First it was Cristiano Ronaldo, then Benzema, then Kanté and Mané. Saudi Arabia is amassing as much soccer talent as its money can afford. I mean, a lot. The Arab country is immersed in a stage that perfectly defines Sportswashing: washing the image of a state through sport. You already know the recent history of the Saudi nation: it organizes competitions and celebrates Formula 1 events, tennis, MotoGP, rallies, horses, basketball…. Of everything. But the next step in his vaunted 'Vision 2030' is football, a cult sport, never better said, in a country devoted to Islam. They have taken the king of sports by the arm and they are not going to let go, millions through. Because while we talk about how they are going to change the market, they are already doing it, tweaking the reality of European football and its players, offering salaries and transfer figures that are out of all logic.
“They are being a boom in the market,” admits the agent for soccer players Álvaro Navazo, from the company You First. “The money there is outrageous. For those it does change their lives. Those who go from earning 15 to 45 million a year, I suppose life will be more or less the same,” they admit.
Arabia's entry into the European market has been as unexpected as it was wild. They have come with everything. “That they sign veteran stars like Cristiano or Benzema does not surprise me, but that they take Koulibaly, Kanté or Ziyech does,” reflects Navazo, who has had a relationship with Saudi football and brought Pablo Machín there. “The clubs here cannot compete. The Saudis themselves know that people go there for money. They are not deceived.”
“They are sowing to organize the World Cup”
In 2023, Arabia has gone a step further in its sports policy. Vision 2030, created in 2016 by Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman, marked as a first step the obtaining of sporting events and then the improvement and exploitation of their own competitions.. we have reached that point. “They are paving the way to organize a World Cup. Through sport, they whitewash their human rights problems and their authoritarian regime,” sums up Toni Roca, director of the Himnus specialized soccer firm and the Sports Law Institute.. “People see that Cristiano and Benzema are there and they think 'well, it shouldn't be so bad',” he added.
After the signing of Cristiano by Al-Nassr, this June Saudi Arabia changed the reality of eight clubs in its League. The Public Investment Fund took ownership of Al-Hilal, Al-Nassr, Al-Ittihad and Al-Ahli, the four most powerful teams. In other words, he privatized them with the aim of attracting more investment, accumulating even more money and convincing more stars.. In addition, it transferred the ownership of four other clubs to large companies in the country. The Al-Qadisiyah, from the Dammam area, the third largest in the nation, is now owned by the Saudi oil company Aramco; Al-Diriyah, from the city of the same name, has become part of the Diriyah Gate Development Authority, the company created by the government to boost the image of the area; Al-Ula, from the Medina region, has been run since this month by the Royal Commission for Al-Ula, another company created by the Saudi government to exploit that area of the country; and Al-Suqoor Club FC, which plays in the third division of Saudi soccer, is now owned by NEOM, Saudi's big project to create a smart city in Tabuk province.
These teams, strategically located in the East, West and North of Arabia, will not be the only ones to be privatized, as Saudi Sports Minister Abdulaziz bin Turki Al-Faisal has announced: “There will be more at the end of this year. I hope this invites more private sector companies to invest in the sports sector.”
“F1 is done here and nobody has a moral dilemma”
Arabia, which arrived later than Kuwait, Iraq or the United Arab Emirates to participate in a soccer World Cup, has also been slow to appear on the world sports scene. Qatar has already held its own World Cup and the Emirates is behind the current European champion. they need to speed up. First came the purchase of Newcastle and now the globalization of their league, which they want to make “one of the ten best in the world”. “The agents try to convince the players not to leave. You earn money, yes, but sportingly you're dead.”
The Saudi government's plan is to quadruple the income generated by the championship, from 120 million euros a year now to the 600 projected for 2030, multiplying the value of the league to 4,000 million dollars, they calculate. “In China they limited the issue of transfers, but here they are not interested. The Asian Confederation would have to create a Financial Fair Play like that of UEFA to limit them, but they are not interested,” explains Roca.
All while the country is involved in a social and cultural transformation that still does not convince many people. “Have we not taken players to China or Russia? I do not justify it, but why is this standard set in some countries and not in others? Formula 1 is done in Arabia and nobody has a moral dilemma there,” reasons Navazo , who confesses that “99% of players don't have that moral dilemma”. “They value the economic, that people are serious and organized and that their family is well.”