This is where I think it'll all blow up. In no way can the Saudi pro league, where most attendances are on average about 6k, be able to sustainably afford a transfer like this in terms of wages and fee. This will cause a huge stink with UEFA and European clubs when they shout that the only way these deals can happen is because of state ownership and a cartel. It might push the City's, PSGs and yes the mags' noses out of joint, but I can see pressure being put on to limit state ownership and involvement in football clubs and leagues. It might take time, but this is likely to be where it starts from
Does the Saudi league not have to comply with FFP? As clubs they generate next to nowt in revenue. I know that the owners are richer than God but even Chelsea, NUFC and Man City still have to operate within certain guidelines despite having incredibly rich owners. What, if anything, is FIFA doing about this?
Sounding like Mbappe has shown no interest or inclination to go there. If that’s true credit to him. £1.6million a week. Ironic that their ‘sportswashing’ is actually being handled in such a way that even more folk dislike them and are having attention drawn to them.
I read a good piece on sportswashing not so long ago. I'll no doubt make a mess of paraphrasing but they were saying it's not really about getting people to suddenly like them more or to turn a blind eye to their atrocities. It is about developing a network of supporters and defenders, but the network are not supporting and defending the regime per se, it's supporting and defending themselves. It's the golfers that join LIV, it's the NUFC fans, it's Eddie Howe, it's the footballers joining the Saudi league all trying to present a defence to justify (perhaps to themselves) why they've sold their souls for the money. And it's normally presented via whataboutism and false equivalences. By talking about Disney or Qatar/Abu Dhabi or the US's foreign policy etc it blurs the lines, downgrades the heinous acts of the Saudis and all helps legitimise the regime. I've explained that terribly but I hope you get the gist.
In other news, Elliott Dickman's got a new job . . . . https://www.southshieldsfc.co.uk/post/elliott-dickman-appointed-16-19s-academy-manager Good luck, lad
This has gone beyond serious with the Arabs. Could bring football to its knees, it's been a greedy sport for some years now but this is off the scale.
We have had this before with the Russians and then the Chinese both of which turned out to be both unsustainable and unattractive to viewers. Whilst the Saudi's could sustain the expenditure and wages for a while yet with no other income they would really need to be selling the TV rights to a major player (or potentially developing their own, possibly free, app) before people would start to watch it. Even then it is perhaps debatable how many people would bother to tune in. They have the potential to cause chaos and potentially disrupt both European and South American leagues for a season or two but I can't see how this lasts. In any event FIFA should be looking closely at this as it has the potential to dilute the appeal of the global came. Of course, I could be spectacularly wrong about this!!!
They don't have to comply with FFP, but that's where I think the issues will come. UEFA teams have to and there's already enough bad feeling from UEFA and the European clubs towards FIFA, particularly after Qatar was awarded the world cup and FIFA wanting a 32 team club world cup. So if the Saudis can start just pumping money out to buy anyone, while Euro teams have to work within limits I can see the Euro clubs and UEFA kicking off and starting to put pressure on FIFA. FIFA relies on TV money and sponsorship deals, if Euro teams boycotted a club world cup, that would hurt FIFA a lot. It's Europe that provides the majority of the TV rights money for the world cup, club world cup etc. FIFA are already having to sort out stuff from the fallout of the last world cup, including reparations to Budweiser after the Qataris blocked alcohol sales at the last minute. FIFA in general and Infantino in particular won't want another huge tow blowing up that causes them potential lost revenue. The important thing about FIFAs revenue is that they pay it out to federations and national associations as grants, and a lot of the smaller confederations and association's relay heavily on it (not including the "alleged" bribes paid out previously...). It's how Havelange and Blatter were able to build up power based, using it to get the loyalty and dependence of various national associations. It's also behind why the world cup is being expanded to 48 teams and why Infantino wants the world cup every 2 years (more chances of smaller Associations qualifying and getting more grants as a result). Any potential reduction in TV rights or commercial deals is a worry to FIFA, just because if there's less money to pay out to smaller Associations, the smaller Associations may not be so willing to back the FIFA board in future. To answer your last question, FIFA will currently be doing the square root of eff all, until the problem looks like biting them on the arse.
