Saudi Pro League and Transfers 2023

The Saudi league is state funded, which makes it political. More spin from the middle east. Foreign investment in football clubs, huge investment in their own league. Added to that, the investment in international golf and it's clear the Saudi's are using sport to soften western criticism of their regime.

It's frustrating to see people say things like (big clubs have always come in for players and bought them, this is no different). It's very different!!

Saudi are dragging the game of football down a very dangerous and one way path IMO. I can see 2 outcomes from this.

(The more unlikely and more difficult one but it is a league that is in a country that will just make up new rules to suit itself so who knows.)

1 - Saudi aim to become the top league in the world through sheer force. Throwing more money than everyone else at it (while allowing players far greater allowances like not paying tax). It will forever change the landscape of European football and what it means to compete and win the likes of the PL, LaLiga, Serie A and CL, it will turn it irrelevant really. European football will essentially become a development ground for the Saudi pro league with them offering massive over the top tax free wages to any superstar that emerges. People can equate that to what big clubs have done before if they would like... but I think it is a far far bigger problem than Bayern picking up Lewandowski for free.

I want to see the best players in the world line up for the most prestigious clubs, not tax haven clubs that are run by an oil state for their own vanity / image washing.

(The more likely outcome and just as devastating to football imo)

2 - Saudi are preparing themselves to have 4 teams entered into the Super League. And once the European clubs see the money being spent by Saudi and them unable to compete they will push through the Super league as a last resort means of protecting their own status. We end up at the super league before the end of the decade and then Man Utd and Liverpool etc.. play almost as many games in Saudi Arabia, USA and so on as they do in Manchester or Liverpool. Maybe more.

Saudi ends up with a nice slice of the pie and gets to pit their nothing clubs against the worlds best because they came in with their big pockets of cash and said if you don't let us in we'll just take everything away from you. See PGA in golf.

Didn't we hear all the same concerns in the last decade about the Chinese taking over the game with huge contracts?

And even though I don't follow it much I really don't hear anything about the Chinese league these days.

I was always under the assumption that it’ll just fizzle out. All it’ll take is one players wife to be treated badly and that’ll be that.

Hang on a minute lad - did I tag you or say my post was in relation to your post in the transfer tread? It is not, you made your point in there, if I was replying to you directly I would have quoted your post or @ your username.

I have seen plenty of this attitude towards the Saudi league that it is no different than big clubs coming in for big players - you clarified your point and stance in the other thread and it was fine. We moved on.

I came in here and was making my point in general to the attitude I have been seeing online for the last few weeks!! I did not come in here to slyly have some dig at a user from another thread FFS

Obviously not a fan of what Saudi Arabia are trying to do but do agree with Ireland rover above in saying is it really that different to what the top European clubs are doing already? PSG and city for example have pretty much been doing exactly as above. The difference is this time it's happening to 'us' rather than 'us' being the ones gaining the advantage.

If you are a match going fan of most European football clubs I don't think too much will change. If you are someone with a casual interest in the sport I don't think much will change as you will still be able to watch the best players play on TV etc.

This is well beyond the Chinese project already, and they own a club that will be competing in the latter stages of the CL soon also.

There is an attack on multiple fronts here

I could be remembering wrong but didn't the issue with the Chinese league stop because the Chinese government put a massive tax on transfer fees to stop clubs buying players. The Saudi government themselves are buying these players.

That's a great point.

A lot of sports investment, world wide and across many sports is leveraged, people speculating almost on sports with borrowed money.

But this is real money that the Saudis have and are looking for things to spend it on.

Ok, Let me set out my stall here so there is no confusion on where I am coming from on this.

I am a European. I support a team who plays in a European league. That team also competes in the continental competition. I watch games from a handful of European leagues from time to time. I watch the main continental competition whether my teams makes it or not. I have a vested interest in European football. It is by far my favorite sport and I want to see the sport as a whole prosper in Europe.

(I would love to see a wage cap or something similar introduced that could see smaller clubs across Europe hold onto their better players a bit longer but that is another discussion entirely, but I am not of the opinion that elite clubs should just stay elite or anything like that either. )

Now, you can take that as some kind of "ah, got ya" moment if you wish , I don't really care. People are naturally going to defend the things that are closest to them and that effect them most.

Hell, I'm sure if you got a Saudi Arabian on here they would tell you how great it is for the sport in his country that players like Ronaldo, Benzema etc.. are coming into their league. I'm sure football has never been more popular in Saudi.

It sucks that Argentina with their historic clubs cannot hold onto their best talent - however as I am not Argentine I can't say it is a fight I am going to fight for them. That is their deal to sort out. But I would expect an Argentine to be passionate about it if it were his club.

But back in Europe... I have been very consistent in my dislike for state ownership in football, you are welcome to read back through my previous posts on the subject. I don't like City, PSG or Newcastle now. I was opposed to Qatar getting ahold of Man Utd. I, as a European who watches football in Europe - believe it is not good for the game.

My main issue with your take is it small picture in the extreme and then you are using a lot of whataboutery to muddy the waters on the subject. What about Barca taking in Messi.. What about Bayern signing Lewandowski and so on.. When I believe there is a fairly obvious difference between the two situations.

Your point that a selling team doesn't or shouldn't care about who buys their 50m striker doesn't hold up once you stop thinking with the small picture mentality IMO. If Fulham sell their best players inside the PL or even Europe - they get paid but also the profile of the league or continental competition also benefits, both of which Fulham would have designs on being in and getting into long term. It is in those clubs interest that the competitions they take part in or aim to take part in are thriving.

