How Saudi Arabia Plans To Conquer Football
Following Cristiano Ronaldo's move to Saudi Arabia, a host of top European stars are expected to follow him his summer. Names like Modric, Ramos, Aubameyang, Neymar, and Firminho have all been mentioned, but can a league in the Middle East ever hope to compete with The Premier League and La Liga? Those behind the scenes believe they can, and quickly.
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00:00 Karim Benzema has signed for Saudi Pro League team Al-Ittiyad.
00:07 A simple statement in a summer transfer window and one that, on the face of it, has all the
00:11 hallmarks of an ageing European star simply leaving the continent for one final payday.
00:17 But the reality is that this, and the other big name acquisitions that are about to follow
00:21 him into the country, actually mark a serious power shift within the global footballing
00:26 market.
00:27 And that, whether people like it or not, is specifically designed to change the sport
00:31 forever.
00:32 This is how Saudi Arabia is secretly conquering football.
00:36 On November 22nd last year, the Saudi Arabian national team came from a goal behind to beat
00:41 the eventual world champions Argentina.
00:44 It was unarguably one of the most shocking results in the entire history of the World
00:48 Cup, and under normal circumstances, would have represented the biggest thing to happen
00:52 to Saudi football for a generation.
00:55 However, it held that status for barely six weeks.
00:58 A mere 48 days later, Cristiano Ronaldo tore up his contract at Manchester United and was
01:03 unveiled as the newest signing for Saudi club Al-Nasr.
01:07 He did so, though, to an online chorus of laughs and derision.
01:11 Here was one of the game's best players, still thinking himself an elite athlete, going
01:15 to play in the 68th biggest league in the world.
01:18 But as we will see this summer, Ronaldo was merely the first major name in what's designed
01:23 to be an explosive and disruptive period of growth for football in Saudi Arabia.
01:29 One that's now financed by the country's own sovereign wealth fund, and could thus
01:33 start to challenge the top leagues in Europe almost immediately.
01:36 Ronaldo is already there.
01:38 Benzema, the reigning Ballon d'Or holder, is now set to join him.
01:41 But this is only the beginning.
01:43 Chelsea's N'Golo Kante has also reportedly signed a deal within the league.
01:47 Wilfred Zaha looks to be leaving Crystal Palace and has a Saudi offer on the table.
01:51 Roberto Firmino and Sergio Busquets, free agents after leaving Liverpool and Barcelona
01:55 respectively, have allegedly been approached.
01:58 Luka Modric, Pepe and Sergio Ramos have all held talks on joining former team-mate Ronaldo.
02:03 Neymar's representatives have spoken to a number of clubs in the league.
02:06 Son Heung-min and Ilkay Gundogan apparently both consider it a viable option if their
02:10 next move can't guarantee them Champions League football, and the list just goes on
02:14 and on and on, despite the European season having barely finished.
02:18 And then there's Lionel Messi.
02:20 Still regarded as the greatest player in the world by some, and forever considered the
02:24 greatest player who ever lived by many, the Argentinian isn't just already in bed with
02:29 Saudi Arabia, he's firmly under the covers, counting his money with a torch.
02:33 Signed by the nation's sovereign wealth fund to be a global ambassador for the country
02:37 itself, Messi's relationship with both the management and fans of Paris Saint-Germain
02:41 reached the point of no return over a trip he made to the country.
02:45 Failing to seek permission from his manager and in the wake of an embarrassing home defeat,
02:49 his social media was flooded with carefully choreographed holiday snaps in Riyadh while
02:54 he was supposed to be at training.
02:56 And if you're wondering how a player with his alleged dedication and professionalism
03:00 thought this was somehow okay, then keep in mind that whatever astronomical sum of money
03:04 he was receiving from his club was dwarfed by the one he was receiving from his hosts.
03:09 He took that trip because it would have been financially stupid not to.
03:13 The same logic they were hoping would apply to him this very summer, with an alleged $1.9
03:18 million contract offered to play his football there next season.
03:22 But despite missing out on Messi to MLS, the Saudi Pro League believe, with good reason,
03:26 that they can be one of the top 10 biggest leagues in the world and a genuine attraction
03:31 for the game's top players and managers, all within the next few years.
03:35 And where we've seen this before with aging superstars squeezing the last of their careers
03:39 in MLS, or players still in their prime opting to take life-changing money from a move to
03:43 the Chinese league, this is very different.
03:46 It's on a whole other scale entirely, and it's all because of how it's funded.
03:50 Throughout the rest of the world, football clubs are private enterprises.
03:54 By and large, they need to generate money in order to be able to spend it, or else get
03:58 lumbered with the sort of debt that ultimately sees things go very, very wrong for them.
04:03 Even in the US, where the teams are owned by the league, MLS still has to generate the
04:07 bulk of the money that goes into buying players or expanding clubs, effectively keeping it
04:11 all within its means.
04:12 But in May, that all changed for the Saudi league when the division's big four, Al-Itiad,
04:17 Al-Nasr, Al-Ali and Al-Hilal, were all collectively taken over by the country's sovereign wealth
04:23 fund, PIF.
04:24 This means that they now have access to near limitless financial resources and are already
04:29 able to offer wages way in excess of all but the very top European clubs.
04:34 The idea being that by using the country's near bottomless pit of development money to
04:37 bring in some of football's biggest names, they immediately improve both the quality
04:42 and the status of the league.
