Snooker is set to move one of its two money-spinning Saudi Arabia events to Qatar in response to brutal cuts to investment in global sport from the kingdom.
Changes to Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 economic plan has led to the nation’s Public Investment Fund moving away from its less profitable investments.
Last week, LIV Golf chiefs held an emergency meeting in New York City to discuss the tour’s future, with funding expected to end in August, and Matchroom chief Barry Hearn has said that his group have also searched for alternatives in the wake of this new approach.
‘Saudi is a problem,’ Hearn said. ‘We don’t know where that problem’s going to lead to but we’ve got good influence there, particularly through the boxing, and all the other sports that we do, so we will be fine.
‘We can’t interfere with what’s going on at the moment. This is a terribly difficult time for the Middle East. Saudi, whether we’re talking LIV Tour or whether we’re talking other Olympic sports, are looking to cut back, which is fine, providing we’ve got other places to go — which we do.
‘So on the one hand, we’re looking at Saudi and saying, ‘Yes, there will be snooker in Saudi,’ but in fairness I can’t tell you what exactly at the moment until this problem changes.
‘But what I do know in the meantime is that we will be talking about a new event in China. We will be talking about another new event in the Middle East. So on the law of averages, win some, lose some, but that’s life.’
Before Monday’s development, Saudi Arabia was the home of two big-money tournaments: The Saudi Arabia Masters and the Riyadh Season Championship – with the latter offering a £760,000 bonus for any player who potted a Gold Ball to complete a 167-break.
The nation was also strongly linked with becoming the home of the World Championship, before the sport signed up to remain at Sheffield’s Crucible until 2045.
Elsewhere, the boss of LIV Golf says the series is ‘funded through the season’ and would then ‘work like crazy’ to keep going amid speculation its Saudi backers could withdraw their financial support.
The breakaway competition launched in 2021 and sent shockwaves through golf, positioning itself as a rival to the PGA Tour and DP World Tour.
However, speculation has mounted this week that the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) is set to end its backing, which is reported to be approaching five billion US dollars (£3.7bn) since the series was launched.
LIV chief executive Scott O’Neil was asked by TNT Sports about comments from Sergio Garcia – a LIV team captain – alluding to funding being in place through to 2030.
In the interview, O’Neil replied: ‘It’s just not the way the world works. We have commitments to have this being a going concern.
‘The reality is, you’re funded through the season, and then you work like crazy as a business to create a business and a business plan to keep us going.
‘But that’s not different from any other private equity-funded business in the history of mankind.’
Earlier in the week O’Neil wrote to LIV staff that the season ‘continues exactly as planned, uninterrupted and at full throttle’, making no reference to anything beyond this season.
The PIF has not commented on the matter.
Ryder Cup star Jon Rahm, who is reported to have earned £64million since joining the tour, said he was ‘not too worried’ about LIV’s future.
‘Until the people in charge told me if the rumours were valid or not, it didn’t make sense for me to think about it or to waste time thinking about it,’ he said, in quotes reported by Sky Sports.
‘As everything suddenly came out, so quickly, I wasn’t too worried about that, because normally, before the rumours come out, we know something.
‘There’s always someone in the league who knows something. It was so fast that I didn’t really worry about it.’
