Smash Neymar, throw 500 million euros: Saudi Arabia moves towards the sixth league in the world?
After Neymar officially announced his arrival in Riyadh Crescent, the Saudi side have spent €268 million on the summer transfer window, ranking second only to Chelsea.
But after this signing, the Saudis still did not stop the pace of "big purchases". Perhaps, Saudi Arabia's subversion of world football has just begun.
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Wen / Song Xinyu
Edited / Li Luyuan
With the official Riyadh Crescent posting a signed photo of Neymar holding a shirt, the Saudis' madness in the football transfer market this summer has also come to a climax. But it is interesting that this news did not surprise the fans too much.
Source: Riyadh Crescent
You must know that just two months ago, when the Saudis offered Messi that unprecedented sky-high contract, almost no one realized how serious the Saudis were behind the offer, and even NBA star LeBron James and other sports bigwigs also ridiculed: "If the Saudis call my agency, I will definitely go to Saudi Arabia to play."
But after a crazy summer, as more and more of the world's top stars appeared in the Saudi league, people's attitude towards the Saudi league also changed from banter and consternation, to slowly learning to accept, and even gradually began to look forward to who will be next.
Just like Ronaldo's previous evaluation that "the MLS is not as good as Saudi Arabia", the addition of these stars in the year changed the entire Saudi league and changed the pattern of the era of world football. As PIF Chairman Crown Prince Salman's Vision 2030 plan, Saudi Arabia is becoming a disruptor in world football, and the future eyes of fans around the world will be focused on this country for a long time.
Saudi League recruitment progress (statistics as of August 17, Beijing time, subject to the team's official announcement)
The football kingdom of Western Asia
In people's common perception, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and other countries are synonymous with "wealth". Over the past few decades, these Middle Eastern countries have become rich in oil and have accumulated wealth that many countries envy. However, due to geographical location, culture and other factors, their influence in the international community has never been able to go further.
Therefore, investing in sports has become an important means for them to achieve transcendence. After seeing the benefits brought by the UAE's acquisition of Manchester City and Qatar's acquisition of Paris Saint-Germain and the right to host the World Cup, Saudi Arabia naturally set its sights on football, the world's number one sport.
In fact, the Saudis have a much higher starting point in the world of football than the other two countries. Saudi Arabia, known as the "Green Eagle of West Asia", officially joined FIFA as early as 1959, and since the national team won the third place in the Asian Games football in 1982, Saudi football also ushered in the first peak in the 80s of the last century, and from 1984 to 2000, in five consecutive Asian Cups, the Saudis all reached the final and lifted the trophy three times, which also made Saudi Arabia second only to Japan and Iran as the second most won Asian Cup.
In recent years, the Saudi Football Association has announced a medium- and long-term football transformation strategic plan with official strength, covering seven aspects, including youth training development, competition, scientific and technological assistance, and global influence. Saudi football has also made great strides under this plan, winning the U19 and U23 Asian Youth Championships in the past two years, and defeating Argentina in the Qatar World Cup that ended last year, giving the Argentines their only defeat in the World Cup.
Similarly, the Saudi league is one of the most successful in the history of Asian football, and although the names of the Saudi league teams are slightly unfamiliar in this year's transfer news, they are actually established and established teams in Asian football.
For example, Neymar's new Riyadh Crescent (perhaps more familiar to Chinese fans by his other name, Hilal), has a long and illustrious history: in the AFC Champions League and its predecessor, the Asian Club Championship, they reached the final nine times, four of which they successfully lifted, more than twice as many as any other Asian team.
As for Jeddah United, who signed Benzema, Kante and Fabinho, its transliterated name "Etihad" is a familiar name for Chinese fans: in the AFC Champions League in this century alone, Etihad eliminated Dalian Shide, Shandong Luneng and Guangzhou Evergrande in 2004, 2005 and 2012 respectively, including the 7-2 home victory over Luneng in the quarterfinals of the 2005 AFC Champions League, which has become one of the most painful memories of the Chinese Super League team's journey to the AFC Champions League.
Source: Jeddah United website
Therefore, when Saudi Arabia launched Vision 2030 in 2016, which plans to create a vibrant society, a prosperous economy and an ambitious country for Saudi Arabia, sports, especially football, are seen as one of the important pillars to achieve this vision.
The Saudis' football ambitions
In 1971, the Saudi Public Investment Fund, known as PIF, was established to reduce the impact of oil price fluctuations on the Saudi economy and to better manage the wealth generated through the oil business.
According to the latest disclosure, PIF currently manages total assets of US$778 billion, and in recent years, as an important promoter of Saudi Arabia's "Vision 2030" national transformation strategy, PIF has been diversifying its investment portfolio, especially in the sports industry. Invested $650 million to introduce the F1 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, spent $2 billion to support the creation of the LIV Golf Tour, and signed a 10-year cooperation agreement with WWE, and the traditional competition pattern began to be broken by Middle Eastern capital.
As the world's No. 1 sport, the influence and attention of football is unmatched by other projects, and it is also based on this that in October 2021, PIF completed the controversial acquisition of Newcastle United, a transaction worth about $400 million, which gave PIF an 80% stake in the club.
