monthly reach of 33,244 readers (Watson, 2022). For this research, news stories were sampled between 2017 and 2021. There are many reasons to indicate British newspapers in this study. Firstly, Britain is among the significant trading allies of Saudi Arabia. Secondly, in 2022, the trade exchange between Saudi Arabia and Britain reached $21.5 billion. The last justification is that British tourists are the second most visited in the Kingdom in 2022. (Saudi Press Agency, 2021; ARAB NEWS, 2023; Alangary, 2022).

Qualitative Content analysis was conducted as part of this study to examine how the UK press has depicted Saudi Arabia as a host of international sports activities since the launch of Saudi Vision 2030, based on a sample of two newspapers in their online versions. Media content analysis has been defined as a subset of content analysis. It examines text and discourse, such as interview transcripts, film narratives, TV programmes, and newspaper and magazine content (Macnamara, 2015). Qualitative content analysis is “a research method for the subjective interpretation of the content of text data through the systematic classification process of coding and identifying themes or patterns” (Hsieh and Shannon, 2005, p. 1278).

Therefore, in this study, qualitative content analysis was conducted first, with data being collected manually by searching the online websites of two UK newspapers of wide distribution (The Daily Mail and The Sun) on Saudi Arabia’s hosting of international sports events. The data collection initially took place through keyword searches, including ‘Saudi Ladies International’, ‘World Chess Championship’, ‘Rally Dakar’, ‘Spanish Super Cup’, ‘Italian Super Cup’, ‘Diriyah boxing’, ‘Saudi Cup’, ‘F1/Formula 1’, ‘WWE Crown Jewel’, ‘Clash on the Dunes’, ‘Royal Rumble’, ‘Formula E’, and ‘Superclasico’.

Once the appropriate content had been gathered, the researcher performed qualitative content analysis, using a systematic process of encoding and classifying the data from the selected UK newspapers accessed online. The purpose of this was to extract the main themes according to the methodological steps for coding data (Creswell, 2013). It also corresponds to Saldaña (2013) model, which describes methods of coding data to obtain the main themes and develop theory (see Fig. 1).

Fig. 1
figure 1

Method of coding themes (Saldana, 2013).

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The content analysis took place in several stages, starting with planning and selecting stories for analysis. In this way, phrases that mentioned Saudi Arabia hosting international sports activities were extracted from the sampled UK newspapers for a specific period. In the second stage, the researcher calculated the number of mentions of Saudi Arabia as a host of international sports activities, expressed as percentages, and the quality status of each mention (positive, negative, neutral)—the use of sentiment analysis helped to distinguish the differences between each article sentiments. The positive refers to any news that shows the development and good mention of Saudi Arabia. The negative refers to any news focusing on an issue while the news is about having a game in Saudi. The neutral refers to the kind of article that mentions the news time, date and location without adding any sentence to praise the development in the country or to focus on an issue.

The current study has unique justifications that stem from the research question, the country concept model, and the nature of the data collected in a qualitative approach.

Results

The researcher examined the headlines and content of articles, looking at their tone and how Saudi Arabia was depicted or mentioned in the news about hosting international sports events. Following a thorough examination, results were obtained that revealed several sports events taking place in Saudi Arabia: the Spanish Super Cup, boxing matches, World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), the Italian Super Cup, the Ladies European Tour, King Salman World Rapid, the Blitz Chess Championships, Formula 1, the Saudi Ladies International, the Dakar Rally, the World Chess Tournament, and the Saudi Cup equestrian event.

The first stage consisted of content analysis, meaning that codes and categories were extracted manually from articles that mentioned Saudi Arabia hosting international sports activities. The next stage involved arranging the codes into categories and identifying connections between those categories, out of which themes emerged, such as ‘accusations against the Saudi government’ and ‘Saudi social reforms’.

Accusations against the Saudi Government

This theme contained three categories: ‘International pressure’, ‘Use of negative terms against the government’, and ‘A focus on human rights’. Within each of these categories, several codes were identified. For instance, ‘International pressure’ contained the codes’ Broadcaster boycott’ and ‘Group protest’, both referring to international intervention by non-Saudi groups. Meanwhile, the code ‘Broadcaster boycott’ was identified in the sampled newspapers, with reference to Saudi Arabia’s sports events and Spanish TV broadcasters, who stated that they would boycott the Spanish Super Cup hosted by Saudi Arabia. An example of this may be seen in the following excerpt:

Spanish TV broadcasters will boycott the Spanish Super Cup after it was announced that the tournament would be played in Saudi Arabia. The decision to host the four-team event in Jeddah has been met with fierce criticism from and outside of Spain over Saudi Arabia’s ‘violation of human rights’. (The Daily Mail, 15 November 2019)

In contrast, the ‘Group protest’ code referred to the protests staged by Saudi Arabia’s female activists and political protests concerning Saudi Arabia’s hosting of sports events. For example, The Daily Mail used language such as “a background of protests and political outrage…”,” highlighting protests from human rights activists”, and “played against a backdrop of protests”. The following excerpt shows this language in context:

On Wednesday, Amnesty International organised a small peaceful protest in front of the Saudi Arabia embassy in Madrid to call for the release of women activists who have been fighting for their rights in Saudi Arabia. (The Daily Mail, 9 January 2020)

Lazio beat Juventus 3-1 on Sunday to win the Italian Super Cup for a fifth time amid a background of protests and political outrage at the game being held in Saudi Arabia. (The Daily Mail, 22 December 2019)

In the category ‘Use of negative terms against the government’, the codes ‘Sportswash’, ‘Regime’, and ‘Dictator’ were identified. This category refers to the specific use of language to discredit the Saudi government. These terms have been used extensively in The Daily Mail and The Sun while hosting sports events in Saudi Arabia. An example of this usage may be seen in the following excerpts:

Amnesty International said that if the clubs go ahead with the fixture in January it will only help Riyadh to use sport to ‘rebrand’ its tarnished image, known as ‘sportswashing’. (The Sun, October 26 2018)

…the Saudi regime was ¬being ‘rewarded, instead of being called out for their shocking deeds’. (The Daily Mail, May 12, 2021)

The ‘Focus on human rights’ category included ‘LGBTQ rights’, ‘Public execution’, ‘Freedom of speech’, and ‘Human rights’. These were likewise extracted from different articles that mentioned Saudi Arabia’s hosting of international sports events, as illustrated below:

Hearn showed a lack of awareness of the country’s anti-LGBT laws, and the impact on visiting boxing fans or any gay members of his own staff. (The Daily Mail, 12 August 2019)

Public executions in the form of beheadings take place on Fridays. Between 100 and 200 are conducted every year. (The Daily Mail, December 4, 2019)

Money is no object when it comes to using sport’s appeal to cover up human rights abuses like that. (The Daily Mail, December 3, 2019)

Saudi social reforms

This section focuses on the ‘Saudi social reforms’ theme and includes positive comments about Saudi society and the Saudi government in UK newspapers. The theme’ Saudi social reforms’ falls into two categories: ‘A positive view of the Kingdom hosting international sports events’ and ‘The empowerment of Saudi women’. The following codes were identified within the former: ‘Excellence in event management’, ‘Saudi heritage and culture’, ‘Entertainment’, and ‘World sports capital’. These codes reflect a positive view of Saudi culture, government, and the country. For example, the code ‘excellence in event management’ refers to how the events were organised in this article about Andy Ruiz, heavyweight champion:

And he has already visited the newly built stadium in Diriyah, which is now ready to host the bout that could decide the Brit’s fate. The Diriyah Arena is in the heart of the UNESCO World Heritage site, known as the home of heroes and kings. (The Sun, November 26, 2019)

Meanwhile, the code ‘Saudi heritage and culture’ was reflected in phrases and articles that praise or mention Saudi Arabia’s cultural heritage, such as

Joshua’s bout with Ruiz Jr. will take place in Diriyah, a town on the outskirts of the capital Riyadh, which incorporates the UNESCO World Heritage site of Al-Turaif. (The Daily Mail, August 9, 2019)

Similarly, the codes ‘Entertainment’ and ‘World sports capital’ were reflected positively in some articles, as follows:

