Fanatics flag football event could lose Saudi Arabian funding

Another sports investment by Saudi Arabia appears to be in jeopardy. 

The multiyear deal between Fanatics and the Saudis’ entertainment arm to sponsor a flag football league involving Tom Brady is reportedly in trouble as funding from the Middle Eastern kingdom could potentially be pulled, according to Front Office Sports. 

The report comes hours after it came to light that the Saudi Public Investment Fund was reportedly on the verge of pulling funding from LIV Golf. 

Riyadh Season, which is an arm of the General Entertainment Authority, was part of a sponsorship deal with the Fanatics Flag Football Classic that was originally supposed to take place in Riyadh in March, but was moved to Los Angeles due to the ongoing war between the United States and Iran that has led to turmoil in the region. 

Saudi officials wanted to postpone the flag football game, which was going to include Brady, Rob Gronkowski, Jalen Hurts and Jayden Daniels, to a later date when things had calmed down in the Middle East. 

When the decision was made to move the event to LA, Saudi Arabia pulled out of further funding for the flag football event. FOS reported that, with or without funding from Saudi Arabia, Fanatics plans on continuing to put on the event. 

This year’s event took place at SoFi Stadium and aired on Fox to an audience of 650,000 viewers.

The Financial Times reported earlier in the day that the PIF was “on the verge of cutting its support for LIV” and that it was reevaluating its spending priorities. 

There has been no official statement from the PIF or LIV Golf regarding the current uncertainty, and players in the four-year-old league appear to be in the dark. 

“I haven’t heard a thing,” one LIV player told The Post’s Mark Cannizzaro.