I think you're missing the point completely. They have no interest in growing anything. They are buying up sports for reasons of sportswashing, global (soft) power, influence and arguably diversifying for when either the oil dries up or the world is no longer reliant on it.
no amount of not every profitable sports will able up for 60 to 70 degree heat in their desert once the money dies up from oil. they cannot replace the oil revenue with these minor efforts. China and they should be buying up.mines and land with rare earth's and ignore this absolute waste of time. it's pure ego trip.
I was reading today that in recent years they have been investing in Uber, Meta, Disney, Bank of America, Credit Suisse, Nintendo, Boeing, BP, EA and McLaren. There will be many more.
none of which amount to the same national return. they instead represent the crown prince's exit strategy. this is a 1 trillion dollar economy we are talking about.
Air-conditioned stadia! It's a thing- an incredibly wasteful thing, but they don't have to be huge stadiums. Most money is from TV rights these days anyway. If they truly want to be a Premier League/Serie A/La Liga level entity though it requires investment for at least 20 years, starting at the grassroots so that there is a full generation of talent from youth to seniors so that it's more tempting for the best overseas players to go. A Ronaldo sprinkled here and there will not turn it into La Liga. If they're willing to invest for an entire generation... then and only then will it be what they're hoping it will be. China found out it wasn't easy to make a top-tier league and gave up. I suspect the Saud's won't have the staying power either. Political reform so that foreigners don't feel threatened could help too. Right now it's not the most desired country for foreigners to move to.
Difference with China was it was the president that was a big push for it and then the gov put blockers on it. Put massive taxes on foreign purchases, restricted how many foreign players could have in each team and it lost its momentum. Saudi has the full backing of the gov - they own 4 teams and this seems like it’s more than a couple year thing. Think it’s gonna be get some big names, make a splash. Interest in football is already massive there. They need to start doing the academy work and bring through their own talent but that will take time. Until then, keep interest up and bring big names in
Fifa has just had to backtrack on the Qatar world cup about its green credentials. Not that middle east actually cares about global warming
Why are Arsenal spending £65m on Havertz, that's alot of money for someone who has shown **** all except a goal in the CL final 2 years ago
I tend to look at new leagues with the thought "what can a player achieve there". By this i mean in most already established leagues a player can get the chance of playing in world recognised tournaments, by this i am thinking Champions league and it's South American equivalent etc. It would take a bit longer than 20 years for the "Arabian Chapions League" to gain any real status that would draw players and the same could be said about the individual Country's league titles. In fairness you don't hear many top players moving to Japan because it's been their life dream to win the J league or America for the MLS trophy. Read this back and it doesn't come over how i would like but i think some may understand what i am trying to get at.
He's a very decent player and should be a better fit at Arsenal as they are now than he was at the shambles that Chelsea had become.
it is actually highly likely lfc have already spent the entire transfer budget the club itself can manage and is waiting to sell to buy
please log in to view this image Luis Diaz shone on international duty for Colombia and whilst his goal will have taken most of the headlines, there was also another piece of brilliance from our attacker.
The Magpies also want to sign Ruben Neves, 26, on loan after the Portugal midfielder agreed to join Al Hilal from Wolverhampton Wanderers for £47m this week. (Football Insider) Just a rumour so far, but I think we all saw this coming. 2 year loan as well reported. Ways to get around ffp
Its an inevitable rumour. This should attract a) a refusal to register the player pending investigation b) an immediate 2 season transfer ban (4 windows) same for Chelsea FFP. It should be assumed Chelsea cannot resolve their ffp issues and are using a very dodgy hidden link to suadi (smoke screen of less than 2% ownership) To funnel funds in Again a minimum of 2 season transfer ban should be applied immediately.
