Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban met privately with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Riyadh in October 2022, just months after MbS took on the role of prime minister, according to an investigation by Direkt36. The meeting, which was neither disclosed at the time nor acknowledged since, involved no official communication from either side.

The clandestine nature of the trip extended inside Hungary’s own administration: no formal diplomatic reports were filed, and the foreign ministry was reportedly kept in the dark  and Orban travelled with a notably small entourage, raising further questions about the meeting’s purpose.

The trip was reportedly organised not through official diplomatic channels but with help from Balazs Garamvolgyi, a businessman with long-standing ties in the Gulf and a past role as Hungary’s honorary consul in Bahrain. Though he was not present at the meeting, Garamvolgyi has previously facilitated contacts between members of the Orban family and Gulf energy officials in a 2015 meeting and was involved in Hungary’s controversial residency bond programme.

Speculation abounds over topics discussed at the meeting,  ranging from bilateral investments, energy and the Ukraine war to the hosting rights for the Italian football Supercup. In late 2022, Italian sports media ran stories that Hungary had reportedly offered €8mn annually to relocate the final from Riyadh to Budapest. Some reports even suggested that Orban proposed staging the event at Felcsut’s Pancho Aréna, near his home, an improbable venue given its modest 3,500-seat capacity.

Hungary’s football-savvy prime minister, the founder of the Puskas Academy in his home village of Felcsut, has long used football diplomacy to forge international ties and deploy sports as a soft power. Under Orban’s leadership, Hungary has positioned itself as a hub for major international events, hosting the FINA World Aquatics Championships to sections of the Giro d’Italia and the World Athletics Championships, to bolster the country’s global image.

Direkt36 reached out for comments to the Prime Minister’s Office,  the Hungarian Football Federation, without success. The Saudi embassy in Budapest and Garamvolgyi also declined to comment.