Topic: Will the transfers to the Saudi league become a problem for European football? - page 3. (Read 730 times)

Yes, so the majority here is of the same opinion that Saudi Arabia wants to become a football powerhouse and can also be dangerous for European football. The only positive thing at the moment is that Uefa has ruled out Saudi clubs being allowed to participate in European competitions such as the Champions League. If they were also allowed to take part in the CL, it would be very bad for our football.

This is the reason, when one place has no rule against the financial situation and they can buy anyone at any price they want, it is obvious that they are going to end up with a good result one way or another. I think it should be important to notice that it is going to be fine for them.

I still do not think that it is a big deal though, it costs them way too much to get a player compared to other places, they still have to get players for much more money if they want to get them. Look at Ronaldo, it was a good "business" decision to get him, which opened the door for other players, but he is getting paid unreal amount of money, it shouldn't be possible for single player to get that much money if you ask me.

It's hard to imagine that. In fact, saudi club have been spending billions to buy the new players from european continent, but FIFA was not even commenting it. Numerous complaints about saudi's aggressive transfers have been appearing but i remind you that there was no FFP in saudi pro league.
It's different with EUFA that was implementing FFP for european club while saudi can spend as much as possible to buy the new players. I do not even think we will see FFP to be implemented into the SPL.

We will not see FIFA to take a further step to pervent saudi caused by money talks much in this case.

as I said before that the large transfers carried out by teams from the SPL do not mean to give bad things to the European league. I mean, even though many star players were bought by teams from Saudi Arabia, that does not mean the league in Europe will lose its popularity because Europe is already very well established in terms of popularity and it is known throughout the country that the European league is the biggest football league in the world, so even though it lost several star players will not be a problem for teams in Europe and will still have many fans and spectators who will watch every match.

and the efforts of teams from the SPL are the same as teams in Europe in the past when they increased their popularity before they could be known throughout the country and this will be mutually beneficial between teams from Europe and teams from the SPL when European teams get big profits from offers of money with large values and the saudi arabia team got the star player they wanted and to be honest i support this.

The intent is also different. The Chinese were hoping that when star overseas players participate in the national league, the local players will benefit form it and learn tactics from them. But it never worked out that way. A number of foreign players landed in China, but even after many years that didn't resulted in any appreciable rise in quality of play among the local players. One of the reasons that I could assume is that the style of play of these foreign players is not that suitable for the local Chinese players. Anyway, Saudi Arabia is not trying to repeat this mistake. Their primary aim is to make that country a global sporting hub.

It is totally different with the hype of European players moving to Chinese league. Saudi clubs did something much bigger than Chinese league. They have almost unlimited money to pay the transfer fees and players' salaries. So, even super stars players like Ronaldo, Benzema, and Neymar wants to accept Saudi clubs offers. As long as Saudi clubs can give big money to European players, I assume this hype will last a long time. Unless there is a regulation that will limit the funds of each Saudi club to sign new players. If there is a such regulation, Saudi clubs may be difficult to attract top players from Europe leagues to come to SPL.

It would be for sure. They are reeling in powerhouses of players which will definitely show in the performance of European Football moving forward. It would even affect its viewership since now, if you want to watch your idols play you'd have to tune in to the Saudi League instead of waiting for these new bloods from the European League to ripen up and be on par with the veterans. In any case this doesn't mean that the European League is done for. It's well established enough to suffer such defeat so I think the transfer of these players to newer leagues would incite major hiccups in the viewership and performance of the European League, but overtime the skill and anticipation of the people will catch up with it again.

I feel it'll become a big problem in future... I was just thinking of this some time ago until i got into this post... The Arabians are tryna wheel the attention and fame of the whole European football to themselves - But they all thought between themselves that it's not possible without inducing fascinating offers to European licensed footballers - now, the effects is oozing rapidly...
I believe that's Thier target, especially since they're also on multi billion projects that are anticipated 2030. Except there are ways to curb the transfer actions, boundaries are required immediately.

Sandra 🧑‍🦰

Before I go ahead to make my comments, I have a very crucial question to ask on this matter that is, if the European clubs paid as good as their Saudi counterparts, would it discourage the players from moving there? Well, I do not see any problem with this , these players moved from smaller clubs to the European clubs to get the fat paycheck and the exposure and now they are moving to Saudi Arabia for the pay and improve their league. Nothing bad here just the circle of football life happening. But the Saudis should know that they will need to hire the best coaches out of their jobs to get their league to be able to compete on the world stage.

I don't see this as a problem to the european clubs, some of those players that moved to the SPL are old and have passed their peak while others have limited game time at their former clubs. It is the dream of every player to play at the biggest club in the world and to compete at the highest level, the champions league is still the biggest competition as long as football is concern. Not every player will be swayed by the fat pockets of the Saudis, Mbappe proved it when he turned down the lucrative deal from Al Hilal because he wants to be in europe. BTW europe has a lot of talents so no matter the numbers of players that are leaving there's still going to more players to retake their spots, also Financial Fair Play (FFP) might step in to control the transfer activities of the Saudi Arabian clubs.

Almost all the aforementioned players have made a meaningful impact in the various leagues and clubs they played for. They are close to retirement and have seen it all. They might not have won the awards or trophy they desired, but in one way or another, endorsement deals and a good name have been made, what's more to add if not more money till retirement?

