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Saudi Professional League 23/24
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The ones where Man City took UEFA to court after they were banned from the Champions League and UEFA buckled immediately? Those rules?DubaiCAFC said:Even if they was allowed, they would break FFP straight away..1 -
FFP... the rules that are designed solely to protect the already rich clubs?
They're a joke, designed to create a closed shop for those who purchased their way to success before others, and are now scared of losing their power. Its also fecking hilarious because the fans crying the loudest are Man City's fellow rivals...
Got no issue with clubs spending...
Just accept the consequences if you become a Portsmouth or a Wigan
Even the new Champions League rules are designed in favour the big clubs - Because the two highest Leagues, will get an extra place each year... Meaning that Liverpool would have qualified based on this season's performance.
Protect the rich!!6 -
Even dodgier is the fact the PIF own a stake in Chelsea and Newcastle and the Saudi league/clubs that are paying over the odds for Chelsea players. Cucurella also linked to Newcastle. It’s so dodgy.0
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And that's been going for 30 years now, and was for political reasons not monetary. Hardly a comparable situation.jacob_CAFC said:
Israeli teams are allowed to enter, I guess they are the only ones but the precedent has been setsam3110 said:
What other Non-European teams would that be?jacob_CAFC said:I wouldn't be surprised to see the Saudi's pushing for their clubs to join the Champions League considering other non-European clubs are allowed to enter
They won't join the Champions League, at the most they'll become a part of the previously attempted Super League.
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Israel (for better or worse) play their national games under UEFA, so it's consistent.sam3110 said:
And that's been going for 30 years now, and was for political reasons not monetary. Hardly a comparable situation.jacob_CAFC said:
Israeli teams are allowed to enter, I guess they are the only ones but the precedent has been setsam3110 said:
What other Non-European teams would that be?jacob_CAFC said:I wouldn't be surprised to see the Saudi's pushing for their clubs to join the Champions League considering other non-European clubs are allowed to enter
They won't join the Champions League, at the most they'll become a part of the previously attempted Super League.2 -
Let's see what happens when this latest case goes to court!SELR_addicks said:
The ones where Man City took UEFA to court after they were banned from the Champions League and UEFA buckled immediately? Those rules?DubaiCAFC said:Even if they was allowed, they would break FFP straight away..0 -
Neves is the only concerning one there. I get the move from his perspective, but it opens the door for more young players to go which is terrible for football as a sport. Players will no longer have the desire to prove themselves in competitive leagues.SELR_addicks said:
Still in June and so far Ronaldo, Benzema, Neves, Kante all committed to the money.
Many more still to come you would imagine.0 -
Neves went from playing Champions League Football for Porto, to Championship Football with WolvesDazzler21 said:
Neves is the only concerning one there. I get the move from his perspective, but it opens the door for more young players to go which is terrible for football as a sport. Players will no longer have the desire to prove themselves in competitive leagues.SELR_addicks said:
Still in June and so far Ronaldo, Benzema, Neves, Kante all committed to the money.
Many more still to come you would imagine.
He's got history of chasing the money5 -
Apparently Ittihad want to sign Heung-Min Son!0
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Breaking : Son Heung-min's Response to Saudi Rumor
— Sungmo Lee (@Sungmo_Lee) June 20, 2023
"I have many things to do in PL. Money doesn't matter to me now, and the pride of playing football, to play in my favorite league is important. I'll prepare well when I'm back to Spurs." (1) pic.twitter.com/cMyegDSDZN9 -
they are hoovering up players from all over the world for their manufactured 'clubs' and league .. just an ego trip to show how any sport can be bought, rather like the golf experiment. Who will want to watch the Saudi league on the telly ?. I'll give it 2 years before the fire sale0
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BBC Sport today, Gary Neville says Premier League should stop Saudi transfers.
Seemed ok when the Premier League were swooping for all the talent from other leagues.
