Saudi Arabia’s football shake-up: Why is it happening?
Saudi Arabian football made a big statement when Cristiano Ronaldo joined Al Nassr in January and it took things a step further this week with confirmation the country’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) will take control of four teams in the Saudi Pro League.
PIF — which owns an 80 per cent stake in Premier League side Newcastle United — will control 75 per cent of the four SPL teams (Al Ahli, Al Ittihad, Al Hilal and Al Nassr), with the other 25 per cent controlled by a non-profit organisation.
More star names are being linked with a move to Saudi as part of the government’s plans to raise the profile of sport in the country and Karim Benzema has already been signed by Al Ittihad. An offer was also made to Lionel Messi, though the Argentinian has decided to move to MLS.
Are there similarities to the Chinese Super League project?
Crafton: I don’t think the aspiration is so different. The Chinese investments are obviously hugely linked to the state as well. There is Vision 2030 for Saudi Arabia, essentially a diversification of the economy. This also taps into entertainment opening up. The Chinese had this ambition around 2050 in terms of making their football league competitive and having a national team. And there was also this view it was all going to lead up to a World Cup bid for China. That’s not materialised, partly because the Chinese state decided it had other priorities. Covid-19 also played a part in that as well.
With Saudi Arabia, if it doesn’t have a World Cup within the next decade, I would be staggered. I think that’s a massive part of it, making sure it is a relevant market within football. Is it a profoundly different strategy? I’m not sure. Will it be more effective? Possibly, because we keep seeing Saudi Arabia be very, very effective from a sporting strategy point of view. The other thing I’d say is that China never got a Ronaldo or a Benzema-level player.
Whitehead: I agree with Adam in that I think it’s ultimately a question of scale rather than any kind of different aim. By getting a Ronaldo or a Benzema, you tap into supporting a player rather than a team. It’ll also be interesting to see how they pursue broadcasting rights for it.
Jabir: I agree the strategy is not new. It actually has been done by Qatar and the fact we don’t talk about that now shows you it can go very wrong. The differences here are the passion for football; that’s one thing that wasn’t available in China. The other thing is being connected to the rest of the world. From a social media perspective, in China, they brought in all these superstars but they don’t even have a presence on mainstream social media, so they’re not part of that.
In Saudi Arabia, it’s completely different. You look at a club like Al Hilal, who are already one of the top 10 most-followed clubs on Twitter in the world. Saudi Arabia is also trying to attract tourism. They’re trying to do all sorts of other things that tie in with this and that’s what maybe gives it more chance of success.
How good is the Saudi league and national team?
Whitehead: Sports intelligence agency Twenty First Group rates the Saudi Pro League as the 58th best in the world. That puts it around the level of the Scottish Premiership and Serie C in Italy. They’ve said they want to reach the top 10, which is quite a dramatic jump.
Crafton: While the quality of the league may not be that high, the level of support and interest in football in Saudi Arabia is huge and the rivalry between Al Nassr and Al Hilal is a proper rivalry. They hate each other. We could talk about Celtic and Rangers or any kind of equivalent. That’s a serious rivalry. There’s a proper football base there.
The national team had a really good World Cup. The best day in Qatar, atmosphere-wise, was the day they beat Argentina and you had thousands of fans driving over the border and a huge interest in supporting certain players. There was a huge Ronaldo fandom, Messi fandom, Benzema fandom, and huge Real Madrid and Barcelona interest as well. So it’s different if, say, the Qatar league was doing this. You’d be a bit more like, well, who’s actually going to go and watch this stuff? Whereas with Saudi there is a genuine fanaticism around football.
