At a soccer tournament struggling to build an American audience, the Saudi influence was impossible to miss.
It showed in the hundreds of Al Hilal fans who took over the east and south stands at Audi Field for the Saudi Arabian team’s scoreless draw with Austria’s Red Bull Salzburg in the Club World Cup on Sunday night. It showed in a pregame video advertisement for the Public Investment Fund, Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, which is a sponsor of the tournament. And it showed in a sign outside the stadium featuring a picture of slain Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi.