Saudi Golden Dollar Football | Issue 1: Repeating the mistakes of the Chinese Super League? The result is not so important
Author: Shen Tianhao
Number of characters: 3450
Recommended reading time: 11 minutes
November 22, 2022, Rusail Stadium. Dawasaari's goal gave Saudi Arabia a surprise 2-1 win over Argentina, ending a 36-game unbeaten run by the Tango Legion. At the time, the Argentinian's dream of a championship seemed so distant, and the dark green No. 10 shone brighter than the blue-and-white No. 10.
Saudi football has captured the world's attention, and in the months to come, the country will continue to be the center of world football, but in another way. The poetry of winning the weak over the strong can be encountered but not sought, and the fury of Golden Yuan football is the norm.
From free agent Cristiano Ronaldo, to travel ambassador Messi
The World Cup in Qatar was not a good memory for Cristiano Ronaldo, but he chose to stay in the Arab world after the World Cup. After his contract with Manchester United, Ronaldo joined Riyadh Victory on a free agent, and he later said in an interview: "I believe that in a few years, the Saudi league will be among the top five in the world. ”
Riyadh's victory jersey is yellow and blue. In Italy, such a color scheme belongs to teams like Chievo and Frosinone - Cristiano Ronaldo looks somewhat uncomfortable wearing this shirt. In order to bring Cristiano Ronaldo to Saudi Arabia, Riyadh Victory offered him an annual salary of 75 million euros, and if bonuses, benefits and portrait rights are included, the Portuguese superstar's annual income can reach about 200 million euros, making him the world's highest-paid footballer in the twilight of his career.
Ronaldo didn't choose to buy a property in Riyadh right away. He stayed in the luxurious suites of the Four Seasons Hotel in the Saudi capital, a corkscrew-shaped hotel, while the Portuguese suites occupied the 48th to 50th floors of the building. Even so, Ronaldo is likely to stay in the country for a long time: although he has only signed a contract with Riyadh Victory until 2025, his cooperation with Saudi football may not end in two years: if he agrees to serve as an ambassador for Saudi Arabia's joint bid for the World Cup with Greece and Egypt, he can continue to earn his current annual income until 2030.
Interestingly, if Ronaldo accepts the offer, he will be a rival to his native Portugal when it comes to the 2030 World Cup: like the Saudi-Greek-Egyptian transcontinental bid combination, Portugal plans to compete with its Iberian Peninsula neighbours Spain, plus Ukraine and Morocco, for the World Cup in seven years' time. Another group of Saudis bids is the Uruguay-Argentina-Paraguay-Chilean South American League, which is indeed extremely competitive, and the very negative factor for the Saudis is that the 2022 World Cup has just been held in Qatar, and the AFC countries are hosting it again eight years later, contrary to the principle of rotation of continents.
Never mind. Hosting the World Cup is Saudi Arabia's dream, but it is not their only publicity project, and the Saudis have more than just Cristiano Ronaldo. In April 2022, Messi posted a post on his social media with a fairly simple text: "Go explore the Red Sea." #沙特旅游" – This post has more than 7 million likes.
How was the cooperation agreement between Messi and Saudi Tourism signed? The Times obtained a leaked agreement that mentions that Messi needs to travel to Saudi Arabia for at least five days a year, post 10 Saudi tourism posters on social media, participate in an annual travel event and make appearances at charity events — each with a corresponding pay of about $2 million. The contract was signed by Messi, but not by Saudi authorities, and it is uncertain whether the agreement is final. Even so, the media generally believes that Messi can receive about $25 million during the three-year cooperation agreement.
In addition to his status as a tourism ambassador, Messi was also close to playing in Saudi Arabia. Not long ago, Riyadh Crescent tried to sign Messi for a sky-high annual salary of 500 million euros, but the Argentine finally chose Miami. Messi did not come, but the Saudis brought in other stars with a gold dollar offensive.
Gold dollars plus faith create a summer of madness in Saudi Arabia
Capital from the Arabian Peninsula is influencing European football in unprecedented ways. Some Europeans disagree: leagues from outside Europe have repeatedly tried to reconstruct the map of power in the world of football, bringing in balloon stars, updating infrastructure, hiring big-name coaches, and developing local elites, none of which has shaken the "Eurocentric" landscape. UEFA president Ceferin recently said that Saudi Arabia is repeating the mistakes made by Chinese previous ones, and that bringing in late-career stars will not help improve the country's overall football level.
Ceferin's comments were as aggressive as ever: "Tell me, which player is still in his peak form, but chose to play in Saudi Arabia? The best football game is still in Europe and we haven't lost stars. His statement did not convince everyone. Any media and fans talking about the transfer market this summer cannot ignore the existence of Saudi capital. Cristiano Ronaldo's victorious debut season in Riyadh did not help the team win the league, with the trophy going to Jeddah Unity, who signed Benzema this summer. The French striker's annual salary at his new club is as high as 100 million euros, which is more than nine times that of his previous club at Real Madrid. Benzema signed a two-year contract with Jeddah Unity with a one-year renewal option.
Benzema is just the beginning. The Saudi league continues to attract big signings from Europe, with Chelsea becoming the number one supplier, with all four players heading to the Arabian Peninsula: Benzema's former international team-mate N'Golo Kante is about to return to play alongside him, who joined Jeddah Unity from Chelsea; Moroccan winger Hakim Ziyech prepares to travel to Riyadh for victory and become Cristiano Ronaldo's new team-mate; Two Senegal internationals, Koulibaly and Edouard Mendy, joined Riyadh Crescent and Jeddah Nacional. According to reports, N'Golo Kante and Koulibaly can receive sky-high annual salaries of 50 million and 30 million euros respectively, and Mendy and Ziyech will also be paid more than 10 million euros.