According to the PIF public plan, 80% of its funds are currently allocated to its own country, 20% to foreign countries, and the target by 2030 is 50% each, so when targeting Newcastle, part of the Kingdom's grand economic transformation vision, the Saudis actually gave a "5-10 years" timetable at the beginning, and the investment in youth training and infrastructure is also quite "long-term and measured", indicating that Newcastle's rise will not be a simple and crude money to open the way.
Compared with the other two Manchester City and Greater Paris, which have strong sovereign wealth colors, the two years on the banks of the River Tyne have been quite "low-key": there are neither the introduction of king-level superstars, nor the crazy premium in the transfer market.
Of course, this investment has also paid off significantly, with Newcastle reaching the Champions League in 2022-23 and Saudi Arabia's influence in football further enhanced. According to the online activity statistics given by the team, since the acquisition of the team, the social media channel traffic contributed by fans from Saudi Arabia ranks third after the United Kingdom and the United States.
In fact, not only fans, but also Saudi football hopes to connect more with European football by connecting with Newcastle. Saudi Football Association President Meshaal publicly said that the Saudi Football Association hopes to carry out more cooperation with Newcastle Club in the future to help cultivate Saudi football talents.
This is also one of the current efforts of Newcastle, last season Newcastle's new third shirt uses a similar color scheme to the Saudi national team shirt; During the World Cup, Newcastle also traveled to Saudi Arabia to participate in training camps and signed with Noon, the Middle East's leading online retailer, to open the Middle East market for the team's licensed retail goods...
During last year's World Cup, Newcastle traveled to Saudi Arabia for training camps
PIF's steady style after the acquisition of Newcastle Club not only did not have the "rule-breaking" disrupting scene that made the football community worry, but this low-key and pragmatic operation was well received by the industry and outside, and also strengthened Saudi Arabia's determination to develop football.
But the team's mysterious form style, the contrast between its financial resources, still confused many fans until the arrival of this summer.
The Saudi league, will it be the next gold dollar bubble?
As mentioned earlier, the Saudis' caution at Newcastle is constrained by the increasingly stringent fiscal regulatory environment in European football and perhaps because PIF is currently investing in projects in the country.
Vision 2030 has given priority to further attracting international tourists and foreign investors, including the development of a series of luxury hotels, leisure facilities and international airports under the Red Sea Plan, as well as related supporting cultural and entertainment activities.
But over the past few seasons, Saudi league attendance has been unsatisfactory, with the vast majority falling short of 50 percent. As the most popular team, Jeddah United usually has an average attendance of around 35,000 per game, while Riyadh Crescent averaged less than 10,000 spectators last season. Riyadh Victory also averaged just over 8,000 spectators per game in 2021-22, and the arrival of Cristiano Ronaldo doubled that number last season.
Source: Saudi League official website
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 (about $120 million) to 1.8 billion riyals (US$480 million), and the market value of the league will increase to 8 billion riyals (US$2.1 billion).
The advertising effect brought by Cristiano Ronaldo has allowed PIF to really see the return of high money, so after successfully attracting everyone's attention, the Saudi league is determined to maintain this influence. On June 5 this year, Salman announced the launch of a sports investment and privatization project to accelerate the construction of his domestic football system.
As a direct impact of the project, Messi and Mbappe received sky-high contracts from the Saudi league one after another. With the support of Saudi state-owned capital, more and more invitations began to be offered to stars such as Benzema, N'Golo, Neymar, Koulibaly, Ruben Neves, etc., world football finally realized how strong and serious the Saudis are for the overall quality of the league.
Similarly, for many Chinese fans, such a pomp and circumstance is reminiscent of the Chinese Super League in the past 10 years of the Golden Yuan era. But Saudi Arabia's geographical location is closer to Europe than the Chinese Super League, and its country's culture is more conducive to attracting players, such as Benzema and other players can be well integrated into it.
Secondly, the Saudi league and Saudi Arabia's own basic football level is much better than China's, and after further opening up foreign aid places this season, the addition of a large number of stars will improve the overall level of the league without making local players feel too big a gap.
More importantly, the crazy burning of money by Chinese Super League teams is more due to the personal behavior of entrepreneurs, because they hope to get more business benefits in this way. So at the league level, the Chinese Super League actually has various rules in place to circumvent this over-investment approach. On the contrary, as an important means to enhance the country's image, the Saudis want to use football to stimulate consumption, develop the sports industry, and use the league as an important tool to show the "soft power" of national sports.
In other words, the high investment in the Saudi league is a national development plan that spares no effort, and from the perspective of market-oriented operation, the Saudis pay more attention to what changes can be brought to the overall image of the country through the league and the attention of fans, not only how to achieve financial balance or improve the level of football in the country.
PIF has reportedly committed more than $2 billion in long-term sponsorship deals in domestic leagues, and PIF's investments in these clubs are not only financial, but also strategic.
According to The Athletic, the Saudi league has reached broadcast agreements with more than 130 countries and territories this season. DAZN will broadcast the Saudi league in the UK, Canada, Germany, Austria and Belgium, Sport TV has secured the rights in Portugal, and La7 will be responsible for the Saudi league's broadcast in Italy. For Chinese fans, platforms such as Migu, Tencent, Live Bar, and Station B will all broadcast live the Saudi League for the 2023-2024 season in the new season.
Whether or not investing in football is a conduit for the Saudis to pursue image-building, or whether they really intend to build a sustainable league, the Saudis' soccer spree will continue for a long time.