The Saudi Arabian Effect
Middle Eastern football has grown popular during the last 9 Months since the World Cup in Qatar. One of the most powerful leagues during this time was the Saudi Pro League. It was founded in 1976, and its most successful team is Al-Hilal.
Saudi Arabia has long been a powerhouse of football in the Middle East. The national team has six World Cup appearances and two Asian Cups, while several clubs have excelled in the Asian Champions League. But now, the country has even bigger global ambitions that will have far-reaching implications for the rest of the region.
Only a few people in Europe took any notice of the Saudi Pro League until December last year when Ronaldo joined Al Nassr. At the time, many people thought this was a move so he could play football, and, in the summer of 2023, he would rejoin a team in Europe. However, this was not the case; this was just the start.
With the Saudi Public Investment Fund by a 75% stake in four clubs in the Pro League in Al-Ittihad and Al-Ahli of Jeddah and Riyadh's Al-Hilal and Al-Nassr, this has led to these clubs having access to a huge amount of money to spend and offer players in teams of contracts. Just look at some of the deals that players are being offered, with the likes of Benzema and Kante moving to the league on wages ranging from £130 million - £200 million a season. This is a huge amount of money that the footballing world has not seen before. However, this is not just an older player moving to Saudi Arabia; there also is a younger player moving with the likes of Ruben Neves moving out there, too.
The Saudi PIF wants the Pro League to become one of the world’s best leagues by 2030, which is why they are spending huge amounts of money on buying the best players. Having these types of players in their league will lead to brands wanting to sponsor the league and teams and more TV companies wanting to broadcast games. The bigger the league grows in popularity, the more the world’s best players will want to play there. But what effect does this have on the leagues in Europe where all these players play at the moment. Well, there are positives and negatives to this happening.
Starting with the positives. For clubs that want to get rid of players like Chelsea did this summer, this led to a very good opportunity to get rid of these players that other clubs in Europe were likely not to buy. This was a good way for Chelsea to balance the book. But for other clubs, selling players that are not needed now allows up-and-coming players to get a chance in the squad and fans to see their new stars play. This allows the next generation a chance to impress as they may not have before.
However, where the effect does come from Saudi Arabia is the negatives to the overall game. In competitions like the Champions League, losing players at the top of the game, people do not want to watch this competition as much. Some football fans are more fans of players than a club, so we could see fewer viewing figures are less as players people want to see are not in the competition.
The biggest effect is that players' value is going to increase as Saudi Arabia has a lot of money to spend and can afford massive transfer values like their rumored bid of around £150 million for Salah. Only a small handful of clubs in Europe could afford this. Players will request more money in wages as they will be offering a huge amount to go to the Pro League. So, in the future, the cost of a transfer is going to increase massively, like when the Chinese league came in for players, the average price increased, which is likely to happen in the following seasons. The worrying part of this is if the average price goes up, only the big club will be able to afford players, and this will make leagues less competitive. We will end up going backwards as leagues are looking to close the gap between clubs, but with the Saudi Arabia clubs spending a lot of money on players, we are likely for this not to happen. But this is something that may not happen to have an effort, so this is something that is going to develop over a number of seasons.