Saudi Arabia is a country that is rapidly becoming a hub for sports and entertainment with many major events taking place there in recent years and we are very pleased that Formula One will be racing there from next season”, affirmed F1 chairman Chase Carey in one statement. (The Daily Mail, November 5, 2020)

Furthermore, ‘Empowerment of Saudi women’ included the codes, ‘Women attending sports events’, ‘Easing of segregation’, and ‘Women driving’. These codes reflect a positive view of women’s lives in Saudi Arabia:

You will see a lot of women attending this fight on Saturday. Nevertheless, it’s not just that. Now, they can participate and be part of a national team. So, criticism will happen. (The Daily Mail, December 7, 2019)

Additionally, the code ‘Easing of segregation’ was reflected in the following articles:

Under his rule, the Kingdom has lifted a ban on women driving, eased rules on gender segregation and women’s dress code, and chipped away at a guardianship system that gives male relatives control over key decisions in women’s lives. (The Daily Mail, November 11, 2019)

In the same vein, the code ‘Women driving’ was extracted from several articles, for example:

Certainly there has been change, with the Crown Prince regarded as the driving force behind loosening restrictions on women, who were allowed in sports stadiums for the first time last year to watch a soccer match. (The Daily Mail, December 6, 2019)

The results revealed that 2017 news coverage about sports events hosted by Saudi Arabia could have been more extensive, with only 12 articles mentioning such events and only five displaying negative coverage. However, news coverage has been increasing steadily since then: in 2018, 35 relevant articles were found, 160 articles in 2019 (84 neutral, 48 negative, 28 positive), 80 in 2020 (24 negative), and 78 in 2021 (12 positive, 9 negative, 57 neutral). The most frequently occurring negative coverage was for the Italian and Spanish Super Cups. In contrast, the most frequent positive coverage was for Formula E and the Italian and Spanish Super Cups. In contrast, the WWE (2018–2021) and boxing events (2017–2021, except for 2018) received the most neutral coverage in both the sampled UK newspapers.

Discussion and conclusion

This study has examined the coverage of sports events hosted by Saudi Arabia, exemplified in the UK press, specifically The Sun and The Daily Mail, to look at the effectiveness of Saudi Arabia’s soft power strategy. For this purpose, the researcher adopted the country concept model.

An analysis of coverage of the relevant sports events by the publications, as mentioned earlier, revealed that at the time of launching Saudi Vision 2030, most coverage of events in Saudi Arabia was still negative. However, this negative coverage has decreased over the past few years, while neutral and positive coverage has increased. Thus, the results confirm previous research demonstrating how mega-sports events can change a nation’s image and that soft power strategy is vital for improving that image (Al-Dosari, 2021; Fullerton and Holtzhausen, 2012).

The analysis conducted in this study showed the predominance of football coverage over that of other sports events. It corresponds to the strategy outlined in Saudi Vision 2030, namely, to give special attention to increasing the popularity of football. The reason for this is that previous research (Knott, 2014) has shown the capacity of football to influence international perceptions. For example, studies on South Africa have revealed that American sports fans changed their perceptions of the nation following the rugby and soccer tournaments held there in 1995 and 1996 (Knott, 2014).

In contrast, coverage of Saudi Arabia was characterised by many negative articles, as opposed to more neutral or positive reporting. An important finding to emerge in this study is using negative terms against the Saudi government while hosting international sports events. The term Sportswashing was identified in the sample of this study. This finding confirms the country concept model, which states that although some domains are controlled by the authorities, such as tourism and marketing communications, other elements, like foreign and social media, cannot be controlled this way (Fullerton et al., 2017).

The results also revealed that when sports events are covered, interviews and statements by individuals may also refer to achievements such as a newly built stadium or be accompanied by cultural images, for example, footage of UNESCO World Heritage sites. In the case of Saudi Arabia, this discourse has provided opportunities to highlight Saudi social reforms. Sports events tend to be used by states to showcase their values and culture while at the same time disseminating images, the national vision, and news of national achievements, including the performance of the country’s athletes in these events. The press may then cover this content (Grix et al., 2019).

