Paris 2024, the first edition of the Olympic Games following the Covid-19 pandemic, proved there was still a major appetite for the world’s biggest multi-sport event. Coverage of the games broke records, becoming the most-watched edition in history with 763.3 million hours of content consumed globally, while the Games’ organizing committee recorded a final profit of €76 million ($86.8 million) from the event.
The Olympics take place just once every four years, and in the time between, its member states do not stay in stasis, but rather put their efforts towards other projects, including regional events such as the Commonwealth Games or the Pan American Games.
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Despite the record-breaking interest in Paris 2024, the obvious appetite for the Olympics has not yet trickled down into a similar appetite for the regional multi-sports events.
This has been best illustrated by the struggles the Commonwealth Games have faced in recent years in attempting to maintain existing hosting agreements with the likes of South Africa (which dropped out ahead of the 2022 games), Australia (2026), and Canada (2030).
Many of these events have long, storied histories – the Commonwealth Games will celebrate its centenary in 2030 – but the majority of them boast little staying power beyond their initial editions. One prominent exception among the multitude of events that came and went after the turn of the century is the Islamic Solidarity Games.
First held in 2005 in Saudi Arabia's Mecca, the Islamic Solidarity Games were launched by the Islamic Solidarity Sports Association (ISSA), the sports arm of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), which is the intergovernmental body for countries part of the Muslim world.
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By GlobalDataSince that debut, five more editions of the quadrennial showcase have been staged across a range of locations, from Southeast Asia (Palembang 2013) to the fringes of Europe (Baku 2017, Konya 2021).
The 2025 games are set to return to Saudi Arabia (Riyadh), but the ISSA is already looking forward, claiming as many as five nations have submitted expressions of interest to host the 2029 games.
“There is appetite,” explained ISSA secretary general Nasser Majali, continuing: “It’s the first time we’ve had five countries send letters of interest… We are in a hopefully expedited process to try to secure the host for the next games before the [2025] opening ceremony.”
Why create a multi-sport event?
Majali spoke to a roundtable attended by Sportcal (GlobalData Sport) to discuss the plans for Riyadh 2025, which will run from November 7 through 21, but also expounded on the nature of the games as a whole.
As with previous editions, the sporting schedule is comprised mostly of Olympic sports, with a handful of other non-Olympic yet high-level sports that you may see at the World Games (e.g., Wushu), as well as idiosyncratic regional sports (camel racing will make its debut at the games).
With as many as 57 nations set to descend on Riyadh, with the largest sporting program of any edition yet, the 2025 Islamic Solidarity Games could serve as the stiffest test yet as to the ISSA’s ambition in an ever-crowded sporting events calendar.
However, Majali’s revelation of the record interest in hosting the solidarity games in 2029 serves not just as an indicator of the opportunities events hosting brings, but also a validation of his body’s mission.
The ISSA was established in 1985 as a policy body to promote sports among the OIC members, with the Islamic Solidarity Games concept only taking hold 20 years into its mandate as a vehicle to market and expand its social programs.
After Majali joined in 2023, the body underwent a rebrand and staked out a 10-year vision for sport across the Muslim world.
“It's very tough to put sports at the forefront and deal with sports as a sector in many countries,” explained Majali, who formerly served at the Jordan Olympic Committee.
“Some countries have put it as a priority, but it is that experience that we need to share across the other countries to make sure that it’s a priority [across the OIC]. So we have a data-driven approach to make sure that governments pay a lot of attention to policy change.”
With this in mind, very little holds the collective attention like sports, and in this sense, ensuring the continued viability of the Islamic Solidarity Games must go hand-in-hand with the organization’s policy goals, and to accomplish this, the ISSA needs to ensure the commercial growth of the Games to sustain future editions.
To this end, Majali explains, broadcast reach is key to multiple facets, from brand growth and community engagement to revenue generation and, indeed, aiding the ISSA’s policy goals.
Reach over revenue
The 2025 Islamic Solidarity Games is the first under the ISSA’s new media rights approach, which has seen the body take charge of the broadcast rights, where in the past (Konya, Baku) the host nations would organize the broadcasting individually.
“We’ve been working on [free broadcasting]. We've engaged with about 30 channels up to this point, but we want to reach more than that, because we do believe that being on at least one [network] in each one of the 57 [OIC member] countries would be ideal.
“There was a discussion of whether we wanted to sell broadcasting rights and have revenue, or if we wanted to give it out for free. The decision was unanimous. Across the local organizing committee, our general assembly, our board, [everyone] said we need to provide it [for free] as much as possible.”
This focus on broadcast reach is centered around the 57 OIC members, obviously, but extends far beyond them, with digital distribution outside of those members also being considered. To this end, digital coverage is a weapon just as much as the linear distribution, which helps maintain the base visibility on most TVs, widening the demographic reach.
“We want to build the brand of the games, and we want to build the brand name, so we do want to reach as much as we can reach without having any extra costs involved for anybody who wants to take it in.”
It is only at the point when the highest level of broadcast distribution is secure, Majali expounds, that it can then be capitalized upon and exploited for the generation of sponsorship revenue with the newfound visibility, hence why reach over revenue is the focus in the short term.
“This also gives us an advantage and more of a sustainability and funding model for future games. Higher reach, higher engagement would open up the door for better return on investment, especially through sponsorship. The return on investment would increase [with] more places for product placement for different entities that would like to sponsor.”
