When Cinderella has a trillion dollars
The big surprise of the Club World Cup is that one of the richest teams in the world can beat other rich teams. PLUS! A wrong way dunk leads to disaster, and dramatic WNBA transactions!
Hey all, trying to get in the rhythm of producing two newsletters per week… which apparently includes publishing newsletters at 4 p.m. on July 3rd ahead of a 3-day holiday weekend. BRING YOUR PHONE TO THE BEACH AND READ THIS EMAIL!
The FIFA Club World Cup had its first true stunner, as Saudi club Al-Hilal beat Manchester City 4-3 in extra time—the most thrilling game of the tournament and one of the most well-known teams in the world falling against a team you probably hadn’t heard of.
FIFA president Gianni Infantino said the match started “a new era of club football,” patting himself on the back for inventing “a global, inclusive competition” where the biggest clubs in Europe might meet their match against smaller clubs from smaller leagues. FIFA is trying to sell this tournament as leveling the field of international soccer, even while paying tens of millions of extra dollars to the biggest clubs to ensure their participation. When a club from Saudi Arabia knocks out a club from England, that narrative seems to be coming true.
But Al-Hilal isn’t exactly Cinderella… unless Cinderella was, like, the daughter of whatever rich guy paid for the venue and catering at the party where she met Prince Charming.
Al-Hilal’s payroll is €176 million per year (about $207 million), according to Capology. That puts them in the top 15 most expensive clubs in the world.
That still puts them behind Manchester City, the team they beat, so it was a financial upset. But they’d be second in the Premier League, just ahead of Manchester United.
Al-Hilal is owned by the Saudi Public Investment Fund, a fund of over one trillion dollars (yes, one TRILLION, a thousand billions, a million millions) meant to give Saudi Arabia a financial future that isn’t dependent on oil. PIF has focused heavily on sports, buying Newcastle United and founding LIV Golf. They’re reportedly trying to start a $5 billion basketball league and purchase an F1 team
Part of the mission is also to get people to stop associating the words “Saudi Arabia” with “hacking journalists to death with saws,” which is a thing Saudi Arabia has done.
You may have noticed ads for PIF on the sideline at Club World Cup and Gold Cup games, saying PIF: INVESTING IN BETTER. Normally ads are for products that you, the consumer, can purchase. Not in this case. They have enough money and do not need yours. They just want you to see “PIF” and think “Not Evil.” NOT evil.
Al-Hilal was already one of the best teams in one of the best leagues in Asia—they’ve won a record 19 Saudi league titles and won four Asian Champions Leagues. Remember when Saudi Arabia beat eventual champions Argentina at the 2022 World Cup? Both goalscorers played for Al-Hilal.
But in 2023, PIF took control of the four best teams in the Saudi league and started spending hundreds of millions on the world’s best players. The dream was to put Ronaldo on Al-Nassr and Messi on Al-Hilal. Messi went to Miami; Ronaldo took the deal and is happily making $200 million to finish in third place in the league. After being turned down by Messi, Al-Hilal signed Neymar, but he only played seven games for the club due to a series of injuries, reportedly earning $300 million over the course of 18 months. (There are reports that the PIF is going to transfer ownership of three teams to other Saudi holding companies soon, but for now, Al-Hilal is owned by PIF.)
But despite paying big stars to come to Saudi Arabia, the Saudi league wasn’t getting global attention or respect. Like, they were getting about eight thousand viewers per game on American TV. Those are “newsletter published at 4 p.m. on July 3rd” numbers.
Only one thing could change that… a soccer tournament where teams from Saudi Arabia played the best teams from the rest of the world.
And so, PIF is essentially funding the Club World Cup, and they’re listed as one of the events main sponsors.
Earlier this year, PIF spent $1 billion to purchase a stake in sports streaming company DAZN…
…Which is interesting, because DAZN spent $1 billion for the rights to broadcast the FIFA Club World Cup…
…Which is interesting, because FIFA used that money to fund $1 billion in prize money for the Club World Cup…
…So funny story, Al-Hilal is essentially winning back PIF’s own money. They’re up to about $35 million so far, based off the payout structure; beating Fluminense in Friday’s quarterfinal will get them up to $56 million.
PIF spent $1 billion on a tournament where the world’s best teams would have to play Saudi Arabian teams, and $200 million on a roster good enough to win that tournament. The result is a “new era” which doesn’t feel new at all; the same people are paying for the new winning team that were already paying for so many winners in more familiar jerseys.
