Football Watch | Where is the gap between the Saudi league and the MLS in the summer window?
Author: Wu Haoyu
Number of characters: 3232
Recommended reading time: 10 minutes
After a summer transfer window of great spending, the Saudi league has become a major focus of the world. The arrival of Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar, Benzema, Roberto Firmino and Kante once focused the world's attention on the Middle East. The entire summer window Saudi League spent nearly 1 billion euros on transfer fees, second only to the Premier League in the world, and the remaining four of Europe's five major leagues are hard to match.
But it is undeniable that after a lot of money, the Saudi league has gained the attention of the world because of the gathering of superstars, but its comprehensive strength is still far from the world's mainstream leagues. According to the comprehensive evaluation data released by the football data website OPTA, the Saudi professional league ranks 36th in the latest ranking of leagues around the world, which is far from the five major European leagues. Because they each have Cristiano Ronaldo and Messi, the two superstars who have dominated football for more than a decade, the Saudi professional league will inevitably be compared with the MLS, and the latest edition of OPTA data shows that Major League Soccer's comprehensive ranking is 29th in the world, slightly higher than the Saudi league.
The whole country mobilized to create a "losing money" Saudi league
Compared with the transfer of the slightly "shabby" La Liga, Serie A and other leagues, the Saudi Premier League has recruited a number of famous superstars at the same time, but also snatched such as Gabri Bega, Ruben Neves and other European stars and core members of second-tier clubs who have been in contact with the continental giants for a long time, which greatly affects the transfer supply chain that has been basically solidified in world football.
It's just that as UEFA president Ceferin said in an interview, Saudi Arabia's use of gold dollar offensive to sign Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar and superstars such as Benzema, Firmino, and Kante is essentially not much different from the Chinese Super League a few years ago. The Saudi government's "Plan 2030" is an important reason for the Saudi clubs' splurge, not only to create a new level of Saudi leagues, but also the Saudi government's significant willingness to use sports to enhance its international standing. In the past few years, the Spanish Super Cup, the Italian Super Cup and other events have been held in Saudi Arabia, and F1 has also opened a station in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The Saudi National Tourism Authority has also struggled to become a sponsor of major events over the past few years until this summer officially holding hands with La Liga.
And the Saudi club's crazy "sweeping" of big stars this summer is essentially an important part of the Saudi government's international status promotion project. With the support of the Saudi government's public funds, the traditional four finalists of the Saudi Super League have become the main force of the superstars, and the "national mobilization order" has brought together the big names of the Saudi League in the new season. Speaking at Benzema's unveiling ceremony, Jeddah co-chairman said: "Benzema has come to a country with great ambitions, and having such a superstar gives us great influence. ”
The gathering of big names has indeed increased the attention of the Saudi league in the new season, but at the level of creating more value, the Saudi league clearly has a longer way to go. This season's Saudi Premier League has reached a number of media cooperation agreements with a number of media companies such as Fox Sports and DAZN, according to foreign media reports, the Sand Super League this season reached an agreement with DAZN worth about $500,000, and the Premier League, the representative of the world's leading league, can rely on media rights revenue of more than $3 billion a year. In addition, the value of the AFC Champions League played by Saudi Premier League clubs is also far from the value of the Champions League, and Saudi Arabia clubs participating in the AFC Champions League will only earn $4 million even if they win the title, while Real Madrid, the champions of the 21-22 season, received a total of 83.2 million euros.
In terms of matchday revenue, the big names in the Sand Super League have also not kept up with the top league. This season's Premier League opener against Hasem at Jeddah Democracy Stadium attracted around 24,000 spectators, about 10,000 more than the club's average attendance last season. But this season has been a month into the Premier League, with an average attendance of about 8,000 per game, and although attendance has indeed increased for the top clubs, the overall attendance of the league has not improved significantly. From the perspective of ticket prices, the price of the regular annual pass for the new season of Riyadh Victory Club where Ronaldo is located is between 695 Saudi riyals and 2315 Saudi riyals (1 Saudi riyal is equivalent to about 2 yuan). By comparison, regular annual passes for Burnley, the cheapest Premier League season ticket this season, cost between £335 and £500.
Despite the support of the Saudi public fund of up to $70 million a year, the Saudi Premier League is still essentially a "money-losing business", and various revenues such as media rights, intercontinental prize money and match days cannot cover the salary expenses of big stars, and Neymar alone earns as much as 150 million euros a year. Although the current Saudi league welcomes many big names, it is essentially a project that the government has spent a lot of money to create a new national image and contribute to the bid for events such as the World Cup.
