Why is the 2024 Spanish Super Cup played in Saudi Arabia?

As of the 2019-20 season the Spanish Super Cup has been a four-team event staged in the Gulf nation.

Last season’s Copa del Rey winners and runners-up (Real Madrid and Osasuna) will be joined by LaLiga winners FC Barcelona and third placed Atletico Madrid as the four sides battle it out for the first official domestic silverware of the 2023-34 season.

In 2019 the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) and Saudi government penned a lucrative deal that would see the new expanded format moving to the Gulf region. That agreement was then extended for a further ten year period in 2021.

The initiative breaks away from the previous Super Cup model that tended to act as a new season curtain raiser with the previous cup winner facing the victorious league side from the previous campaign.

The original 2019 deal was reportedly worth $120 million and the extension will takes us through until at least 2029. Criticism came from many, with Amnesty International leading the protests and accused the Spanish FA of  “collaboration in this ‘whitewashing’ of the image of Saudi Arabia”, where it said there had been very little improvement in the “the systematic abuse of homosexuals and continued discrimination against women.”

It was reported that the Spanish FA pocketed $40 for the 2023 edition in Riyadh and Spain are one of the many countries taking their version of the Super Cup to the Gulf with Italy and Turkey following suit.

Boxing, Formula 1, golf, WWE, a Winter Games and especially football have seen Saudi Arabia invest vast sums of money in sport as it looks to present a new image to a global audience. Last summer alone, Saudi Pro League clubs’ gross spend in the 2023 summer transfer window was US$957 million as the likes of Karim Benzema, Sadio Mané, Neymar, Jordan Henderson, Fabinho and many others joined Cristiano Ronaldo in the Roshn Saudi League.

The 2034 FIFA World Cup also looks to be hosted in the Gulf nation and despite no official bid actually submitted as last November President of the global governing body Gianni Infantino, confirmed through a post on his Instagram account that the 2034 World Cup will be held in Saudi Arabia, a country whose declaration of interest to host the event was submitted at the end of October (2023).