04:44 This of course creates a two-tier league of financial disparity between those four clubs
04:48 and the rest of the division, but there isn't a major league in the world where that hasn't
04:51 just happened naturally.
04:53 But if the name PIF rings a bell to you though, then it should.
04:56 It's the state-owned sovereign wealth fund that's been behind the Newcastle United takeover
05:00 and more recently, changed the entire face of golf forever by merging its Live venture
05:05 with that of the PGA and DP World Tours.
05:09 It is not an organisation that invests in something without ambitions to dominate it.
05:14 Huge stakes have been acquired in Disney, Starbucks, WWE, Uber and countless others
05:19 as it works on its mission to diversify the country's portfolio away from just simply
05:24 being an oil state and rebrand Saudi Arabia's image on a world stage.
05:29 And this is where the controversy starts.
05:31 The Saudi Arabian human rights record should appal anyone who takes the time to learn about
05:36 it.
05:37 This criminality is considered a crime in the country and is punishable by deportation,
05:41 life imprisonment, public flogging and even death.
05:44 Women's rights, while improving, are still severely restricted and the country is listed
05:48 as one of the worst in the world for its attitudes on civil liberty and freedom of speech.
05:53 In 2023 alone, the country has already broken its record for the number of arrests made
05:58 over political activism and dissent towards the government.
06:02 While there is always an argument over how much relevance this should have to the sporting
06:05 institutions its state-backed wealth fund has its tendrils in, the difference here is
06:10 that the obfuscation is largely the point.
06:13 Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 project is, if you'll pardon the pun, the jewel in the crown
06:18 of Prince Mohammed bin Salman's modernisation revolution.
06:21 He wants to secure the country's future as a major player on the world stage by not only
06:26 fostering enormous investment in a wide range of national enterprises, but by making it
06:31 a popular tourist destination with visitors from the West.
06:34 To do both of these things, it needs to fit in with European and American ideologies,
06:39 as well as routinely showcasing that it's culturally on a similar wavelength.
06:43 Thus, the country's greatest resource, its wealth, is pumped into Disney, it's pumped
06:48 into Starbucks, it's pumped into golf, it's pumped into WWE, and it's pumped, in increasing
06:54 volumes, into football.
06:56 Investing in teams like Newcastle gives them a seat at both the Premier League and now
07:00 the Champions League table, sure, but having a league that's exported around the world
07:04 because it's home to some of the biggest players is infinitely more valuable.
07:09 But the story here that often goes unreported is the local one.
07:12 Saudi Arabia has a booming population that is increasingly young, affluent, digitally
07:17 and culturally switched on, and that has a serious appetite for the entertainment it
07:22 sees from the West.
07:23 But it's also one that, as the spotlight on the nation is intensified, is growing bolder
07:27 in voicing its disquiet over the obvious social disparities it sees between what rights they
07:33 have and what the rest of the world enjoys.
07:35 This might sound incredibly oversimplified, but investing billions into giving the country
07:39 one of the best football leagues in the world, where fans can see players like Ronaldo and
07:44 Benzema every single week, is, in part, designed to placate some of this discontent.
07:49 And just like hosting major WWE shows, or a Formula One Grand Prix, or opening a Six
07:55 Flags amusement park, it will, to some extent, work.
07:58 In purely footballing terms, though, it's also seen as being a major boost to the country's
08:02 hopes of hosting one of the next World Cups.
08:05 The league's biggest club, Al-Isyad, commands an average attendance of over 40,000 fans,
08:10 but the rest of the division regularly sees four figures through the gates, despite having
08:14 capacity for five.
08:15 Cristiano Ronaldo's arrival at Al-Nasr took their average attendance from around 7,000
08:20 to nearly 20,000.
08:22 And the hope is that by adding global talent throughout the league, every other club can
08:26 see something similar.
08:28 After the awards to Russia and Qatar, FIFA will undoubtedly face major scrutiny over
08:32 its next set of choices, and Saudi Arabia elevating its own domestic league to the point
08:37 of global legitimacy offsets this enormously.
08:40 This combined with talk of a joint bid between Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Greece, not only gives
08:45 FIFA a combined African, Asian and European tournament that would be immensely appealing,
08:50 but increases Saudi relations and relevance in both of those territories.
08:54 From this, to public perception, to investment opportunities, to a worldwide national rebrand,
08:59 the value to Saudi Arabia of attracting these top players goes way in excess of the undeniably
09:04 enormous sums of money they're going to be paying them.
09:07 And make no mistake, that is money that will alter the transfer market in Europe irrevocably.
09:12 All of a sudden, players entering their final years who clubs might be reluctant to offer
09:16 big wages to, suddenly have a possible market that offers resale value.
09:20 Emerging clubs can even target sales of prize assets to the league as a way to circumvent
09:24 their own FFP rules.
09:26 But while both the reality and the impact of this change will only be fully apparent
09:30 in time, one thing is already set in stone.
09:33 This is football's part in the biggest PR campaign in human history, and it's one
09:38 that will have both sporting and cultural repercussions across the planet.
09:42 Whether you call it modernisation or sports washing or both, this isn't a story that's
09:47 simply going to go away.
09:49 And it's one that every football fan will ultimately have a stake in.
09:52 Saudi investment will undeniably be good for the game, we'll be told, but whether that
09:57 means it's good for football is a different question entirely.