{"id":105609,"date":"2026-02-05T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/2026\/02\/05\/whos-the-first-non-saudi-owner-of-a-local-club\/"},"modified":"2026-02-05T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T00:00:00","slug":"whos-the-first-non-saudi-owner-of-a-local-club","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/2026\/02\/05\/whos-the-first-non-saudi-owner-of-a-local-club\/","title":{"rendered":"Who\u2019s the first non-Saudi owner of a local club?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The <\/strong>first non-Saudi owner of a local football club Ben Harburg was profiled by <\/strong>Bloomberg<\/a><\/strong> yesterday. <\/strong>Less than a year after his takeover of Al Kholood, Harburg appears to be pleased with the FC so far \u2014 \u201cWe are about where we hoped to be in the league, and qualifying for the semi-finals of the King\u2019s Cup with three of the four best clubs was the cherry on the top,\u201d he told Bloomberg. <\/p>\n

The Sports Ministry is happy with the move<\/strong>, with a ministry spokesperson telling Bloomberg that Al Kholood\u2019s performance this season is testament of what Harburg brings to the table. <\/p>\n

ICYMI- <\/strong>Harburg led US-based sports-focused investor Harburg Group fully acquired<\/a> Al Kholood Club last July, marking the first complete takeover of a Saudi football team by a non-Saudi owner. Harburg, according to Bloomberg, had picked Al Kholood out of a choice of three clubs, the other two being Al Akhdoud and Al Orobah.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Harburg led US-based sports-focused investor Harburg Group fully acquired Al Kholood Club last July<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":105610,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":false,"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","ep_exclude_from_search":false,"_primary_brand":0,"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2561],"tags":[10,229,8],"brand":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"class_list":["post-105609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-saudi-in-the-news","tag-enterpriseam-ksa","tag-saudi-in-the-news","tag-sports","wpautop","entry"],"acf":{"mongo_id":"48d7e422-bacb-4ca6-a0a2-61931b17663f","order":"8","is_powered_by":false,"story_type":"1","photo_url":"https:\/\/ent.news\/2026\/2\/355.jpg","photo_position":"above","homepage_title":"","full_issue_title":"Who\u2019s Ben Harburg?","related_issue":[105596],"teaser":"Harburg led US-based sports-focused investor Harburg Group fully acquired Al Kholood Club last July"},"yoast_head":"\nWho\u2019s the first non-Saudi owner of a local club? - KSA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/2026\/02\/05\/whos-the-first-non-saudi-owner-of-a-local-club\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Who\u2019s the first non-Saudi owner of a local club?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Harburg led US-based sports-focused investor Harburg Group fully acquired Al Kholood Club last July\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/2026\/02\/05\/whos-the-first-non-saudi-owner-of-a-local-club\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"KSA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-02-05T00:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ent.news\/2026\/2\/355.jpg?fit=%2C&ssl=1\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"enterpriseam admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"enterpriseam admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/2026\/02\/05\/whos-the-first-non-saudi-owner-of-a-local-club\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/2026\/02\/05\/whos-the-first-non-saudi-owner-of-a-local-club\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"enterpriseam admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/#\/schema\/person\/ca597032db7e4db868359c123cec256d\"},\"headline\":\"Who\u2019s the first non-Saudi owner of a local club?\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-02-05T00:00:00+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/2026\/02\/05\/whos-the-first-non-saudi-owner-of-a-local-club\/\"},\"wordCount\":166,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/2026\/02\/05\/whos-the-first-non-saudi-owner-of-a-local-club\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ent.news\/2026\/2\/355.jpg?fit=%2C&ssl=1\",\"keywords\":[\"EnterpriseAM KSA\",\"SAUDI IN THE NEWS\",\"sports\"],\"articleSection\":[\"SAUDI IN THE NEWS\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/2026\/02\/05\/whos-the-first-non-saudi-owner-of-a-local-club\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/2026\/02\/05\/whos-the-first-non-saudi-owner-of-a-local-club\/\",\"name\":\"Who\u2019s the first non-Saudi owner of a local club? 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