Glittering office towers and shopping centers characterize Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia. Eight-lane highways cut through the metropolis. No sidewalks or bike paths anywhere, and only a few parks.
Naif grew up in Riyadh and doesn’t want to give his last name. He has a stressful job as a consultant and travels worldwide. To compensate, he goes running and takes part in at least one marathon every year. However, Naif can only train for this in his hometown under difficult conditions, he says:
“Life in Saudi Arabia takes place in buildings or in cars. It is very hot in here. As a city, Riyadh is not designed for walking through the streets. But I just want to run and train every day. People kept stopping me on the side of the road. They didn’t like that I wore shorts and showed my legs. Police officers also pointed this out to me, sometimes sternly, sometimes politely.”
New running groups and yoga studios
Riyadh has around eight million inhabitants. Compared to this size, the range of leisure sports on offer is small. But: it is growing. Running groups, bike paths and yoga studios are being created. A marathon has been taking place in Riyadh every year since 2022, with several thousand participants.
At every marathon, says Naif, there is a little more talk about exercise, about health promotion, about the lack of sports teachers. Almost 20 percent of the population in Saudi Arabia has diabetes, and more than fifty percent are overweight. This means that the country is recording negative peak values in these areas. The government wants to increase the number of people who exercise at least once a week from the current 13 to 40 percent by 2030.
Sport should no longer be a luxury
“Earlier in school, lessons focused on math and science,” says Naif. “We had one hour of exercise a week. And if the class didn’t behave, then the sport was canceled as a punishment. Sports were seen as a luxury, not a necessity. More and more people are now seeing that exercise can also reduce healthcare costs. The number of students in sports and health is growing.”
Sport for health promotion, encounters and entertainment. A decade ago, this was unthinkable in Saudi Arabia. To develop new economic sectors, Saudi Arabia depends on people who are versatile and resilient. Employees who were previously mostly employed by the state are now competing for jobs in new industries.
This leads to frustration and exhaustion for many, says Sebastian Sons, an expert for the Gulf region: “Basically, this opportunity to participate in sports or entertainment is a kind of sigh of relief for many young people. And they are given the feeling that they are seen. The second is that these new opportunities are also a different way of establishing loyalty to the state.”
Older people feel marginalized
For a long time, religious scholars and established trading families in particular benefited from the state’s favors. But that is changing: around 70 percent of Saudi Arabia’s population is younger than thirty. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s reforms are aimed primarily at young people, and he particularly wants to get women into work.
The sports industry can help as a means of identification, says Sebastian Sons. But: “There are definitely people who see everything very critically. They say, if we don’t have affordable housing and everything is becoming more expensive: Why are we investing so much money in sport and especially in football? Older people in particular feel a bit marginalized by this youth craze in a certain way. And they feel a bit robbed of their identity. That then also fuels a certain generational conflict.”
Political banners are strictly prohibited
Until the 2034 World Cup, Saudi Arabia will invest billions more in sport: in stadiums, local transport and hotels. But what would happen if the economy weakened and prosperity declined? General unemployment is already at eight percent.
The new sports industry, especially football, has transformed public space in Saudi Arabia. Tens of thousands of people, mostly men, meet in the stadiums. Can this group dynamic produce a political protest?
Journalist Robert Chatterjee from the Middle East magazine “Zenith”: “Retaining control is the top priority for the Saudi government. Stadiums are also part of public space. And public spaces are much more monitored and regulated than before. The deal is basically: no flags, no banners, no politics in the stadiums, you can’t see that either. There are also a relatively large number of stewards in the stadiums to enforce this. But they don’t actually have to intervene that often.”
Parents get involved
The monarchy in Saudi Arabia does not tolerate parties, unions and NGOs. She wants her citizens to participate in sports, but not in politics. And yet new forms of self-organization are emerging in sport, especially at the grassroots level, such as those that also exist in Germany, says Robert Chatterjee:
“So what we also know here in popular sports, that parents accompany their children on weekends, volunteer, for example as a coach, as a groundskeeper, that is something that has become more common in recent years and is currently growing.”
Preparations for the 2034 World Cup could accelerate this development. However, it is unlikely that this will create a civil society.