I'm not saying clubs shouldn't accept a bid from Saudi - they are entitled to accept any bid they wish. But I am pointing out the issue that if the best players are consistently sold outside the league/Europe then the league and European competition profile drops. ALL CLUBS ARE AFFECTED BY THIS!!

Also, just as an aside to this. If at any stage when you are making an argument and you find yourself typing or saying a statement like "Ignoring the awful regime there for a moment." then maybe take a step back and think about it. This cannot be separated - the Saudi regime is funding this. There can be no separation on this! This is the same regime who decreased their oil supply to the world when the war between Russia and Ukraine happened in a bid to strengthen their own position in global politics. Despite pleas to increase their supply to help cover the loss of the Russian supply (which they can do on command as they control such a large quantity of the worlds oil supply chain they can almost single handled decide if the price goes up or down) They are the bottom of the barrel - no pun intended.

Have a look at what happened in the Golf - PGA basically said they had no choice but to cut a deal with Saudi as within 5 years they would have shut them down by taking their best players and they would have been powerless to stop it. All that took was Saudi being interested in getting into Golf for a very short period of time and now they are joint owners of the biggest Golf organization.

I don't want to be in a situation where the PL, La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga, Champions League, Europa League are all worth a lot less because they are competed for by players who are not considered good enough to be brought over to Saudi.

I also do not want to be watching Man Utd playing games in New York, Dubai, Riyadh so on, each week because we are in a super league and the league is basically setup to be a traveling circus because clubs in Europe reacted to the Saudi money.

Football in Europe has issues now - loads I would want to change. I'd love to see a fairer system in place so clubs could actually make it to the top through hard work and good decisions. Those issues however are no reason to look the other way with Saudi Arabia or to brush off the potential dangerous coming from them targeting the best players around Europe.

Which is exactly what statements like "Oh big clubs have always bullied smaller clubs, they are just mad Saudi is spending more now" and the likes do.

This will be my last input to this back and forth. I have laid out my points - I can almost guess at what will be said back (Something along the lines of the PL or La Liga ruined Dutch or such and such's football league already). It will be more whataboutery either way I am sure. And if that is your response to the points I made, well then we definitely have no reason to continue this conversation.

This is all fair.

I'll set out my stall at the same time. I support two clubs. Blackburn rovers who are definitely not competing with thee bigger clubs. And fc Eindhoven who again are definitely not competing with the bigger clubs.

These Saudi clubs should be banned from purchasing players. Any player that goes there should lose the rights to play in uefa competition. Uefa have rules against government interference which this most certainly is. Players are blatantly going to clubs breaking these rules. Fifa should also bring in the same rule. And then add the issues with the Saudi government and it is clear that noone should be happy with their interference in sport. These are the points that people should stick to when they oppose their involvement.

But they don't. They pretend that Saudi clubs using their financial wealth to buy players is the problem. That's hard to take seriously.

I have a much bigger problem with bayern taking lewandowski on a free to weaken their opponents and increase the one sidedness of the league. Fc Eindhoven have lost their best players most years. One went to an Arabian club on a free, one went to Dortmund on a free, and one went to a rival for a promotion for a fee. This happened as they were a richer club and spent the summer unsettling him. That one definitely hurt the most as it weakened us and strengthened a rival.

So for me the argument should be split in two.

1. Saudi government using their influence with clubs to sportswash. Everyone should oppose this.

2. These clubs using their financial wealth is terrible for sport. Unless you also oppose all clubs using their financial wealth to bully clubs then this is hard to take seriously. Your OK with barca putting a Jersey on fabregas and spending the summer unsettling him to take arsenal's best player and captain, but your not OK with Henderson being offered huge money to unsettle him. I think you make this distinction because of point 1

I don't know to be honest. I don't know how you fight a state with an almost limitless supply of money who are hell bent on getting their hands into as many sports as possible.

I fear the clubs across Europe will come up with the Super league as the answer again. Invite the Saudi clubs in to keep them happy. Impose some kinda of restrictions on over the top spending or something. Which Saudi clubs may or may not follow.

But honestly I feel like this might actually be a point that football forever changes.

Saudi knows their oil wealth won't last forever and the state needs to invest now to continue to prosper once the world does move on from Oil. So they are going to be very aggressive on all fronts until they get what they want. The question is how much of the pie are they looking to take with regards to football.

Are they happy to just be invited to the party? Or do they want to own the party?

Chinese wasn't state backed, this Saudi venture literally has unlimited funds. They want to attract worldwide investment into Saudi Arabia, you have to make the commercial entities attractive first.

The wall of money can easily out bid the likes of Real Madrid. So will clubs and players happily take millions upon millions less because of the tradition of the game? The Saudi's are going to ask the question with an insistence we have never seen before.

Benzema and Kante are also Muslim

It's funny, the sky sports fella saying the 1m a week wages as if it's a big deal or something - my first thought was "that all?". When auld C Ronaldo is making over 4 million a week over there, and even Jordan Henderson is making 700k a week, you'd expect any Osimhen wages to be far far higher than a mill a week since he's a young top quality player hitting his peak.

Yeah I defo wouldn’t rule it out, but we also can’t talk about those 2 things as if they’re the same. In terms of where they are in their career etc. When the Saudis start attracting those kinds of guys (defo not saying it won’t happen), we will need to look at it all differently.

Think it’s more about what Osimhen wants etc

I'm with you there, friend of mine did it and lasted about 9 months. His wife had enough and it was no picnic for him either.

But I'd imagine these lads will struggle on for a year or two out there and run for the hills with their tax free money.