A member of the Shura Council, Fadl Al-Buainain, confirmed that sports diplomacy and improving the image of the Kingdom can be achieved as a result of the outputs of the sports sector, and therefore it is important to achieve the efficiency of the sports sector, improve its outputs, and its professional system to be an interface for the Kingdom, explaining in his intervention on the report of the Ministry of Sports that there is a strategy Alia is currently interested in achieving public diplomacy in all sectors, including the sports sector, and among those efforts is hosting international competitions, including Formula, the Saudi Dakar Rally, and European Super matches, and linking the sports and tourism sectors, as happened in Qiddiya, Neom, and Diriyah, and attracting international players and others. Efforts for which the Ministry is responsible, or a partner in its programmes.
And he considered one of the most important elements of sports diplomacy to develop the sports environment, enhance its governance and transfer it to professionalism, and construct modern stadiums that will host international and regional competitions in the future, or those through which football matches will be transmitted, and received by international sports channels to follow the game’s top stars from Europe, the huge amount of spending The athlete referred to by the committee may not achieve the goals, as the lesson is in the efficiency of spending, not its size.
He looked forward to the committee making a recommendation to develop the sports environment, with its comprehensive components, strengthen its governance and transfer it to professionalism, develop television broadcasts of matches through which the world will see the development in the Kingdom in accordance with international standards, construct modern stadiums, and complete sports facilities to be the base for outputs that fulfill the requirements of soft sports diplomacy. He pointed out that, in an intervention on the ministry’s report last year, he demanded the establishment of stadiums and sports halls, according to a mechanism that adopts the priority of construction in the targeted and most needed areas, including the Asir region, the eastern region, and others. The ministry considered the challenges in its current report, which stated, “The lack of readiness of some sports facilities that do not comply with international standards, which reduces the chances of competition in hosting.”