Oh No, Disaster! At The U-19 Basketball World Cup
This newsletter scans the globe to bring you the most OOF-inducing sports content I can find. Here is Cameroon, on the verge of pulling off a huge upset against an Australian team laden with NBA Draft prospects at the U-19 World Cup, accidentally fueling an Aussie comeback by dunking the ball into the wrong hoop with under a minute to go.
Cameroon led by six and inbounded the ball to Amadou Seini, the tournament’s leading rebounder. The goal was to get the ball across halfcourt against Australia’s full-court press; unfortunately he saw the rim, let his instincts take over, and slammed the ball home, cutting his own team’s lead to four.
Two of Seini’s on-court teammates immediately went with the Surrender Cobra, with at least three more Cameroonian Cobras in the stands. The coach, watching his press break turn into a perfect baseline out-of-bounds play, simply doubled over in despair.
Cameroon proceeded to further throw away the game by turning the ball over against Australia’s full-court press and allowing a wide-open game-tying three with four seconds left. The game went to overtime, where Cameroon again took a six-point lead and blew it in the final minute. Then Australia won in double OT.
Seini’s slam was, inexpicably, credited as two points for Australia’s Jacob Furphy, a 4-star prospect headed to UConn next year. Gotta give the points to somebody, but, like, Furphy wasn’t anywhere near the play! He was near midcourt!
Furphy is somehow not related to Pacers rookie Johnny Furphy, who is also from Australia. Johnny’s brother, Joe, plays Australian Rules football.
So there are two Australian basketball-playing 20-year olds whose first names start with “J” and whose last name is “Furphy,” a name that nobody else has ever had in human history, and they’re not related.
There’s also an Australian tennis player named Matthew Dellavedova.
What is going on in Australia.
Anyway, I want to support Seini, who is actually having a great tournament outside of the time he dunked the ball into the wrong basket. He’s leading all players with 14.3 rebounds per game, along with 11 points, 2.3 steals, and 1.8 blocks. Maybe his killer brainfart will somehow draw attention to his awesome play.
Anyway. Cameroon has produced two of the NBA’s best players (Joel Embiid and Pascal Siakam) but this was their first appearance in the U-19 World Cup, and this would have been their first win.
On the other hand, Australia has won the competition before, and their roster has a projected lottery pick (Dash Daniels, brother of Hawks guard Dyson) alongside several other potential draftees.
Cameroon ended up going winless in three group stage games, although they can still win in the consolation bracket. I hope they win out and get ninth place.
Quick Hits
In the WNBA, the Dallas Wings traded Nalyssa Smith to the Las Vegas Aces, separating her from her teammate and girlfriend, DiJonai Carrington, just months after reuniting the couple. NBA free agency started, but it’s pretty boring, since none of the players are in relationships with each other. (That we know of!)
The 2026 NBA champion New York Knicks decided on Mike Brown as our coach.
On Monday we celebrated Belgium’s 14-0 run to win the Eurobasket… and later that day, the Golden State Valkyries cut Julie Vanloo, one of Belgium’s stars, after she had skipped Belgium’s victory parade and royal reception so she could fly back to the Bay Area to rejoin her WNBA teammates. Everybody is mad about it!
Coco Gauff lost in the first round at Wimbledon, which is fine with me after she won the French Open last month. If you work a double shift on Tuesday, you should get to take Wednesday off!
We already talked about the U-19 World Cup, so it’s worth noting that Team USA is dominating. They have a team stocked with every 5-star prospect you can imagine teaming up and just beat Jordan 140-67, the biggest win in team history. That tournament is on Youtube if you wanna watch it—Team USA vs. Canada tomorrow should be a good one.
And because it’s the middle of the WNBA season, the USA team at the women’s Americup is all NCAA stars rather than pros. It doesn’t seem to matter: They won their four games in the group stages by an average of 43 points. (That tournament is streaming on a FIBA-operated paid subscription service, so you probably won’t watch it.)
Enjoy the 4th. Eat somewhere between one and 70 hot dogs!
The biggest thing to happen in the Men's U-19 Basketball World Cup was nothing you mentioned. France, the host and medalists in the last 3 editions, got eliminated by first-timers SWITZERLAND in OT.