Creating sustainable games going forward.
Capitalizing on the momentum of widespread TV distribution is especially crucial given the recent travails of rival events such as the Commonwealth Games. At such an early juncture, the key, according to Majali, is sustainability.
Ensuring that the games will remain an attractive prospect going forward relies on making them affordable. “The main internal discussion, and also the strategic approach we've had, was to look for hosts that have the infrastructure [to host] there already. I believe it's a more sustainable model.”
“Less is more,” he comments, drawing comparisons to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games and the 2018 Buenos Aires Youth Olympic Games, both of which capitalized on existing infrastructure such as stadiums and arenas to facilitate their respective events, rather than needing the construction of new facilities.
For the majority of events across the games, existing facilities will be used. The ISSA has also looked to establish some new concepts to create viewership value-adds that can echo through future editions.
One such example is the staging of certain field events outside in the middle of the city. Jumping events and 3×3 basketball, among others, will be staged across the streets of Riyadh’s Boulevard City, in a test to see if it gives the games a “better spectacle,” according to Majali.
“It's just giving different people the chance to interact with different sports at different times… Most of what is being done with us, other than the logistics, works better for games, future games that are being hosted.”
One of the few pieces of infrastructure that will be newly built for Riyadh 2025 is the athletes' village, a first for the games, due to its future utility (the facilities will also be used for the 2026 Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games in the city).
Beyond that, though, the focus on existing facilities such as the Prince Faisal bin Fahd Sports City Stadium (the centerpiece arena that will host athletics) stands in line with most of the rest of the world’s major multi-sports events now, having come to the same conclusion in a much shorter time frame.
In this regard, this is an area that even the Commonwealth Games itself has proved a teaching point for the ISSA.
“We've learned a lot from the Commonwealth experience, because we've worked with multiple people who have worked within the Commonwealth Games,” Majali reveals, “That includes (Commonwealth Games Scotland chair) Ian Reid. There's a lot of input from them on sustainability models and what should be done.
“We did go very deep while we were studying the different models of the different games… the Commonwealth Games is very similar to our model… in how they select countries.”
This means a shared emphasis on cost-reduction and sustainability with the aim of inviting as many potential bidders as possible while ensuring the standards for hosting remain high, and that the legacy of any games can remain strong to aid grassroots sport in the respective countries.
Unlike the Commonwealth Games, the selection process for future hosts is not put to a vote, but rather decided on by the ISSA and its general assembly based on adherence to a rigorous set of criteria at the board level.
While the lack of a vote may hurt some nations’ chances, it also serves as a countermeasure against the dropping out of candidates that we have seen with the Commonwealth Games. The crucial part above all, says Majali, is that there is significant appetite, not just in the center of the Arab World, but across the Muslim world as a whole. `
Bringing the OIC together
The Muslim world is not homogeneous. Much like the global communities of Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, and more, the many nations that identify with the world's most popular religious groups. With these differences, naturally come frictions, especially in organizations predicated on the religion itself.
Take the Commonwealth Games, originally the British Empire Games, established among the British Empire’s [then] current and [now] former colonial subjects, which remains a controversial topic among its participants for that very reason, with many protests and boycotts over the years for reasons ranging from the history of the British Empire to the presence of Apartheid South Africa at the games.
At the Islamic Solidarity Games, too, such tensions have manifested in the past. The second edition of the Islamic Solidarity Game was scheduled to be held in Tehran, Iran, but ultimately did not take place, with a dispute over the naming conventions used around the games to refer to the sea bridging Iran and Saudi Arabia, which is known as both the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Gulf.
Despite this, Majali believes that, going forward, neither sectarianism nor politicization of the event will prove an issue, due in part to the policy of openness at the ISSA.
“The countries in the OIC are not countries of predominantly Muslim populations. They're just there based on the common culture, common interest within those countries to be part of the organization, and hence the Islamic Solidarity Sports Association,” he explained.
Majali, a Jordanian, discussed the fact that competitors of any religion may compete in the games, a fact best exemplified by his own country in 2017, when Jordan’s first gold medallist at the Islamic Solidarity Games was won by swimmer Khader Baqlah, a Christian.
Just the same, on the field of play, the games look like any other, adhering to the dress codes and policies of the International Olympic Committee, with athletes free to adapt those to suit their faith if need be.
“It's an excellent question, because it answers something related to the purpose of the ISSA as an association. Because I would say a key objective of the whole association is [whether or] not you are a Muslim, or a good Muslim, you can be part of the games,” added ISSA communications advisor Abdelaziz Albaqous.
Pointing to OIC members such as Guyana, Suriname, Gabon, and Uganda, each with a Muslim share of the population below 15% of the total, as an example, he continued: “We saw it in Konya, and we see it in social media. It's a vehicle of understanding and communication.”
Albania, a country with a Muslim population of around 50%, of which many are members of minority sects, hosted the 2024 ISSA General Assembly, and Majali revealed that at that meeting, the ISSA also expressed its desire to hold future events in Africa, be that a general assembly, a session meeting, or the games themselves.
“It needs to be sustainable,” Majali adds, “so we need to find the interest first.” That, of course, is a crucial step, but with five expressions of interest already lodged, the ISSA must ensure that the momentum it has built up is not wasted.