Now a richer league has come along and it's all wrong.3 -
Not to mention when his Salford side purchased their way to the EFLiaitch said:BBC Sport today, Gary Neville says Premier League should stop Saudi transfers.
Seemed ok when the Premier League were swooping for all the talent from other leagues.
Now a richer league has come along and it's all wrong.6 -
I think Neville's focus is on what Chelsea are doing and where some of their investment ultimately comes from. Basically offloading their unwanted scraps to get around FFP.2
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That isn't the point he's making.iaitch said:BBC Sport today, Gary Neville says Premier League should stop Saudi transfers.
Seemed ok when the Premier League were swooping for all the talent from other leagues.
Now a richer league has come along and it's all wrong.
Saudi can spend what they want and buy who they want, he's not questioning that. His point is around the reported issue that PIF have a stake in Clearlake (Chelsea's owners) and now suddenly Saudi clubs are buying up their unwanted players at a time when Chelsea urgently need to recoup money and drastically reduce their squad numbers.
Personally i don't really agree with his point. I think ultimately the reason Saudi clubs are targeting Chelsea is simply because Chelsea have a ton of players to get rid of and most are of a decent quality. Other clubs might have 1-2 players who want to leave, Chelsea have about a dozen, so it's only natural Saudi will look there.4 -
Not the biggest fan of Neville but I believe he’s referring to potential Saudi PIF investment in both Chelsea and Newcastle, not just the fact the Saudi league is throwing money at players.iaitch said:BBC Sport today, Gary Neville says Premier League should stop Saudi transfers.
Seemed ok when the Premier League were swooping for all the talent from other leagues.
Now a richer league has come along and it's all wrong.0 -
Probably the 1st time ever I've seen a youngster on holiday wearing an Al Nassr kit.0
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And now there’s talk of the Saudi league buying Neves, and loaning him to Newcastle. Saudi league isn’t subject to UEFA FFP rules. Football has been broken for a long time, but this might just kill it off as we know it. So corrupt.2
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ForeverAddickted said:FFP... the rules that are designed solely to protect the already rich clubs?
They're a joke, designed to create a closed shop for those who purchased their way to success before others, and are now scared of losing their power. Its also fecking hilarious because the fans crying the loudest are Man City's fellow rivals...
Got no issue with clubs spending...
Just accept the consequences if you become a Portsmouth or a Wigan
Even the new Champions League rules are designed in favour the big clubs - Because the two highest Leagues, will get an extra place each year... Meaning that Liverpool would have qualified based on this season's performance.
Protect the rich!!Exactly. I don't like oil states buying clubs to launder their image, but considering they are allowed to, the weeping about City breaching FFP rules and that somehow invalidating their achievements is garbage. I like watching City, they play good football with good players. I've been able to watch Sergio Aguero playing up front for City instead of Darius Vassell and it is a definite improvement. Leagues approving takeovers from murdering, human rights abusing regimes and then acting all shocked when the rules they put in place to try and protect Manchester United and Real Madrid's commerical ventures and nothing else are circumvented is such a case of open hypocrisy I sometimes think it's actually satire. City won't go under unless we suddenly stop using oil overnight, and if that happens then I'm pretty sure more pressing geopolitical problems will pop up in the world than the inability to pay Kevin De Bruyne's wages on time. Attempting to artificially limit their growth because they didn't have the clout at the time the big money league was formed to leverage the masses of new cash on offer into having official noodle and tyre sponsors only hurts the game. They're attempting to smother a monster they created so the other monsters they created ages ago stop crying all the time. It's ridiculous.2 - Sponsored links:
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Yeah it's fucked but what could the FA/Uefa/anyone else that's relevant do about it? It's up to the clubs if they want to buy players and loan/sell them off immediatelyThe Red Robin said:And now there’s talk of the Saudi league buying Neves, and loaning him to Newcastle. Saudi league isn’t subject to UEFA FFP rules. Football has been broken for a long time, but this might just kill it off as we know it. So corrupt.0 -
The league is entirely dependent on Saudi having money to burn. The past few years saw a huge rebound in oil prices to stay consistently above $70 a barrel. Saudi has recently broken even on basic social spending for its population when the price is around $50. Oil prices are cyclical and we know they will crash again.In 2015 when the price of crude dropped to around $25 a barrel, Saudi burnt around $100bn of its foreign reserves, out of at the time $600bn. There were serious worries that the Saudi royal family wouldn’t be able to finance its social spending, at which point the Royal family would be in danger of falling. This is what drove the need to diversify the economy, build the Neom city and even to consider privatising Aramco (in the end only ca 5% was floated). The fear of renewable energy damping long term oil demand also drove the goal to diversify and potentially list more of their golden goose.