It is worth noting that all five players follow the Muslim faith, which also drove their decision to come to Saudi Arabia. Both Benzema and Kulibaly say that as Muslims, they are finally able to live in a Muslim country. The former Golden Globe winner also mentioned that he can now learn Arabic properly, and Jeddah's proximity to Mecca is also important to him.
Benzema is 35 years old this year, while N'Golo Kante, Koulibaly, Mendy and Ziyech have all just finished a disappointing season and their form at the sporting level has seen a marked decline. Can the Saudi league only attract Muslim stars in the middle and late stages of their careers? Of course not. Riyadh Crescent spent €55 million signing Portugal national midfielder Ruben Neves from Premier League Wolves, and despite being only 26 years old, he could hardly say no to an annual salary of €25 million. On the other side of the Saudi capital, Riyadh Victory is close to completing the addition of Brozovic after finalizing Hakiyech Ziyech, and the Croatian's three-year salary and signing fee add up to 100 million euros.
It is worth mentioning that Saudi Arabia's domestic tax policy has also made the league more competitive when attracting stars. Saudi Arabia does not set personal income tax, as long as you stay in the country for at least 183 days during the tax year, you can be considered a Saudi Arabian resident taxpayer and do not have to pay tax on personal income.
Golden Dollar Football Prequel:
It's "Jeddah Unity" and it's "Etihad"
The top three in last season's Saudi top league were Jeddah Unity, Riyadh Victory and Riyadh Crescent, plus Jeddah National, who had previously been unexpectedly relegated and promoted in the secondary league last season, make up the "Big 4" of the Saudi league. Jeddah Unity is the most popular, while Riyadh Crescent has the most glorious history: not only in Saudi Arabia, but also the most successful team in the history of Asian football. In the AFC Champions League and its predecessor, the Asian Club Championship, Riyadh Crescent reached the final a total of nine times, four of which successfully lifted the cup, and they reached the final more than twice as many times as any other Asian team.
Do these names sound foreign to Chinese fans? Another name for the Riyadh crescent is "Hilal", which means "new moon" in Arabic. Similarly, Cristiano Ronaldo's Riyadh Victory and another Saudi capital-based team, Riyadh Youth, are more familiar to Chinese fans as "Nasr" and "Shababu," while Jeddah's two teams, Unity and National, transliterated as "Ittihad" and "Ahli" respectively.
In the AFC Champions League at the turn of the century, the name "Etihad" used to be a nightmare for Chinese football. In 2004, 2005 and 2012, they eliminated Dalian Shide at the height of their time, Shandong Luneng and Guangzhou Evergrande respectively, including the 2005 AFC Champions League quarter-final victory over Luneng 7-2, which became one of the most painful memories of the Chinese Super League team's journey to the AFC Champions League. Today, "Etihad" has become "Jeddah Unity" and "Hilal" has become "Riyadh Crescent", which is not a change of the name of the club itself, but just a change of the team's name from transliteration to paraphrase in Chinese context.
However, Jeddah Unity at the time — or "Etihad" as it was better known as it was — did not have a large number of foreign aid. The biggest striker in the AFC Champions League winning squad is former Inter rising star Caron, who was loaned out to Monaco. Now, the club has chosen to "arm to the teeth" as the reigning champions of the Saudi Premier League, and they hope to have the last laugh in the golden dollar competition in the new season. In many years before, the Saudi league had never been as big as it is today, so why did they suddenly change their style?
From the Red Sea Project to the City of the Future:
Saudi Vision 2030
It's all about the Saudi government's grand vision. In 2016, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman unveiled the "Saudi Vision 2030" plan, which aims to reduce the country's dependence on oil resource exports, diversify the economic structure, develop sectors such as health, education and infrastructure, attract international tourists and foreign investors, and try to make Saudi Arabia the heart of the Arab world and a central hub connecting three continents: Asia, Africa and Europe.
To this end, the Saudi government has unveiled a series of ambitious architectural plans: the "Red Sea Plan" on the Red Sea coast includes a series of luxury hotels, leisure facilities and an international airport, the King Salman Energy Park between Dammam and Ahsa oases on the Persian Gulf coast, and the "future city" Niom in the northwest of Saudi Arabia, just a stone's throw from the Sinai Peninsula. With Dubai and Doha hosting the World Expo and the World Cup in less than two years, Riyadh hopes to overtake them as soon as possible and become the center of the Arab world, and the Muqab building, which Crown Prince Salman has championed, will become a new landmark in the capital.
According to PIF's vision, by the time Vision 2030 arrives, the annual revenue of Saudi Arabia's top league will triple from the current 450 million riyals ($120 million) to 1.8 billion riyals ($480 million), and the league's market value will rise to 8 billion riyals ($2.1 billion). The Saudis already have some top stars, but in order to achieve this, they will need to do better in international competitions and have a better market on the domestic stage in order to sell the league rights for a higher price.
Over the past few seasons, Saudi teams have had unsatisfactory stadium attendance, with the vast majority falling short of 50 percent. As the most popular team, Jeddah Unity usually averaged around 35,000 attendance, while Riyadh Crescent averaged less than 10,000 spectators last season. Cristiano Ronaldo's Riyadh Victory also averaged just over 8,000 spectators per game in 2021-22, a number that doubled last season.
Can star effect make Saudi Arabia have a full stadium? Will the fans be able to stay in the home team's stands for long? Do Saudis really like football? These questions will take time to answer, but the answers may not be that important.
The picture of this article comes from the Internet