RIYADH: Walking through Koora Break’s new headquarters in Riyadh, one can quickly see how far the company has come since its launch in 2022.
A mural stretching across one of the office walls documents every milestone in the company’s journey, while empty pentagonal spaces have been left open for future achievements leading up to 2034.
Koora Break calls it the “Road to Glory.” With the recent launch of the Rio Ferdinand-backed brand’s new headquarters in Riyadh, co-founder Khalid Al-Khudair spoke to Arab News about the next stage of the company’s ambition to take football stories to global audiences.
“We’ve invested in this place, and we’ve invested in the people,” Al-Khudair said. “You can see that this office today is a very friendly working environment and allows people to be more creative because of the content we are producing.”
Among the standout features of the new headquarters is a wall of signed football jerseys, alongside an outdoor area featuring two mini-futsal pitches designed for challenges and social content production.
Content has long been central to Koora Break’s rise, with everything from breaking football news to podcasts featuring household names helping the platform to grow across the Arab world. But the company believes its next phase will extend beyond social media.
“We’re transitioning from being purely a social content platform into a digital, tech and AI-driven business,” Al-Khudair said. “But at the same time, we aspire to maintain the entertainment aspect for our users.”
A large digital dashboard dominates one side of the workspace, displaying live user, content and video analytics that help to shape the company’s strategy on a daily basis.
“Our first office was a flexible space that catered to our needs,” Al-Khudair said. “But today, in light of our strategy and plans for growth, we had to make an investment because we believe it’s important to build for at least the next 10 years.”
One of the major upgrades is a comprehensive studio space that allows Koora Break to produce 10 programs each month. What was once a small section inside the company’s original office has evolved into a fully flexible production hub.
“We have our regular podcast and a daily news channel,” Al-Khudair said. “Moreover, we have a majlis, which is a traditional Saudi seating arrangement where guests and analysts discuss the Saudi Pro League in a more relaxed environment.”
“These setups can also be transformed depending on the program we are producing during that period,” he added.
The studio expansion has also allowed Koora Break to become less reliant on external production support.
“We reduce our costs, optimize our efficiency and can also have people visit our space and see what we’re doing,” Al-Khudair said.
A major part of Koora Break’s recent growth has been its ability to attract influential names from the world of football. One of the most prominent is former Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand, whose company, The Ferdinand Group, invested in Koora Break in 2024.
“I knew Rio for a couple of years before Koora Break, and we’d worked on other things in the past,” Al-Khudair said.
“He saw our vision and what we were doing. He’s a big content guy. I think he’s probably the most famous football content producer after Cristiano, in terms of following. He welcomed the idea immediately and said he had a lot he wanted to bring to the table while also learning from this journey.”
“The future with him is great,” Al-Khudair said. “Today, Rio has moved to this region so he can be very close to Koora Break. He’s helped phenomenally in terms of the content we’ve been producing, not just locally but internationally.”
Another key part of Koora Break’s long-term vision is the development of its upcoming football-focused application, which the company sees as an important step ahead of milestones such as the 2027 AFC Asian Cup, Saudi Vision 2030 and the 2034 FIFA World Cup.
“We aspire for it to become a social community where content creators from all over the world can upload anything related to football,” Al-Khudair said.
“It will allow clubs and fans to find each other more easily because it is a platform dedicated purely to football.
“Similar to how the word Calcio is associated with Italian football around the world, we want people to know that Koora means football.”
“We believe people are looking toward Saudi Arabia and the Saudi Pro League for content,” Al-Khudair said. “So we’re taking our stories and showcasing them to the world.”