None of these problems for Saudi have disappeared, we just currently have a spike in oil prices owing to the Ukraine war and constrained supply. It’s impossible to predict the medium or long term oil price. If prices were to drop to around $40 a barrel, given the Saudi foreign investment fund spending, you could see Saudi foreign reserves plummet rapidly. At that point, the Saudi pro league would have the plug pulled immediately and as such the entire premise is built on sand. For now, we see Saudi as having a bottomless pit to spend on, but this vanity project is very susceptible to geo politics. It isn’t a viable long term rival to the heritage and solid basis of European club football. If I were a player, I’d be looking to cash in on the absurdity now, because we may not see it’s like again1 -
Is money really going to be an issue though? They have billions to spend.Making_all_the_noise said:The league is entirely dependent on Saudi having money to burn. The past few years saw a huge rebound in oil prices to stay consistently above $70 a barrel. Saudi has recently broken even on basic social spending for its population when the price is around $50. Oil prices are cyclical and we know they will crash again.In 2015 when the price of crude dropped to around $25 a barrel, Saudi burnt around $100bn of its foreign reserves, out of at the time $600bn. There were serious worries that the Saudi royal family wouldn’t be able to finance its social spending, at which point the Royal family would be in danger of falling. This is what drove the need to diversify the economy, build the Neom city and even to consider privatising Aramco (in the end only ca 5% was floated). The fear of renewable energy damping long term oil demand also drove the goal to diversify and potentially list more of their golden goose.
None of these problems for Saudi have disappeared, we just currently have a spike in oil prices owing to the Ukraine war and constrained supply. It’s impossible to predict the medium or long term oil price. If prices were to drop to around $40 a barrel, given the Saudi foreign investment fund spending, you could see Saudi foreign reserves plummet rapidly. At that point, the Saudi pro league would have the plug pulled immediately and as such the entire premise is built on sand. For now, we see Saudi as having a bottomless pit to spend on, but this vanity project is very susceptible to geo politics. It isn’t a viable long term rival to the heritage and solid basis of European club football. If I were a player, I’d be looking to cash in on the absurdity now, because we may not see it’s like again1 -
It makes lower Leagues and non Leagues more attractive to some of usThe Red Robin said:And now there’s talk of the Saudi league buying Neves, and loaning him to Newcastle. Saudi league isn’t subject to UEFA FFP rules. Football has been broken for a long time, but this might just kill it off as we know it. So corrupt.2 -
Saudi Arabia have reportedly withdrawn their bid to co-host the 2030 World Cup
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Wonder if I can put a bet on them getting the 2034 World Cup now then.Chris_from_Sidcup said:Saudi Arabia have reportedly withdrawn their bid to co-host the 2030 World Cup
Feels like a backhand "Drop out of this one, we'll give you the next one" from FIFA1 -
Football is already dead to me outside the championship, I literally have zero interest in it. This makes no difference.0
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I really cant be arsed if the overpaid "stars" of the game feel the need to hoover up some more dosh, as long as there are players of the calibre of Kirk and Morgan available to us we'll be as happy as Larry!
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I will not be watching, maybe people in the far east might, but most of those already have favourites in the premier league. In football it is about tradition. They can throw money at the best players did not work int he 70's in the US or more recently in China. Are any of us going to watch this, I don't think so.
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