Riyadh, Saudi Arabia – If you listen closely during the 93rd minute of Al-Ahli Saudi vs Al-Hilal, you can almost hear the global order creak: petrodollars shifting in numbered Geneva accounts, streaming executives frantically refreshing spreadsheets, and a lone PIF accountant sighing at the carbon-footprint column marked “private jets, match-day.” This is no ordinary derby;…
Al-Ahli vs. Al-Hilal: When Riyadh’s Derby Becomes a Mirror for the World’s Nastiest Family Feuds by Our Correspondent, filing from a hotel bar that still smells of 1979 Riyadh, Tuesday night. Outside the King Fahd Stadium the air tastes of sand, engine oil, and the faint metallic tang of geopolitical anxiety. Inside, Al-Ahli Saudi and…
Football Today: A 90-Minute Distraction From the Collapse of Civilisation, Now Streaming Worldwide Somewhere between the Arctic ice shelf and the latest cryptocurrency meltdown, 22 millionaires are kicking a $200 ball across a grass rectangle while the rest of us pretend this is still a rational use of planetary resources. Welcome to football in 2024,…
Last night, in a flood-lit corner of Riyadh that smelled faintly of jet fuel and ambition, Al-Nassr—now essentially a luxury travel agency for Cristiano Ronaldo’s ego—met Al-Kholood, a club whose name translates to “The Immortals.” One side arrived in private jets, the other on a bus that still had sand from the Empty Quarter in…
