Topic: Saudi Arabia's raid of European clubs

[Red Beret]

If SA want to buy up all the best talent and mercenaries I wouldn't really mind. Our own leagues in Europe might become less competitive but they would be cleaner and more honest. And any player fucking off to SA won't be playing CL footie anytime soon - not unless they can crowbar their way into the competition with a massive wedge of cash to UEFA.

The problem is they want to own everything. They're trying to buy the fucking continent as a means of political leverage. And the corrupt bastards at the top are happy to let them do it. They want the very souls of all the leagues in Europe, so that ultimately the only good players in the world are only playing for the Sportswashers.

This isn't like Pele and a few other big names playing in the US in the 70s. The dirty blood money of the oil states can prop up this lark almost indefinitely, unless governments intervene and enshrine protections in law. But like I said, they're in on it. Ultimately they'll have the money and it will be their successors' problem.

[JRed]

… welcome to Super Sunday , Al Nassr v Liverpool, from sunny Riyadh, aaaaaaand it’s live….

These despots are not going to be pumping the eye watering amounts they are into the English game without wanting serious control, maybe even a merger between their own football and the premier league.
Sounds ridiculous, but then again…

[WhereAngelsPlay]

… welcome to Super Sunday , Al Nassr v Liverpool, from sunny Riyadh, aaaaaaand it’s live….

These despots are not going to be pumping the eye watering amounts they are into the English game without wanting serious control, maybe even a merger between their own football and the premier league.
Sounds ridiculous, but then again…

We'll be playing in front of 4000000000 on the moon before that ever happened.

[JRed]

We'll be playing in front of 4000000000 on the moon before that ever happened.

When they control the game, they can do whatever they want

[WhereAngelsPlay]

When they control the game, they can do whatever they want

Sure.

[JRed]

Sure.

Could even be a Gulf-European Super league.
You don’t think they will control the game before long?

[Too early for flapjacks?]

I can see Saudi struggling to build a compelling product from their league. The majority of their signings are players at the tail end of their careers who are picking up injuries and are way past their physical peak. And their only motivation for signing up is to top up their pension before they call it a day. Don't they already have a "masters" 5 a side tournament!

If I were them I'd be speaking to the other wealthy Gulf countries like Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and the UAE regions, with the view to starting a "Gulf Super League" with a few teams from each area. Would be a far superior product than any dometic league and generate far more interest locally and abroad.

[WhereAngelsPlay]

Could even be a Gulf-European Super league.
You don’t think they will control the game before long?

No I don't.

[jillcwhomever]

Could even be a Gulf-European Super league.
You don’t think they will control the game before long?

But according to the dick who runs UEFA it’s nothing to worry about any of this.

[JRed]

No I don't.

Fair enough.
I bet lots of golf fans didn’t think they would control golf.

[Red Beret]

I can see Saudi struggling to build a compelling product from their league. The majority of their signings are players at the tail end of their careers who are picking up injuries and are way past their physical peak. And their only motivation for signing up is to top up their pension before they call it a day. Don't they already have a "masters" 5 a side tournament!

If I were them I'd be speaking to the other wealthy Gulf countries like Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and the UAE regions, with the view to starting a "Gulf Super League" with a few teams from each area. Would be a far superior product than any dometic league and generate far more interest locally and abroad.

Thing is, that would involve cultivating and developing their own footballing talent. If we've seen anything from the oil states looking to sports wash, it's that they don't have the patience to grow something organically. They want ready-made, off the shelf footballers - even if they are past their prime.

Under normal circumstances, such an approach would wither away, but like I said, with bottomless pits of money, they can top it up indefinitely.

[thaddeus]

Fair enough.
I bet lots of golf fans didn’t think they would control golf.

Golf is a much smaller sport and it's a lot easier to carry out a hostile takeover.  Buy off enough of the top names in golf and you've pretty much bought the sport.

Saudi Arabia could buy off Salah tomorrow but after a few weeks of being disgruntled we'd all have moved on.  We'd have new heroes by September.  It would be nigh on impossible for Saudi Arabia to purchase anything like a significant number of the top clubs in the world.

