James Calvert: Europe should fear the Saudi revolution
There are the beginnings of a football brain drain taking place right now that should make Europe’s top clubs more than slightly nervous.
When Cristiano Ronaldo joined the Saudi Pro League (SPL), many people dismissed it as just an ‘emerging’ football nation trying to enhance its reputation by signing a big name in the twilight of their career. It’s a move that’s been tried by other leagues over the years – the US and China for example – with varying degrees of success.
But a few months later it doesn’t feel like the CR7 signing was quite so random. In fact, it looks more like it was the first step of a cleverly constructed and carefully designed plan to grow the SPL into a major league.
Not only has Ronaldo been joined by a number of other stars in the latter stages of their careers – Karim Benzema, N’Golo Kanté, Kalidou Koulibaly, Édouard Mendy – players in their prime have started to sign up. Players like Portugal international Rúben Neves who, at just 26, is still a few years away from reaching his peak.
You can rest assured he won’t be the only younger player to swap the fierce competitiveness of the European leagues for the relative calm of Saudi this summer because, at the end of the day, money talks. And the SPL is capable of chattering forever.
To say the Saudi league has money to burn would be a gross understatement. Four of its teams are owned by the state investment fund itself, which means they are utterly minted. And those bottomless resources mean they are not likely to stop throwing money at players until they have achieved their goal of making the SPL one of the top five leagues in the world.
Some – many – players will resist the call of the cash. But others will be unable to turn down the chance of earning two, three or four times what they currently get. And that will keep this mini exodus ticking over.
At the end of the day, money talks. And the SPL is capable of chattering forever
Admittedly, I can’t see the SPL ever having the pulling power or glamour of the English, Spanish, Italian and German leagues no matter what happens. Europe’s top clubs will know they have history, tradition and massive supporter bases to keep them way ahead of the Saudis.
But one effect this recruitment drive will have is to push up wages at a time when many of Europe’s clubs are already struggling to make ends meet. And that is something the whole of the sport could really have done without.
When Chinese football tried to buy its way to the big time it failed primarily because the money started to dry up. Saudi clubs will not have that problem, which is why, as I said at the start, European football needs to be on its toes.
Just look at what Saudi Arabia did to golf – starting a rival tournament, pumping billions into it and eventually completing what was, to all intents and purposes, a takeover of the entire sport.
They won’t manage the same with football. But they have the power to cause all sorts of financial problems for Europe’s elite clubs. And that is exactly what they will do if it helps them achieve their goals.
They’ve timed this to perfection, sensing a general financial weakness in Europe and using that to their advantage.
Where this all ends is anyone’s guess but a financial battle like this does have the potential to get rather messy.
At the end of the day, the only people who will really benefit are the players.
Am I a VAR minority?
Last week I wrote about a survey that said two-thirds of English football fans were now actively opposed to VAR.
To be honest it’s a figure that fits in nicely with my own opinion, as I believe the drawbacks of the technology far outweigh the benefits.
Maybe there are less glaringly obvious errors when VAR is in use, I will grant you that. But is the price we are paying worth it?
Would I rather see referees making the occasional awful decision than watch a sport where I can no longer celebrate a goal with confidence? Absolutely. Every day of the week. And twice on Sundays.
But while my opinion seems to tally with fans based in England, it seems I am very much at odds with supporters based in Malta, who seem to be very much on VAR’s side.
Nobody who e-mailed, messaged or commented on the article – not a single, solitary person – was on my side; and there was a lot of feedback.
To say I was surprised by this is an understatement. But to show I am not biased I will print a few of the e-mails I received down below.
Having said that, I would really like to hear from anybody in our fair lands who does agree with me that VAR is a technological abomination that has devalued football.
Don’t all shout at once...
Your say
“I get it that you are against VAR. So, what do you think of the way that the Dutch referee ruined the under-23 match France vs Italy? No, it did not concern England, otherwise you would cry for ages about the way that it was refereed. I am referring specifically about the foul that led to the second goal of France, about the penalty that was not given and a third incident about the goal that was not given, which crossed the goal line and, to add insult to injury, was cleared by hand. If there was VAR, most probably the result would have been a win for Italy.” Peter Montebello, e-mail.
“Without VAR there is no future for football. When there wasn’t regular live football on television it was easier for mistakes to be allowed, but now we can all see a hundred replays when referees miss incidents, so VAR has to be implemented to make football fairer.” Tony Abela, e-mail.
“Having been a referee myself for many years and reading your opinion piece, I only can say that you seem to focus on UK football and neglecting about how in many other sports worldwide, even some with larger attendance than UK football, e.g. ice hockey, American Football, etc., this system exists too and without it being criticised.” Pierre Kemmler, e-mail.
“VAR is here to stay as it should be. Get over it Calvert.” C. Grima, e-mail.
