Constructing self-identity through the spectrum of global gaze: Football and national identity in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Football plays a dual and dialectical role in contemporary global culture: as a powerful driver of the globalisation of Western ideology and as a potent apparatus for the construction of local identities. Within the context of rising football enthusiasm and entrenched identity politics in the Arab world, this study examines Saudi Arabia's strategic functionalisation of football in the construction of national identity by analysing state-aligned media discourse surrounding its successful – albeit uncontested – bid to host the 2034 FIFA World Cup, following Australia's withdrawal. It reveals that state-aligned media stage outward compliance with universal standards while simultaneously inscribing ‘Saudi values’, culture, and royal authority at the core. In doing so, the Kingdom projects symbols catering to Western expectations even as it ambiguously articulates a distinctive national essence. As a late-forming nation-state under strong international benchmarking pressures, Saudi Arabia leverages modern sport as a potent instrument of nation-building. While Saudi Arabia is often framed through the lens of ‘sportswashing’ in scholarly and public debate, overreliance on this label narrows analysis to image-building abroad, obscures sport's domestic functions, and is applied unevenly – largely to non-Western states. Accordingly, we advance a broader analytical frame – grounded in systematic evidence – that links state-aligned media discourse to concrete mechanisms of nation-building.