The PIF is taking the last quarter of Saudi football’s big four

The Sport Ministry has started transferring the 25% stakes held by nonprofit foundations in Al Ittihad, Al Ahli, Al Hilal, and Al Nassr to the Public Investment Fund, while dissolving the foundations' boards, it said in a statement on X. The ministry called this the second phase of the four clubs' ownership transfer, framing it as completing the move toward a structure that raises the clubs’ investment appeal, entrenches corporate governance, and supports long-term growth under the Sports Clubs Investment and Privatization Project.

REMEMBER- The PIF took 75% of the four clubs in June 2023, converting them into companies with the balance held by a nonprofit foundation attached to each club, made up of existing and new club members. Each club board has seven seats: five appointed by the fund and two nominated by the foundation.

What this actually does is clean the cap table. A single shareholder can sell a club outright without negotiating with a member-based body that holds nomination rights, has no obvious valuation, and with no mandate to exit.

The Al Hilal math shows you why now. The PIF sold 70% of Al Hilal Club Company to Kingdom Holding (KHC) in April for SAR 840 mn, on an enterprise value of SAR 1.4 bn and an equity value of SAR 1.2 bn. On the old 75-25 split, that leaves the fund with 5%, yet the fund has consistently said it retains a 30% minority. Folding in the foundation's 25% gets you there exactly.

Who’s next? Al Ittihad, Al Nassr, and Al Ahli, all of which are still fully PIF-controlled and with buyer talks underway at varying stages. Assistant Deputy Minister for Investment and Privatization Ibrahim AlMoaiqel told a London forum in June that 11 club transactions had closed with two more in progress, and that over 40 local and international investors have formally registered interest, motivated by the 2034 World Cup expected windfall.

Sport is notably absent from the PIF’s 2026-2030 strategy priorities. The fund pulled LIV Golf funding after this season and has tightened club budgets by a reported USD 200-400 mn across the SPL. The scale of the reset shows up in the transfer market: league-wide gross spending this summer sits at some USD 57 mn, an average of USD 3.08 mn per club, against the USD 957 mn Deloitte counted in the summer of 2023.

Read those two facts together and today's move looks less like a governance upgrade and more like an exit being prepared at speed. The fund spent three years absorbing losses to build brand value. It now wants private capital to carry the operating cost, and it wants the paperwork simple enough that an agreement can close in a quarter rather than a year.

The valuation benchmark is the uncomfortable part. Al Hilal — the league's most decorated club, with record revenues of USD 340 mn (SAR 1.27 bn) in 2024-2025 — went at an EV of roughly 1.1x revenue. European clubs with comparable turnover trade at several times that.

What to watch: Extraordinary general assemblies and new board appointments at the four club companies; GAC filings on any Al Ittihad, Al Nassr, or Al Ahli transactions; and whether the ministry says anything about what replaces the foundations.