FIFA and UEFA (or their member associations) can both seemingly be bought off quite easily but it's generally a passing fad with whoever is the highest bidder at the time getting a few favours then business returning to normal.

The PIF has assets of half a trillion but that's assets and not liquid money.  They're not going to spend everything on hijacking global football.

[Fromola]

Nobody will give a fuck about it. There's no fan culture or atmosphere, they don't develop their own players in the region and the clubs have no history, reach or global fanbase.

That's why they put their money into European football. The players will also be half arsed and just take the money. Ronaldo has played their this season and there's no interest in it at all.

[Dench57]

You can just look at what they're doing in other sports to see how serious they are about this. Their desire for the 2030 World Cup must be the main driving factor behind the recent raid of European football. I see they've agreed to pay for all the stadiums in their joint bid with Egypt and Greece, knowing full well they'd need joint-hosting with a European country with Qatar being so recent.

Holding the World Cup would be the culmination of Saudi Arabia’s ambitious strategy to dominate major sporting events. Successes include winning the rights to host world championship boxing bouts, European football and Formula One motor races, while creating its own rebel golf tour. Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund also bought a prominent English football club and the country will host football’s Asian Cup for the first time in 2027.

But Saudi Arabia’s desire to stage the World Cup goes beyond reasons of sporting prestige, according to one regional expert.

“Saudi Arabia is strategically trying to position itself as an AfroEurasian hub — the center of a new world order,” Simon Chadwick, professor of sport and geopolitical economy at Skema Business School in Paris, said of the Saudi-fronted bid. “This positioning would enable Saudi Arabia to exert significant power and influence across a vast geographic area, which it is seeking to achieve by building relationships with key partners.”

“The multipolar staging of a World Cup with Egypt and Greece would be neither altruism nor largesse. Rather, it would form part of a wider plan, which the government in Riyadh is enabling through the potential gifting of stadiums,” he added.

https://www.politico.eu/article/qatar-fifa-world-cup-the-secret-saudi-plan-to-buy-the-cup/

[JRed]

Golf is a much smaller sport and it's a lot easier to carry out a hostile takeover.  Buy off enough of the top names in golf and you've pretty much bought the sport.

Saudi Arabia could buy off Salah tomorrow but after a few weeks of being disgruntled we'd all have moved on.  We'd have new heroes by September.  It would be nigh on impossible for Saudi Arabia to purchase anything like a significant number of the top clubs in the world.

FIFA and UEFA (or their member associations) can both seemingly be bought off quite easily but it's generally a passing fad with whoever is the highest bidder at the time getting a few favours then business returning to normal.

The PIF has assets of half a trillion but that's assets and not liquid money.  They're not going to spend everything on hijacking global football.

I’m pretty sure FIFA, Uefa, The PL, The Uk government could all be persuaded that it’s a good thing for these gulf states to own multiple clubs in the same league. Maybe a couple more states come in and they all own 3 clubs each in the PL. They then completely control the league.
I know I’m talking extremes, but it’s really not beyond the realms of possibility and they could afford it without batting an eyelid.

[S.Red please]

I’m pretty sure FIFA, Uefa, The PL, The Uk government could all be persuaded that it’s a good thing for these gulf states to own multiple clubs in the same league. Maybe a couple more states come in and they all own 3 clubs each in the PL. They then completely control the league.
I know I’m talking extremes, but it’s really not beyond the realms of possibility and they could afford it without batting an eyelid.

The UK Government was actively pushing for the Saudi lot to take over Newcastle due to the influx of investment they were pumping into the UK from doing so. If it’s FIFA, UEFA, The PL & The government we’re relying on to turn their nose up at money and have some integrity about them we’re all fucked.

[thejbs]

It’ll be an expanded club World Cup that they angle towards. They don’t want to just have the talent, they want to have the teams too.

[Fromola]

It’ll be an expanded club World Cup that they angle towards. They don’t want to just have the talent, they want to have the teams too.

Teams that nobody cares about.

Abu Dhabi have had a hard enough sell trying to get people invested into Manchester City, let alone clubs nobody has ever heard of with no fan culture.