MLS: It has taken a detour and gradually got on the right track
Because of Messi's arrival this summer, the MLS will inevitably be compared with Cristiano Ronaldo's Saudi league. In addition to Messi, the current MLS also has Busquets, Alva, Chiellini, Bentek, Insigne, Douglas Costa, Little Pea Hernandez and other players who have played well in the European League. Prior to that, superstars such as David Beckham, Ibrahimovic, Villa, Gerrard and Frank Lampard had all played in the MLS.
Compared with the purely "money-losing" Saudi league, the current MLU has a number of stable media and sponsorship partners, Apple reached a 10-year streaming broadcast agreement worth $2.5 billion with the MLU last year, and the cooperation agreement between sports giant Adidas and the MLU will last until 2030, worth up to $830 million. The MLB has grown by leaps and bounds in recent years, and is still expanding in size, and is expected to expand to 30 franchised teams this year, making it the world's largest number of top soccer leagues.
In terms of attendance, the MLS is also much higher than the Saudi League, with an average attendance of 23,287 so far this season, and the addition of Messi will undoubtedly drive a surge in attendance and ratings. A statistic shows that football has become one of the most popular sports for the new generation in the United States, a total of 47% of the Z generation group will often pay attention to football, and football games are also very popular among the younger generation, EA's "FIFA" series of football games in the United States sales in the United States is second only to the NFL series of games in sports games, the rise in attention of the younger generation has also driven the MLA to soar exposure on social platforms. From a series of factors such as financial health, social media attention and matchday revenue, the current MLS is undoubtedly much better than the Saudi professional league.
But looking at the history of the development of the MLU, you will find that the current perfect MLU has also taken a "detour", in the 70s of the last century, the predecessor of the current MLU, the North American Football League, once recruited the king Pele under his command, when the New York Cosmos team that signed Pele offered Pele an annual salary of millions of dollars, in the American sports industry at that time, this annual salary has been astronomical. In addition to Pele, Beckenbauer, Ged Mueller, Cruyfff, Bobby Moore, Eusebio and other superstars of that era all played in the North American Football League, and the American league as a "football desert" at that time attracted superstars in the same way as Saudi Arabia today, that is, "banknote ability", the salary of these superstars playing in the United States was much higher than when they played in Europe, and their salaries were much higher than those of leagues such as MLB and MLB at that time.
Similar to the Saudi League, the MLS at that time also brought in many superstars under the call of the state, and before joining the New York Cosmos, Bailey went to the White House to meet with then-US President Ford, who expressed to the king of the ball his desire to help the development of American football. Pele's New York Cosmos team broke Major League Soccer single-game attendance records one after another, which shows that the superstar policy did have a considerable impact on American football at that time.
However, due to financial collapse, the American Soccer League in the 80s suffered a shutdown, and in 1984 due to financial problems at several clubs, it withdrew, and the final season of the American Soccer League was only 9 teams playing, and then fell into an indefinite shutdown. It was not until the 90s, in preparation for the 1994 World Cup in the United States, that the current Major League Soccer was established in 1993, replacing the previous American Soccer League. Due to the impact of sports such as football, baseball and basketball on the market, as well as repeated changes in the format, the MLA developed in twists and turns at the beginning of its establishment, and the MLA also had to impose salary limits on players to implement financial balance.
It was not until the arrival of David Beckham in 2007 that the MLS ushered in a turning point in its development, and the joining of Xiaobei increased the attention of the MLS, and more clubs joined the league one after another, and then Henry, Robbie Keane and other superstars joined at the same time. To give the green light to Bay's arrival, the MLA created a clause in 2007 that allowed clubs to sign star players in disregard of the salary cap, also known as the "Beckham Clause."
More and more superstars joined the MLS next, and Kaka, Villa, Gerrard, Frank Lampard, Ibrahimovic and others arrived one after another, bringing a lot of attention to the MLS. At the same time, with the vigorous development of American football in the past decade or so, and the growing love of football among young American people, the new era MLS has achieved financial sustainability and does not have to worry about the high salaries of superstars. Messi's joining Miami International this summer has undoubtedly raised the popularity and value of the MLA to a higher level, but before his arrival, the MLA has perfected its development scale.
Compared with the Saudi League, the current MLS is built on a perfect platform that has been developed for decades, and if it cannot achieve financial sustainability, relying solely on the government's "burning money" to maintain the league, how long the Saudi league's gold dollar route can be maintained will be a big unknown.
The picture of this article comes from the Internet