Saudi Fund Pulls Out; LIV Golf Guts Staff
Saudi Fund Pulls Out; LIV Golf Guts Staff
The News
LIV Golf is laying off nearly its entire workforce after Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund ended its financial backing of the breakaway league.
The cuts were announced Wednesday, August 26, and the league is presenting them as the start of a "next chapter" that secures its future rather than a wind-down.
Reporting on the move raises the prospect of bankruptcy for a league that has run on Saudi sovereign wealth since its launch.
Timeline
LIV Golf's 2026 season concluded, after which the Public Investment Fund ended its funding of the league, according to The Independent.
Citizen Free Press reports that LIV is firing employees as "Saudi funding runs dry."
The New York Post reports the league is "laying off almost everybody," with the staff reduction pitched as a way to secure the flailing league's future after PIF ended its financial backing.
The Independent reports LIV has announced mass staff redundancies amid an uncertain future without Saudi funding, and describes the workforce cuts as coming amid bankruptcy fears.
Reactions
The league itself is framing the layoffs as a transition, not a collapse — the New York Post reports the staff reduction is being presented as a way to secure LIV's future now that PIF has stopped writing checks.
Coverage across the political spectrum landed in the same place. The right-leaning New York Post and Citizen Free Press and the center-left Independent all tied the cuts directly to the end of Saudi money, with The Independent flagging bankruptcy fears.
What's Next
The open question is whether LIV can field a league at all without PIF. Its sources describe an uncertain future and raise the possibility of bankruptcy, and the league has not, in this reporting, identified a replacement funder.
Watch for what the "next chapter" actually looks like — how many employees remain, whether a new backer surfaces, and what happens to the 2027 schedule and player contracts.
More
LIV Golf was built on Saudi sovereign wealth, and PIF's exit is the clearest signal yet that the kingdom's most expensive sports investment has reached a limit. The Frank will update this story as details on the scale of the layoffs are confirmed.
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