The Saudi Pro League or Saudi Arabia’s highest league is currently the subject of much discussion for football fans. Not because of the club’s achievements on the world stage but because of the jordan money spent by Saudi clubs to bring in famous football stars.
Saudi Pro League is the highest league in Saudi Arabia where Saudi Arabia itself is part of the Asian confederation, AFC. The achievements of the Saudi Arabian team on the highest stage of Asian football are also quite convincing where Al Hilal as the representative of the Saudi Pro League was able to appear as the representative for West Asia in the AFC Champions League final 4 times in the last 6 seasons.
On these 4 occasions, they were able to emerge as champions 2 times, namely in 2019 and 2021. For information, the format of the AFC Champions League is somewhat different from the competition format in Europe. This competition between Asian clubs divides the participating countries into 2 parts, namely West Asia and East Asia.
West Asia which usually contains Middle Eastern and East Asian clubs which contain East Asian countries such as Japan, South Korea and China are combined with Southeast Asian clubs such as Thailand. In the 2022 Club World Cup, the Asian representative was Al Hilal who won the AFC Champions League where Al Hilal arguably gave a surprise by eliminating the South American representative, Flamengo, in the semi-finals and advancing to face Real Madrid in the final.
In this final round, there were not many surprises where Real Madrid was able to emerge as champions after defeating Al Hilal. However, Al Hilal was still able to provide resistance with a 5-3 defeat. 2023 is the year in which the Saudi League has been able to capture the attention of many football fans. Not without reason, these Saudi Arabian clubs work hard to bring in star players and give them sky-high salaries.
This sensation began with the arrival of Cristiano Ronaldo to Al-Nassr after the termination of his contract from Manchester United. Cristiano Ronaldo comes with a salary of 90 million Euros per year coupled with sponsorship and advertising deals that allow Ronaldo to bring home 200 million Euros per year. It didn’t end there, Cristiano Ronaldo also received an initial contract bonus with a nominal value of approximately 100 million Euros.
The movement of the Saudi Pro League does not stop at Cristiano Ronaldo. In the 2023 summer transfer market, another Saudi club, Al-Ittihad, officially brought in 2 star players, namely Karim Benzema who just won the 2022 Ballon d’Or and midfielder with top stamina from Chelsea, N’Golo Kante. These 2 players also received contract offers with an extraordinary large nominal.
The movement of Saudi Arabia does not stop there. They are also widely rumored with various star players such as Romelu Lukaku, Hugo Lloris, Thiago Silva, Roberto Firmino, Son Heung-min, Joao Moutinho, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and other European stars. In fact, Al Hilal had planned to bring in Lionel Messi by giving a contract that would make Messi the highest-paid player in the world before Messi finally chose to join Inter Miami.
Of course, it is a big question about the source of the money used for this fantastic transfer. One thing that is clear is that there are 4 clubs in the Saudi Pro League funded by the government of Saudi Arabia through the Public Investment Fund, the same fund that acquired Newcastle United at the end of 2021.
There are 4 clubs funded by the Public Investment Fund namely Al-Hilal, Al-Nassr, Al-Ittihad, and a club that was recently promoted to the Saudi Pro League, Al-Ahli. Funds from the Public Investment Fund are then used by these clubs to attract famous European stars. The power of this large fund certainly does not come without a definite purpose. One of the clear goals is to strengthen the Saudi Pro League’s position as a top league not only in Asia but also in the world.
However, more than strengthening the league position. The withdrawal of this star player is intended as a form of promotion for Saudi Arabian football to world football fans. Especially now that Saudi Arabia is exploring the possibility of hosting the 2030 World Cup along with Greece and Egypt. Therefore, these imported stars will be used as promotional ambassadors to succeed in the nomination of these 3 countries as organizers of the 2030 World Cup.
This intention is clear especially since the names brought in are the names of senior players who have passed their golden age but still have big names to attract the interest of world football fans. A name like Cristiano Ronaldo will always be a magnet for wa football fans
even though his appearance has decreased drastically. The name N’Golo Kante is indeed an extraordinary midfielder, but lately he has been struggling more with injuries. The only name that is still showing its teeth is Karim Benzema who is still sharp with Real Madrid and has just won the Ballon d’Or.
However, Karim Benzema is already 35 years old, which means that the player’s football career will end soon. Not only that, the star players who are rumored to be coming to the Saudi Pro League are all aged 30 and over.
The biggest problem in Saudi Arabia’s candidacy to host the World Cup is FIFA’s own regulations regarding the hosting of the World Cup. Based on this regulation, a confederation that has been selected as the host cannot host again the next 2 editions of the World Cup. For example, when Brazil hosted the 2014 World Cup, in 2018 and 2022 the countries of the CONMENBOL confederation cannot host the World Cup.
This regulation certainly hinders Saudi’s intention to host the 2030 World Cup. This is because the 2022 World Cup has been held in Qatar which is a member of the same confederation as the Saudis, namely the AFC so that countries from the AFC including Saudi Arabia are not allowed to host World Cup in 2026 and 2030 editions.
To get around this regulation, Saudi Arabia then took Greece and Egypt from UEFA and CAF which did not have a ban on holding the World Cup for the 2030 edition. It was at this moment that FIFA’s firmness as world football’s governing body and regulator was tested. FIFA should still be able to reject the nominations of these 3 countries because Saudi Arabia, which is part of the AFC, still cannot host the World Cup for the 2030 edition.
However, if the Saudis are serious about developing their country’s football and hosting the World Cup, FIFA could make a more specific bid for the Saudis to host the 2034 World Cup. What’s more, with abundant funding, a sizable demographic, and the government’s “involvement” in developing football, of course there can be a huge potential for the development of Saudi football in the future.
One thing that needs to be noted for the development and sustainability of the Saudi league is to be wiser in transferring players, especially to prevent what happened to China in the Chinese Super League. The Chinese Super League experienced a downturn due to jor-rod transfers coupled with exorbitant salaries but not accompanied by supportive regulations.
This situation is exacerbated by the presence of COVID-19 where most club owners are private businesses, especially real estate, which have been very hard affected by the pandemic. Financially, Saudi Arabia is much stronger, especially since there are clubs that are directly backed up by the Saudi government.
However, proper regulations are needed so that these expenses do not run haphazardly which threaten the sustainability of the league in the future.
ASL