[lfc_col]

If SA want to buy up all the best talent and mercenaries I wouldn't really mind. Our own leagues in Europe might become less competitive but they would be cleaner and more honest. And any player fucking off to SA won't be playing CL footie anytime soon - not unless they can crowbar their way into the competition with a massive wedge of cash to UEFA.

They have there own version of the CL dont they

[lfc_col]

It’ll be an expanded club World Cup that they angle towards. They don’t want to just have the talent, they want to have the teams too.

Isnt it going to be hosted in pre season no one will be arsed about it no matter how hard they try to push it

[jacobs chains]

Maybe this is what football needs. Things have been heading down the shitter for a good decade now, perhaps a cataclysmic event is what real football needs.

I'm a Liverpool fan, if all the best players in the world fuck off to play for blood money and we are left with players from the next tier down, so what? So will everyone else. To me football isn't the razzmatazz global sporting event. It's not F1, it's not golf. It's a sport born from the grass roots and it can always go back to that.

Fuck Saudi Arabia and the false dream it's buying and selling.

[Legs]

Teams that nobody cares about.

Abu Dhabi have had a hard enough sell trying to get people invested into Manchester City, let alone clubs nobody has ever heard of with no fan culture.

You speak for yourself some of us have looked out for Al-Halal results for years !!

Nothing is going to stop them they will end up owning multiple teams in same league.

I mean they own Newcastle and probably Chelsea too

[A Red Abroad]

You speak for yourself some of us have looked out for Al-Halal results for years !!

 

[LFCEmpire]

Fucking grim this.

Kick the oil states out of football.

[killer-heels]

Hate them.

[PeterTheRed ...]

Eventually, there will be the European Super League, and the Arabian UEFA Champions League.

This is inevitable ...

[KillieRed]

Eventually, there will be the European Super League, and the Arabian UEFA Champions League.

This is inevitable ...

Then football will be broken and 90% of people on this forum and others like it won’t watch it. They’ll have to invest heavily in the next generation of fans and those who watch by stream only.

[lfc_col]

the Arabian UEFA Champions League.

They already have there own competition don't they

[PeterTheRed ...]

Then football will be broken and 90% of people on this forum and others like it won’t watch it. They’ll have to invest heavily in the next generation of fans and those who watch by stream only.

Football is already broken, yet we still watch it ...

[PeterTheRed ...]

They already have there own competition don't they

The UEFA Champions League is more prestigious.

Man City, PSG, Chelsea, Newcastle, Man Utd (soon). They already have the core ...

[lfc_col]

Football is already broken, yet we still watch it ...

Until they do something really stupid and play the games in the middle of the night our time can see that happening before too long

[Schmidt]

City and Newcastle have shown how easy it is to buy a fanbase, they want it all now. PL football needs to collapse in on itself and start bleeding TV money, unfortunately most football fans probably don't know or care about any of it and will continue on as normal.

[WhereAngelsPlay]

Football is already broken, yet we still watch it ...

I watch us & just the odd other game and Sky get fuck all off me.

[thejbs]

Teams that nobody cares about.

Abu Dhabi have had a hard enough sell trying to get people invested into Manchester City, let alone clubs nobody has ever heard of with no fan culture.

I don’t mean buy the teams, but host the teams. So the biggest teams in the world are competing with financially doped Saudi teams in a club World Cup.

[Cid]

Stevie has said no to them.  Phew.

[Flaccido Dongingo]

Stevie has said no to them.  Phew.

To be fair Stevie likes a night on the ale, he'll not get the opportunity to do that in Saudi Arabia.

[lfcthekop]

Stevie has said no to them.  Phew.

Did'nt he go over there and have a pic taken holding the club shirt? i thought it was a done deal.

[spen71]

Football is dead    Rather watch cricket

[Flaccido Dongingo]

Football is dead    Rather watch cricket

I generally don't nowadays, unless I can be bothered going up to the pub to watch it, I'm not paying for Sly for fuck sake.

[spen71]

I generally don't nowadays, unless I can be bothered going up to the pub to watch it, I'm not paying for Sly for fuck sake.

Stream ?

I’ll be wait for the funny comment 😂