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Saudi Arabia Professional League


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Not to glamourise this or give it any more attention that it already gets or needs, but think it's probably about time it gets a thread of it's own...

 

High-profile players that have moved to Saudi so far - Ronaldo, Benzema, Kante, Ruben Neves, Koulibaly, Edouard Mendy. And no doubt plenty more...

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That league is heating up faster than a junkies spoon.  A financial analyst was talking about the sizable interest it has been receiving from sponsorships and broadcasters that see it now as a Champions League meet Tod Boehly allstar game like league.    They are not only attracting old has beens,  but players still well capable of performing at their prime.   There are some massive names vying for advertisement space and the expected turn over is to be in the billions. 

I can see a mass exodus of French club players,  a lot to do with the situation in France,  but I can see Naymar and possibly even Mbappe end up there,  Mbappe had a chance to go to Madrid and turned it down,   money is clearly more important than honours for him. 

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Well tbh from a football perspective most of their clubs are old established soon after the inception of the country and their league had good local fanbase even before this money kicked in. 

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It does seem like a deal for Allan St Maximin is heating up, with Al Ahly interested in doing a deal for yet another prime aged European player.   This seems more like a matter of benefits to all parties,  we get the money to get the last few deals for Disasi and Barnes over the line,  St Maximin gets mega wealth and will be a rockstar in that league and they get the entertainment factor. 

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The league could end up becoming a super league per se,  similar to the Indian Premier League (cricket) it may end up with major names going there for what is chump change to create a competition that has All Star game, superbowl type feel to it.   A lot more players will end up going there,  for money and good weather.  Maybe it can end up like IPL where players go there for 8 weeks to play in a lucrative competition and then return to parent clubs.

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5 minutes ago, RandoEFC said:

Are all of the clubs state-owned?

No, 4 of them are. But the high profile players coming in are having their salaries paid for by PIF - that's how you get clubs like Gerrard's Al Watthefaq offering £700k a week but only having a transfer budget of £13m

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1 minute ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

No, 4 of them are. But the high profile players coming in are having their salaries paid for by PIF - that's how you get clubs like Gerrard's Al Watthefaq offering £700k a week but only having a transfer budget of £13m

It's just confusing. It seems there's a real determination to build some sort of Super League and I don't understand how it works having a Director of Football for the whole league as someone posted above.

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Just now, RandoEFC said:

It's just confusing. It seems there's a real determination to build some sort of Super League and I don't understand how it works having a Director of Football for the whole league as someone posted above.

I think their ministry of sports (that's not the actual name, but close enough) is overseeing their whole league at the moment, so think of him as the director of this super league project. Middle Eastern football's a lot different to our football - probably more similarities with Russia than western Europe in that there's far more state owned sides, far more state involvement (granted, PSG had Macron beg Mbappe to stay last year, which I also found bizarre) than what we're used to. It's weirder in Iran, tbh, where you've got private clubs up against government clubs and the government clubs are shite - but some of those clubs are run by the revolutionary guard and players can get out of their mandatory conscription by playing for the side run by them.

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