Prince Al-Waleed's Bold Move to Transform Al-Hilal Ownership

Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal is on the verge of making a decision that could redraw the map of Saudi club football.

The chairman of Kingdom Holding Company, which controls Al-Hilal, is expected to move to acquire full ownership of the Riyadh giants, turning them into the first major Saudi club to be completely in private hands.

Al-Waleed currently holds 70% of Al-Hilal’s shares, a stake he secured last April under a binding agreement between Kingdom Holding Company and the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF). Now, according to prominent Saudi media figure Waleed Al-Farraj, the prince is preparing to go all in.

Al-Farraj revealed that Al-Waleed is likely to request his share be raised to 100%, cutting the final tie with state-linked ownership and placing Al-Hilal entirely under private control. The timing of the revelation is no coincidence.

Just one day earlier, the Saudi Ministry of Sport announced on Wednesday that it had transferred its 25% stakes in the four powerhouse clubs — Al-Hilal, Al-Nassr, Al-Ittihad and Al-Ahli — to the Public Investment Fund. That move concentrated ownership of the big four under PIF.

Now Al-Hilal are poised to break away.

Al-Farraj’s comments carry extra significance because of where he chose to air them: his programme “Rotana Sport with Waleed” on the “Rotana Khalijia” channel, a network originally owned by Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal himself. This is not a casual studio rumour; it sounds like a message.

If the move is completed, Al-Hilal would stand alone among the traditional giants. They would be the only one of the four no longer under the PIF umbrella, a clear outlier in the new ownership model reshaping the Saudi game.

The other three clubs — Al-Nassr, Al-Ittihad and Al-Ahli — are expected to follow a path toward increased private involvement in the coming period. But Al-Hilal, once again, look ready to set the pace and force everyone else to catch up.