In the space of 1 transfer window, the Saudi League has more stars than the PL… is it a symptom of City being allowed to freely cheat?

[Rhyme Animal]

The startlingly sudden rise of the Saudi league is unprecedented, and I’m kinda surprised more isn’t being made of it tbh.

When Ronaldo signed for the Saudi League, less than a year ago, he was mocked… now, in literally one window, the Saudi League has more star players than the PL - with the PL also losing Kane.

From a marketing POV, this is like a fecking nuclear strike on the PL.

I can’t help but see a correlation between City being allowed to cheat for a decade and thus render the PL a one team league, culminating in their treble and the very same Summer, the PL losing so many of its stars to a league that was less than a year ago viewed a complete joke.

I feel that City being allowed to blatantly and vigorously cheat with absolutely no consequence has subtly but chronically undermined the PL, it’s competitiveness, and thus it’s standing.

I also think that them finally winning the CL - again with no ramifications for their cheating - has slightly devalued that competition also.

Of course there are other factors, but the fact that the PL is suddenly losing so many of its players directly in sequence with City’s absolute dominance is not a coincidence imo.

A year ago, people thought the Saudi League’s attempt at dominance was similar to the Chinese League’s attempt - now it is being viewed very differently.

Will it succeed in knocking the PL off its perch? Or… a more dubious question… has it already done so?

And is the PL to blame for this having sat by idly, obviously paid off, and allowed a corrupt team to blatantly cheat for an entire decade?

 

[Wumminator]

Yes.

It is becoming increasingly obvious that Chelsea being owned by abramovic was the start of the end. Money now rules all and these countries have the most money.

I look forward to the prem being fecked over.

 

[stw2022]

It's a pile of shite with a smattering of sellouts.

 

[Skills]

Human beings like money and the things money can give them. There's no limit to the amount of money that's enough for a lot of people.

The Saudi's have an insane amount of money to spend being one of the most resource rich countries on the planet.

There's nothing more than that to it.

 

[SuperiorXI]

I'd rather watch paint dry

 

[Solius]

What stars? It’s mostly washed players with the odd strange one in there (Veiga, Neves)

 

[luke511]

The combined player value of the prem is still over 10x that of the Saudi league, it won't knock the Premier League off its perch for a very long time, if ever. I wouldn't be surprised if the country is inhabitable within the next 50 to 100 years.

 

[11101]

What stars?

Retirees and nobodies from what I can see.

 

[littlepeasoup]

The yard stick for the Saudi league shouldn’t be what mercenaries it can draft in for daft amounts of money, it should be when they can start producing their own.

That’s the thing that differentiates the Premier League from the Saudi League. It makes stars, it doesn’t buy them.

 

[adexkola]

I don't buy the premise that the Saudi League has more stars than the PL

Then again I don't buy the idea of countries laundering reputations through Jordan Henderson so maybe I'm missing something

 

[stw2022]

Vanarama League South attendances, Sunday League players. World beating

 

[Eddy_JukeZ]

Who are the stars in the Saudi League?

Ronaldo? He's literally finished as a top level player.

The only applicable one is Neymar and he might be finished in a year or two as well.

 

[wr8_utd]

Who are the stars in the Saudi League?

Ronaldo? He's literally finished as a top level player.

The only applicable one is Neymar and he might be finished in a year or two as well.

Mane, Mahrez, Neymar, Benzema and Ronaldo are a solid bunch. Then you've got guys like ASM Firmino as well. Ofcourse, it's a non serious league and not going to match any of the top leagues for a long long time but it's done very well to grab a lot of big stars, whether past it or not.

 

[Maclooch]

I hope they add Haaland to their list of ‘stars’ very soon.

 

[Vidyoyo]

It suggests some level of precariousness in terms of the PL probably only being its current version of success because of the amount of rich owners it has and huge wages it pays.

Saudi won't massively dent this because of location, culture and the fact it doesn't include lucrative competitions like the Champion's League. It'll only ever attract a minority of stars a la China.

