Saudi buying up the Italian and Spanish Super Cups has legitimized the nation’s regime, at home and around the world
In early 2019, a rising star of the Italian far-right took to Twitter to lambaste Serie A’s decision to hold the Supercoppa in Saudi Arabia for the second consecutive year. Giorgia Meloni was at that point the leader of a small but growing movement in Italian politics; her Brothers of Italy party had won a little over 4% of the vote in the 2018 general election. The Supercoppa has long been staged outside Italy: previous editions have been held in New Jersey, Beijing, Tripoli, and Doha. But for Meloni, the decision to stage the 2019 final in Riyadh was beyond the pale: she labeled it “an absolute disgrace,” describing Saudi Arabia as a country that discriminates against women “and our values.”
Meloni’s protest did nothing to throw the Italian football authorities off course. Following a two-year Covid-enforced hiatus, the Supercoppa last year returned to Saudi Arabia, where it will be played until 2029 under the terms of a new deal reportedly worth €138m. This year saw the inauguration of a four-team format for the competition, contested by the winners and runners-up of the previous season’s Serie A and Coppa Italia; in Monday’s final, staged in the 25,000-seat KSU Stadium in Riyadh (home of Cristiano Ronaldo’s Al-Nassr), Inter triumphed thanks to a late goal from Lautaro Martínez. After sweeping home Benjamin Pavard’s clever cut-back, Martínez ran the length of the field to celebrate with the thousand or so Inter fans gathered behind a big “CURVA NORD” banner placed over the sideline hoardings.
