Dakar Rally 2027 Leaves Saudi Arabia

The Amaury Sport Organisation and the Saudi Motorsport Company announced on Sunday that the 2027 Dakar Rally will not be held in Saudi Arabia. The two groups cited recent regional developments as the reason for the change. They stated that the event will take place in a different territory, though they have not yet named the new host country.

The organizers said they will reveal the specific location for the January race in the coming days. They also confirmed that the rally will return to Saudi Arabia in 2028. The 2028 edition is intended to mark the 50th running of the event. The competition has been staged in the kingdom since 2020. Specialist race media report that Morocco and Spain are currently under consideration as replacements for the 2027 event. A move to Morocco would return the race to Africa for the first time since 2007.

The decision follows a series of attacks on King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh this month. These strikes killed 18 people and injured hundreds more. Organizers had previously planned a new route in the northern part of the country to keep the 2027 race in Saudi Arabia. The latest strikes made that plan impossible. The rally originally started as a route from Paris to Dakar, Senegal. It was suspended in 2008 due to security concerns in North Africa before moving to South America and then to Saudi Arabia.

The Dakar Rally is the latest major sporting event to leave Saudi Arabia this year due to the US-Israel war on Iran and Houthi attacks. The Formula One Grand Prix in Jeddah was cancelled, and the Bahrain race was moved to Malaysia. The final World Rally Championship round in Saudi Arabia, scheduled for next month, has also been scrapped. An exhibition tennis event featuring Novak Djokovic, Carlos Alcaraz, and Alexander Zverev has been postponed until late December.

The WTA Finals, originally planned for Riyadh next month, will now be held in Indian Wells, California. The final two Formula One races of the season remain on the calendar. Those events are scheduled for November 29 in Qatar and December 6 in Abu Dhabi. The Qatar MotoGP event next month is also still listed. Reporters say these remaining events are the subject of intense internal debate among organizers.

Fighting between government forces and Houthi fighters in Yemen has intensified in recent weeks. The conflict deepened a humanitarian crisis as the Houthis seized strategic territory along the Red Sea coast last month. Saudi Arabia leads a coalition supporting the Yemeni government. The Houthi attacks have disrupted businesses, airlines, and daily life in the kingdom. The strikes have also damaged the international image of the world's largest crude oil exporter.