What I think would be more interesting is if, say, several rich owners tried to do a Newcastle in La Liga or Serie A. I imagine that could hugely affect the pulling power of the PL over time.

 

[Hugh Jass]

We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.

 

[Eddy_JukeZ]

Mane, Mahrez, Neymar, Benzema and Ronaldo are a solid bunch. Then you've got guys like ASM Firmino as well. Ofcourse, it's a non serious league and not going to match any of the top leagues for a long long time but it's done very well to grab a lot of big stars, whether past it or not.

I did forget about Benz.

I wouldn't consider Mane and Mahrez stars based on their last season.

 

[stepic]

More stars? Come on now.

 

[Dannn411]

What a title. Absolutely false one too. Social media following does not a star derermine. The best players on the planet still play in Europe.

 

[Zen]

I still don't actually know how to find where I could even watch the Saudi League.... if I actually wanted too. Same with LIV. All I've seen are occasional twitter clips.

All this money and they are hardly driving the actual key thing of how a fan can actually watch the thing anywhere. Still just see it going the way of China really, just with a harder push because they seemingly take the obvious massive business losses comfortably.

 

[P-Nut]

I still don't actually know how to find where I could even watch the Saudi League.... if I actually wanted too. Same with LIV. All I've seen are occasional twitter clips.

All this money and they are hardly driving the actual key thing of how a fan can actually watch the thing anywhere. Still just see it going the way of China really, just with a harder push because they seemingly take the obvious massive business losses comfortably.

Are they not aiming it at the Asian market more so than the western world?

 

[morisjee]

1. City (UAE) has nothing to do with the Saudis. They will become real competitors. Qatar too. Qatar in particular is showing signs of establishing a high-level QPL itself. Coutinho will join Qatar, and Verratti has also been offered there by PSG. But that's just a guess.

And for those who are still arguing with China, all I can say is don't get your hopes up. The Saudis will invest 20 billion by 2030 and more if necessary, according to the Saudi Ministry of Sports. This matter is decided anyway. A possible loss is already taken into account.
Just to clarify what 20 billion is: 15 years EPL transfer window! Or 7 years of all European leagues combined. Have fun!
In other words, the budget of the SPL compared to the European leagues is about as big as one would compare the US military budget and the military budget of Luxembourg. It is hopeless.

I say they don't stop until they fully buy the football.
And UEFA gives you wildcards. If only because television wants to have the stars in the program.

 

[Red Star One]

It only has more “stars” than Premier League if you rate current Neymar above likes of Saka and Rashford. At the end of the day Saudi league is nothing but a vanity project with a few retirees getting their last pay check. Literally no one is excited to watch their league week in week out to see past-peak Mane vs Ruben Neves.

 

[morisjee]

If you see which names are running around at the top clubs in the SPL, these names could just as well have been in a UCL semi-final:

al-Ittihad is still at the beginning of his squad planning. In addition to Fabinho, Kante, Jota* Benzema, 4-5 other top-class players are expected (DeGea, Varane, Gabriel, Salah...? *is awarded?)

al Hilal: Bono, Koulibaly, Savic, Neves, Malcom, Mitrovic, Neymar (a new top - LB/RB, Felix...)

al-Nassr: Telles, Laporte, Fofana, Brozovic, Otavio, Talisca*, Ronaldo, Mane (Allison, Lloris, DeGea *will likely be replaced by a notable winger)

al-Ahli: Mendy, Ibanez, Demiral, Kessie, Veiga, Maximin, Firmino, Mahrez (DePaul, Verrati?)

... a very strange retirement league.

 

[Rhyme Animal]

More stars? Come on now.

Please note, I didn’t say a better level of football - yet.

When you actually look at the PL in terms of star players, team by team, you start to realise that there is a huge lack in comparison with its own history - and it’s star players that attract younger fans and that’s what young fans care about these days.

If kids start caring more about the Saudi League than the PL or La Liga, that’s massive. And kids these days follow players more than teams. The pull of having Ronaldo, Neymar, Salah in the same league cannot be overstated.

If we look at the PL top 6 other than City from last year, and draw up the two biggest star players for each team…

Arsenal - Saka, Jesus

Utd - Bruno, Rashford

Brighton - Mitoma, ?