With these transfers to the Saudi league, no doubt the improvement in the Saudi pro league would be felt by all, because these transfers are mostly for experienced players.
I believe if you see the house recently occupied by Neymar and his family, you would get to understand why the money move and soft life makes sense.

There are other players that value dignity over money and that was what Messi did when he was offered a whooping deal of $500m per season to come to Saudi Arabia, 2 years deal could go to $1B but man turn down the deal, today he would have been the highest paid player in the word, even Ronaldo didn't have that high value, Mbape didn't come close, they knew how valuable Messi and used money to attract him but he humbly refuse but instead went to Inter Miami, the worst team in MLS with $150M for 2 and half years with a share from the club, aside from been the greatest player, he also won people's heart for been humble.

The players that are going there shouldn't be blame, who see money and ignore it for the passion you have, I just think that Saudi Arabia are over stretching deals in other to capture the players but there is nothing wrong in players decisions though, Ronaldinho, Ronaldo, and Drogba era were ballistic but the pays weren't great like that but yet they played, won Balon D'or and World cup but players like Mbape had fame when they are little and have enjoyed the privilege of European clubs, now that Saudia Arabia has step up their game, I don't see it as bad idea for players to earn money, passion and money goes together.

In addition, inflation has affected all price of items, players are not excluded, the amount players were been sold last season are different from now, if they don't increase these payments, the interest will not come from the players and Saudi knows that having this money on the table is the only way they can push the agenda of bringing those players to Saudi Arabia.

I do not think that it will be a "problem", they are sending the players they do not want and nobody else wants to Saudi clubs to make as much profit as they possibly could from these players, that's a good thing and not a bad thing if you ask me. I know that some people may give a few names that were good and not just unwanted players but those are still rare and those still cost a ton of money, like unheard of amounts of money.

Saudis could continue to pay players that much money, but it all comes out of the kings family, and that is why it is going to be tough to keep doing this. I bet that they are going to change somethings in the future and they will not be happy with the result when the time comes as well.

It may continue but I think it will be for few years only, as I said previously, it is just like a hype/trend only. Remember when there was similar moment in the past when some European players decided to move to Chinese Super League? I think what is happening now is just the same as that moment. Although Saudi Pro league is offering higher salary for star players but the prestige and the pride will always bigger in European leagues.

At the moment European football clubs have good players but this talk is about the long-term strategy that Middle Easterners have. Footballers like Messi, Ronaldo, Neymar are no ordinary players and they have a huge fanbase. In fact, a lot of people were fan of Barcelona and Real Madrid because of Messi and Ronaldo. So, if they steal a lot of players with high influence, European football won't be as popular as it was earlier and that's definitely a danger.
I really wonder, how much are these guys earning from oil business that they are able to spend billions of dollars like it's nothing while Europeans have to work really very hard to get wealthy.

Before mega transfer to Saudi Pro League teams there are many players move to Chinese Super League but its not defend for long time until several Chinese Super teams got bankrupt and many player back to European. Seems almost the same with Saudi Pro League although they have much money than Chinese Super League teams but have moment with European football won' to play there.
Not all football agree playing for the money because many of them want to play with passion and push up their career to be top player, they have motivation winning as many possible trophies still in the young age and retired one day later with teams want to pay bigger salary. Have been two season with Saudi League most interested, I don't think will extend for several years later because if still have much money some European football want to priority their career than earn much money.

This is crossing a limit. Why these Europeans always behave like cry-babies? No one ever complained when a lot of Asian, Latin American and African players decided to opt for the UEFA leagues instead of their own local leagues. Leagues in countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Japan and Nigeria suffered as a result of this. However no one ever published any news articles examining the negatives that non-European leagues had to deal with. Now the Saudi clubs are giving Europeans a taste of their own medicine and suddenly there is so much hue and cry. There can be no better example for hypocrisy.

Money is everything for these players; this is not the historical era of football, when players played for their passion of the game; alternatively, it is the contemporary era, where players play for the enormous payments they receive. This summer, the Saudi Pro League is bringing in substantial and famous big names. It's more like shifting your concentration from the impending league to the realm of popularity league. They emerged into the enormous space of European football when they first signed Cristiano Ronaldo, an established player in Europe; this maneuver was advantageous for them because his presence created additional opportunities for bringing in good European players with minimal efforts to date.

You are so very wrong about the mindset of the fans regarding this matter. European clubs have had these huge fan followings only because the clubs had their favorite players. A fan of Cristiano Ronaldo wouldn't be rooting for Juventus now when Ronaldo isn't a part of the team, similarly, every single player that moves out of a club basically takes his fan following with him to the other club that he joins no matter which continent he moves to and that is a fact.

So, all these players moving from Europe to the Middle East will have a huge impact on the fan following of the European Leagues and clubs that they've been a part of. We can already see this but this will be more evident in the times to come. So these transfers are also going to cause a plunge in the attendants at stadiums of European leagues for sure.

Money speaking!

The Saudi Professional League is a very attractive league now, especially for those who have already built their career in football. As it is now, this league is trying to woo the well-known footballers into it and I see nothing bad in that. There are no FIFA and other governing bodies' rules at present that prohibit such, once the bargain is reached, a deal would be struck.

Yet, it might later be a competition between Europe and Saudi over time, particularly on preferred players. This will only increase the demand for some targeted players and shoot the price higher if it persists. And note that forces of the three parties involved will always play out, the Saudi, EPL/Others and players involved.

None can also force the other to go or hold back if there is no bidding contract between them.