Saudi Arabia Pro League Soccer

[Tom]

The Saudi Arabia Pro League

The Saudi Pro League (SPL) started in 1976 but only went fully professional in 2007, the same year the IPL launched. Its best teams have enjoyed success in Asian football's Champions League, particularly Riyadh's Al Hilal and Jeddah's Al Ittihad, but it would be a stretch to say that anyone outside the kingdom has cared that much about the league itself. That is until December 30, 2022 when Cristiano Ronaldo signed for Al Nassr on a $200m a year contract.

This month, the league announced that Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund (PIF), had taken control of the three teams already mentioned and Jeddah's Al Ahli, with four other teams assigned to state-backed businesses and the rest of the league to follow suit shortly.

The Saudi state wants to position the country as one of the most important tier-two players in global politics, with the US, China, and probably India, at some point, being in the first tier.

Sport is one way of doing that and they want to become the go-to destination for sport in the region. They have let Qatar and the UAE get a head start on them. MBS (Mohammed bin Salman) is playing catch-up and he's doing it with a sledgehammer.

The Saudi Pro League is buying up big names but they're all at the end of their careers.

The big investment in sport does make perfect sense, though. In a region where religion is so important, sport is probably the only other way to engage with a wide cross-section of society, which is why it will always be of interest to autocrats.

As most on here, I don't know much about the league. Ronaldo and Benzema's moves there and a spate of other high-profile transfers (And some failed ones) has sparked my interest in the league a bit.

They seem to be going all in this summer to bring in top players.

 

[Legion]

This reminds me of what China tried doing a few years ago. Signing big players for astronomical wages, and look how that's worked out.

 

[Crabtree]

Going on their approach to Golf, they'll keep pumping money into it and attract some superstars across at some point - personally speaking, I have utterly no interest in the sportswashing attempts of a horrible regime.

 

[Scotty G]

Just curious, will you guys be watching this?

I feel zero interest in watching any Saudi league matches.

 

[Cappuccino Kid]

Cristiano Ronaldo's Al Nassr have been effectively banned from signing new players until they clear their transfer debts.

The Saudi Arabian club cannot register new players with FIFA until they pay their creditors.

 

[Boot Cleaner]

Just curious, will you guys be watching this?

No, I won't watch it. I don't root for one of the teams, the quality will be poor and there is no player I am interested in watching.

However, I will watch Inter Miami since I love watching Messi.

 

[John Steed]

Nah. I won't watch it. It's basically friendly games is how I will look at it. Players at the end of their careers going for a big payday in an irrelevant league to just see out their career. Never care to watch pre-season friendlies between big sides, so I don't see what will be interesting here.

 

[Dylan]

Can't quite understand what would make the Saudi league compelling despite some big names considering that Saudi PIF owns the four biggest clubs which are making the moves for these players.

That seems like a massive conflict of interest and I can only imagine the corruption that will be going on under the table. For next season they can decided that Ronaldo HAS to win the league which would garner a lot of eyes on the league, so who has the ability to stop such from happening?