It doesn’t matter if we like it or not, Saudi Arabia is throwing their hat into the ring as a competing soccer superpower. Whether it be signing Cristiano Ronaldo to Al Nassr, or Steven Gerrard to Ettifaq Club. The game is definitely growing in Saudi Arabia even to the point of a potential UEFA (Union of European Football Associations) membership. In this article, I’m going to talk about the pros and cons of the Saudi Arabia Peoples Investment Fund (PIF) in the beautiful game of soccer.
Saudi Arabia, as you know is a very oil-rich country. The Saudi Arabian economy is built off of said oil and they have reaped the rewards of the oil. With this, the Saudi PIF has or is planning to give each club $17 billion dollars to spend in terms of transfers to continue to grow the game. They wouldn’t get this type of development if it weren’t for the money. Some superstars have taken the bait of money such as Karim Benzema to Al Ittihad, Riyad Mahrez to Al Ahli Saudi Club, and even Jordan Henderson to Ettifaq Club. These are world-class players and will help influence the development of the game over there and help the Saudi government host the World Cup in 2030.
Despite all their efforts to bring the top players in Europe to Riyadh or Jeddah the more important piece they should be focusing on is their National Team. The Saudi Arabia National Team is very weak, their only notable player is Salem Al Dawsari who plays for Al Hilal. If they are really focused on building their Soccer culture, then they would focus on building their youth academies and then send those players off to Europe to compete and play for titles that are more important than the Roshn Saudi League and the Asian Champions League. Or else they’ll be like China’s attempt to capitalize on the soccer market. Bring some players but then fold after a few years.
With all of this future spending, the Saudi Pro League has sent a bid to UEFA to be a wild card team in competitions such as the Champions League (Tier 1), Europa League (Tier 2), and Conference League (Tier 3). Now, logically someone would say “They can’t compete in Europe, because geographically they aren’t in Europe. It would be like Inter Miami competing in the Champions League it doesn’t make sense”. But however UEFA has been offered the chance to see a Saudi League team, but they have not responded (yet). You also have to take into consideration that the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has to accept this. This would lead to the Saudi Pro League moving away from the Asian Champions League and to UEFA which is a whole different beast. They’re envisioning for this to take place in 2024-2025 but I don’t think they should accept this.
They shouldn’t accept this because the league talent isn’t justified to be competing against teams like Real Madrid or Manchester City. According to FIFA.com, they are barely in the top 50 and worse than countries like Qatar and South Korea. Competing nations in the AFC by the way. They aren’t ready, and just throwing money at past their prime talents won’t lead to true success. True success in soccer is defined as the development of a team or nation, not just handing money to players. They can’t buy their way out of this one.
