With the caliber of footballers linked to different clubs in the Saudi Pro League in recent years and the outrageous contracts being offered to them, it’s no longer a question of if this is just a coincidence or if there’s an obvious plan by administrators to make the league one of the best in the world.
There’s a popular saying that money doesn’t buy you happiness, personally, I feel that statement should be put in context because there are a lot of things money will get you and happiness will be a product of it without struggle.
Using the signature of Cristiano Ronaldo (one of the greatest footballers in history) as a case study, the effect was seismic for the Saudi’s domestic league and his club – Al Nassr whose social media skyrocketed in global followers with the official Instagram account alone increasing from 850,000 users to 11 million. Also, the Saudi Professional League appointed the IMG – a sports management agency to sell the media rights for the competition ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo’s debut in the competition and within just a week, deals were secured with partners including Sport TV in Portugal, Sportitalia in Italy, RMC Sport in France, Cosmote in Greece and Sportdigital Fussball in the Germany/Austria and Switzerland.
Going back to my primary objective of this article to highlight the ongoing project in the Saudi Arabia Pro League, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Muhammad bin Salman has already launched the investment and privatization project for sports clubs, which forms part of the country’s wider Vision 2030 initiative to diversify its economy and develop its sporting activities. According to him, the goal is to quadruple the annual commercial revenues and more than double the market value, of the Saudi Pro League (SPL) by permitting private investment in its clubs.
And as part of this ongoing “Sports Clubs Investment and Privatization Project,” Newcastle United’s majority owners, the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund (PIF) has taken over ownership by claiming a 75% stake in each of the Saudi Pro League’s four leading clubs – the champions Al Ittihad, reigning Asian champions Al Hilal, Al Ahli and Al Nassr (where Ronaldo currently plies his trade), with the remaining 25% in each team being transferred to non-profit foundations from the Saudi Ministry of Sport.
This could be a major concern for European clubs because Multi-club ownership of teams participating in the same competition is not allowed in major leagues across the world, including the Premier League and LaLiga.
You might want to argue that this waters down the competitiveness of the league with clubs under the same ownership battling it out for trophies, well I kind of agree with that, but what if the footballers don’t care? What if the offers from these clubs are too tempting to reject? What if they feel fulfilled already in Europe and they want to try out new waters? What if they want more money?… The last time I checked, there’s no crime in that.
According to reports, Benzema – one of the best strikers of this era is close to agreeing on a deal to sign for Al Ittihad following his departure from Real Madrid. There are also reports gathering pace that Al Hilal have made a lucrative offer for Lionel Messi to join them when his Paris Saint-Germain contract expires at the end of this month. A couple of other world-class footballers and serial winners (World Cup and Champions League winners) like Luka Modric, Hugo Lloris, Sergio Ramos, Jordi Alba, Sergio Busquets, N’Golo Kante, Angel Di Maria, and Roberto Firmino are also being linked to the Saudi Pro League.
To strengthen this stance of mine, you should also recollect that Saudi Arabia is the biggest oil exporter in the world. Over the past few months, the country has spent hundreds of millions on other sports deals including Formula One Grand Prix in Jeddah, Big Boxing bouts, the controversial LIV series Golf tour, the Dakar rally, etc. A recent report also revealed that the value of the sporting events industry in Saudi Arabia is growing 8 percent annually, rising from $2.1 billion in 2018 to an estimated $3.3 billion by 2024. Also, the contribution of sport to national GDP experienced a major leap from $2.4 billion in 2016 to $6.9 billion in 2019 as the number of international events in Saudi Arabia doubled from nine in 2018 to 19 in 2019.
This is bigger than football, but sticking to the confines of the round leather game, will this project in football get better with time or it is another noisy project flattering to deceive like we’ve seen recently in China, Russia, and the American MLS? Time will most definitely tell.
Feel free to share your opinion with me about this article, do you agree or disagree with me? I can’t wait to hear back from you.
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