Where are all these Saudi clubs getting their money from?

[GoldenToffee]

Is that simply that much oil over there that there are tons of billionaires who want to play real life Football Manager?

Nobody has ever heard of any of these clubs, yet here they are paying £4m a week to players past their prime.

There is no way these clubs will make a profit off of paying these wages. I highly suspect Messi will be the next one, probably on around £10m a week, which is just well and truly sick.

Or is it not that there are so many billionaires rather it's all coming down from the government as part of their sportswashing campaign?

In fairness to the players involved, at least Ronaldo and Benzema, you can't really blame them for taking a guaranteed several hundred million payday for two years of your life where your club isn't even expected to enjoy huge success and you're just allowing your name to be used as part of their propaganda.

I think we'll start seeing lesser high profile names head over there very soon on wages 5/6/7 times what they've previously been on in the Premier League, La Liga, etc. I bet even bleedin' Mina might end over there on a million a week.

 

[AdamEFC]

It’s a government backed sports washing campaign

Saudi Arabia's PIF takes control of four top clubs in country

PIF, which owns an 80 per cent stake in Premier League club Newcastle United, will take control of Saudi outfits Al-Ittihad, Al-Ahli, Al-Nassr and Al-Hilal.

www.dailymail.co.uk

 

[Toffe3m4n]

Yeah most Saudi & middle-eastern clubs in general are just there to be billionaires' play things. They aren't arsed about the quality of the football - only about the money they can make through exposure & merch sales when these 'superstars' are lured in.

 

[AdamEFC]

Hopefully they take some of our players off our hands.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

Is that simply that much oil over there that there are tons of billionaires who want to play real life Football Manager?

Nobody has ever heard of any of these clubs, yet here they are paying £4m a week to players past their prime.

There is no way these clubs will make a profit off of paying these wages. I highly suspect Messi will be the next one, probably on around £10m a week, which is just well and truly sick.

Or is it not that there are so many billionaires rather it's all coming down from the government as part of their sportswashing campaign?

In fairness to the players involved, at least Ronaldo and Benzema, you can't really blame them for taking a guaranteed several hundred million payday for two years of your life where your club isn't even expected to enjoy huge success and you're just allowing your name to be used as part of their propaganda.

I think we'll start seeing lesser high profile names head over there very soon on wages 5/6/7 times what they've previously been on in the Premier League, La Liga, etc. I bet even bleedin' Mina might end over there on a million a week.

I can blame them. I can't speak for Benzema, but in his final year at United, Ronaldo was earning not far shy of £100 million a year, and he has a reputed worth of over £350 million. He has more money than he could ever need, and is choosing to prop up a dubious regime for even more money. Messi is the same. He would probably quite like to see out his career at Barcelona, but his greed prohibits a man worth $600 million from fulfilling that dream, or indeed playing for any other decent side, so he'll instead see out what remains of his career playing in a tin pot league to further feather his already obscene nest.

 

[GoldenToffee]

Just read that Kante has been approached by a Saudi team, and Lloris has an option to go over there if he fancies it. Can't be bad to know that you have the option to wind down your career in a truly awful league while earning by far the best money of your career.

 

[Mikey_Fitzgerald]

Next step has to be for a major TV outlet to pick up the viewing rights

 

[allen]

This will burn out like Chinese football did.

No soul = no dice.

 

[tommye]

Oil giant Saudi Aramco: Company makes $700 million in profit every single day. The second most-valuable company in the world made an eye-watering $700 million in profit every single day as oil prices surged.


There's where the money comes from

 

[Simon Buttle]

Next step has to be for a major TV outlet to pick up the viewing rights

Sky already show it on their Youtube channel, standard is not as bad as people would think.

 

[mightymoyes]

why spend the money doing something good when you can give it to washed up millionaire football players

 

[DuuuncanHadaPigeon]

This will burn out like Chinese football did.

No soul = no dice.

i don't think it will. A lot of the chinese clubs went bust, they didn't have the same state support it seems this league does. Also the saudi league I am guessing is a much higher standard than china and the best players china got was oscar and hulk. The saudi league has Ronaldo and potentially Messi...

 

[verreauxi]

This will burn out like Chinese football did.

No soul = no dice.

My thoughts are similar...didn't they learn anything from the Chinese league? They think they can sign some massive but over-the-hill players and immediately draw in millions of new fans get a 4 billion dollar a year TV rights contract for the league??

 

[Rita_Poon]

I can blame them. I can't speak for Benzema, but in his final year at United, Ronaldo was earning not far shy of £100 million a year, and he has a reputed worth of over £350 million. He has more money than he could ever need, and is choosing to prop up a dubious regime for even more money. Messi is the same. He would probably quite like to see out his career at Barcelona, but his greed prohibits a man worth $600 million from fulfilling that dream, or indeed playing for any other decent side, so he'll instead see out what remains of his career playing in a tin pot league to further feather his already obscene nest.

'If my children and the one's I've had with models on the side can't play football like I can, at least I'll have a few quid to prop em all up with to get them a decent shot at life.'
Can't see many of the superstars going on to management, but could see them fronting consortiums 'rescuing' clubs. Take the money and run, live it up on the beaches of Barbados and make paid appearances at whoever's bought the next world cup and euros.

The Frankenstein's monster that football has become I suspect will only get more polished and slick and ugly and malign.

 

[hktoffee]

This will burn out like Chinese football did.

No soul = no dice.

My thoughts are similar...didn't they learn anything from the Chinese league? They think they can sign some massive but over-the-hill players and immediately draw in millions of new fans get a 4 billion dollar a year TV rights contract for the league??

Much like Csl didn’t learn from Mls. Mls didn’t learn from J-league. The big money flushed in and gone after a good few years.