Regarding soft power, both the sampled newspapers in this study appear to have promoted a positive view of Saudi culture by describing the ‘welcoming’ local population and praising Saudi Arabia’s cultural heritage. Moreover, this result agreed with those components of the country concept model that will drop beneath a degree of control by specialists, including sent-out items, both manufactured and cultural (Fullerton et al, 2017). Also mentioned was constructing a new stadium to hold all international events and Saudi Arabia becoming a sports and entertainment hub. Therefore, the news coverage shows that a soft power package, encompassing the promotion of culture, tourism, branding, and technology, is actively practised while hosting sports events (Dubinsky, 2019; Grix et al., 2019).

In addition, the UK media has covered preparations for the Spanish Super Cup in Riyadh, due to be held in January 2023. The hosting of the Spanish Cup not only demonstrates the scale of the Kingdom’s economic resources and its growing political status in world affairs. Hence, Saudi Arabia’s opportunity to host a significant international sports event establishes its position as an emerging power, further contributing to its international status and boosting the local economy (Grix and Lee, 2013). By hosting sports events of this size, countries can promote the values they share with the rest of the world. This could include highlighting their democratic values. In particular, soft power has been generated by countries via the sponsorship of soccer clubs. Moreover, when teams with solid brands are sponsored, they are more successful in building soft power (Krzyzaniak, 2018).

The findings show that when a sports event was mentioned in the sampled publications, the coverage also included footage and reports of the associated structures, for example, stadiums. This finding confirms that Fullerton and Kendrick stated that the country concept originates from the country’s reputation and image that occurs in the mind of an international citizen. (Fullerton and Kendrick, 2017). Higham (1999) observed that sports now form a significant part of the strategies adopted in tourism management to build a location identity, thereby presenting the location as attractive and unique. For example, sports events and their design and branding elements, including sports stadiums that become famous or iconic, may contribute to the identity of a place since they offer an authentic cultural experience of that place.

An example of local cultural promotion can be seen in this article from The Sun:

The arena and site are utterly breath-taking, with a theme park and concert the night before as well. It’s like nothing we’ve seen before in boxing. The Clash on the Dunes will be a night to remember. We can’t wait. (The Sun, November 26, 2019)

Sports celebrities also play an essential role in generating soft power and influencing a nation’s brand. This is not only achieved by their presence but also through their active participation in promoting local culture. The research results showed that the presence of sports celebrities has generated positive media coverage of Saudi Arabia, as shown in this article on the sports celebrity, Andry Ruiz Jr., a US professional boxer:

He smiled and laughed as he posted a short clip of himself wearing a traditional Saudi Arabian thobe and headdress on Wednesday. (The Sun, 4 December 2019)

DeLay (1999) and Black (2010) likewise note that members of sports teams become celebrity players and ambassadors of their countries. These individuals consequently assist their country’s public diplomacy and promote its image abroad.

This research employed a country concept model developed by Fullerton, Kendrick, and Broyles (2017) to show how Saudi Arabia has been represented in the UK media since the launch of Saudi Vision 2030. The country concept was formulated by measuring the Kingdom’s reputation and national image worldwide. As seen in Fig. 2, the type of coverage has changed over the years, becoming more positive. The conclusion is that by employing a soft power package that includes the hosting of international sports events, Saudi Arabia’s country image has changed. The purpose of the country concept originates from the country’s reputation and image. (Fullerton and Kendrick, 2017).

Fig. 2
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Media coverage.

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Nevertheless, while the results indicate changes in the profile of Saudi Arabia in the media, it should be considered that the generalisability of these results is subject to certain limitations, given that only two UK publications were sampled. Moreover, these publications were of a similar genre, namely, tabloid newspapers falling under the general description of ‘popular press’, known to be prone to bias and the use of sensationalist language. Aside from mentioning that these were ‘leading’ publications, the rationale for sampling these newspapers was not explained. Another limitation is the relatively short period selected for analysis.

In conclusion, this study sampled two UK newspapers, The Sun and The Daily Mail, for 2017–2021. However, coverage of sports events hosted by Saudi Arabia in other UK or international newspapers was not examined. Hence, coverage in other media and over a different period could have produced different results, depending on the political, economic, and international context. Therefore, future research should consider other Western and non-Western media coverage of Saudi Arabia’s hosting of sports events and look at different periods.