Newcastle - Wilson, Isak

Liverpool - Salah (soon to be in Saudi League), Gakpo? Darwin?

Spurs - Kane (not in PL anymore), Son

It’s poor. And further still, I wouldn’t be particularly shocked if ANY of these players went to the Saudi League in the next 2 seasons.

Then compare to Saudi League big hitters - Benzema, Neymar, Mane, Salah (likely), Ronaldo, Mitrovic, Mahrez, Saint Max, Firmino, Milinkovic Savic, Otavio, Neves…

Yes, some of them are older, but the ages of players going there is getting younger and the big names are HUGE names with huge pulling power.

Their league is obviously not as strong as the PL at present, but their list of star players is larger than the PL’s now imo.

I think people are underestimating what’s happening here tbh, and in just a few seasons I think it’ll start to dawn on people that the Saudi League has properly altered the landscape.
And as I said previously, I think the Prem’s one team league status has contributed, somewhat to it.

 

[glazed]

In some ways I would welcome the collapse of international interest in the Premier League. It would at least get rid of the sports washers and the US parasites. Let them take their excess somewhere else.

 

[FlawlessThaw]

It’s poor. And further still, I wouldn’t be particularly shocked if ANY of these players went to the Saudi League in the next 2 seasons.

Then compare to Saudi League big hitters - Benzema, Neymar, Mane, Salah (likely), Ronaldo, Mitrovic, Mahrez, Saint Max, Firmino, Milinkovic Savic, Otavio, Neves…

Completely disagree with the premise that Saudi has more stars particularly when you count Mitrovic, Saint Max, Firminho and Neves as stars when they certainly wouldn't be in the PL.

Sure they got Mahrez and possibly Neymar as the players I would definitively say would get into all PL sides (let's ignore Salah for now). Not sure about the rest.

Also your comparison makes zero sense. The top 2 stars from each top PL team compared to any that you could name in Saudi, pretty poor comparison when you realise you missed the likes of Odegaard, Declan Rice, Martinelli, Caicedo, Enzo Fernandez, Bruno G who would all be stars in the Saudi Arabia.

 

[luke511]

Please note, I didn’t say a better level of football - yet.

When you actually look at the PL in terms of star players, team by team, you start to realise that there is a huge lack in comparison with its own history - and it’s star players that attract younger fans and that’s what young fans care about these days.

If kids start caring more about the Saudi League than the PL or La Liga, that’s massive. And kids these days follow players more than teams. The pull of having Ronaldo, Neymar, Salah in the same league cannot be overstated.

If we look at the PL top 6 other than City from last year, and draw up the two biggest star players for each team…

Arsenal - Saka, Jesus

Utd - Bruno, Rashford

Brighton - Mitoma, ?

Newcastle - Wilson, Isak

Liverpool - Salah (soon to be in Saudi League), Gakpo? Darwin?

Spurs - Kane (not in PL anymore), Son

It’s poor. And further still, I wouldn’t be particularly shocked if ANY of these players went to the Saudi League in the next 2 seasons.

Then compare to Saudi League big hitters - Benzema, Neymar, Mane, Salah (likely), Ronaldo, Mitrovic, Mahrez, Saint Max, Firmino, Milinkovic Savic, Otavio, Neves…

Yes, some of them are older, but the ages of players going there is getting younger and the big names are HUGE names with huge pulling power.

Their league is obviously not as strong as the PL at present, but their list of star players is larger than the PL’s now imo.

I think people are underestimating what’s happening here tbh, and in just a few seasons I think it’ll start to dawn on people that the Saudi League has properly altered the landscape.
And as I said previously, I think the Prem’s one team league status has contributed, somewhat to it.

PL players - https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/premier-league/marktwerte/wettbewerb/GB1
SPL players - https://www.transfermarkt.com/professional-league/marktwerte/wettbewerb/SA1

The estimated values are rough but it gives you a good idea how far behind the Saudi League is in comparison, a few big names have clouded your judgement a bit. Telles is ranked 34th most valuable player for the Saudi league, whilst Van Dijk is 88th in the PL, someone who you would classify as a 'star'.

 

[luke511]

In some ways I would welcome the collapse of international interest in the Premier League. It would at least get rid of the sports washers and the US parasites. Let them take their excess somewhere else.

Sabotaging Fantasy Premier League is the Saudi's best shot

 

[Rhyme Animal]

PL players - https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/premier-league/marktwerte/wettbewerb/GB1
SPL players - https://www.transfermarkt.com/professional-league/marktwerte/wettbewerb/SA1

The estimated values are rough but it gives you a good idea how far behind the Saudi League is in comparison, a few big names have clouded your judgement a bit. Telles is ranked 34th most valuable player for the Saudi league, whilst Van Dijk is 88th in the PL, someone who you would classify as a 'star'.

But the tides are turning.

I haven’t announced that the Saudi League has overall more player worth.

But it has more star players, and they’re getting younger and younger.

If Mbappe went there, you’d probably have to concede that they then had the best player on Earth too.

This was unthinkable just a year ago, it really isn’t now.

 

[glazed]

Sabotaging Fantasy Premier League is the Saudi's best shot

I mean a league without financial fair play would be their dream anyway. So might as well make their own. World Cup every weekend.

 

[stw2022]

Like comparing The Beatles to Aqua just because she's spent more on her tits than Ringo did and claim a novelty number 1 represented the "turning tide" of what is considered the greatest music act of all time.

 

[ROFLUTION]

1. City (UAE) has nothing to do with the Saudis. They will become real competitors. Qatar too. Qatar in particular is showing signs of establishing a high-level QPL itself. Coutinho will join Qatar, and Verratti has also been offered there by PSG. But that's just a guess.

And for those who are still arguing with China, all I can say is don't get your hopes up. The Saudis will invest 20 billion by 2030 and more if necessary, according to the Saudi Ministry of Sports. This matter is decided anyway. A possible loss is already taken into account.
Just to clarify what 20 billion is: 15 years EPL transfer window! Or 7 years of all European leagues combined. Have fun!
In other words, the budget of the SPL compared to the European leagues is about as big as one would compare the US military budget and the military budget of Luxembourg. It is hopeless.

I say they don't stop until they fully buy the football.
And UEFA gives you wildcards. If only because television wants to have the stars in the program.

Sounds like a goodbye to football for me if they succeed in breaking up european football (which they will). Dont want to watch a project like that with Saudi League football

They now have two key ingredients to what players want: wages, big players, they need prestige but that could happen when european TV wants to have the big stars and they feature in Champions League.

You have to wonder why European politicians dont do anything. It’ll be a huge loss of culture in just 5 years.

 

[noelyman]

Like comparing The Beatles to Aqua just because she's spent more on her tits than Ringo did and claim a novelty number 1 represented the "turning tide" of what is considered the greatest music act of all time.

Great analogy. I had no idea Ringo had falsies

 

[RedRonaldo]

There’s no way they could challenge PL yet. But I think they are going to challenge to the title of “top 5 league” very soon.

I mean, they only have to compete with Ligue 1, Portuguese league and Dutch league. With the amount of money they are spending, they are surely going to at least “match” their quality very soon

 

[Wumminator]

When I went to Portugal recently, the Saudi league was everywhere on tv. I know that is the Ronaldo factor, but I couldn't believe how many adverts I saw for it.

 

[avgp_1]

I wont brush it off as a retirement league, though PL is safe, still the most popular and probably best out there to watch.

But it'll be interesting to see how they expand on this summer, they've signed some pretty decent CL level players to go along with the big names. If they expand their scouting into the likes of South America, where clubs are easily swayed by the money on offer I could see it disrupt the 2nd tier clubs across Europe. Super League might well become a necessity for these clubs.

 

[fallengt]

Without substance, it will explode in few seasons.

 

[CallyRed]

Vanarama League South attendances, Sunday League players. World beating

What about the North?

 

[duffer]

It's a retirement home. They've got no "stars' who aren't over the hill.