Mickeza
still gets no respect
Which they’ve already announced they’re going to do.It will for sure grow in relevance but to be really relevant they will have to invest a looot more.
Which they’ve already announced they’re going to do.It will for sure grow in relevance but to be really relevant they will have to invest a looot more.
Wondered why it took so long for someone to mention this. Also laughed a little reading this.The bit that kills me is 'Benzema, Neymar and Henderson'
FFP isn't there to ensure "the dominance of European football". It's there to ensure a level playing field where clubs can't just spend well beyond what they bring in. We know for a fact that this is barely enforced.City and PSG don’t threaten the dominance of European football do they? Or have I missed that? They also aren’t giving players hundreds of millions a year. They just signed a top Spanish youth international linked with every top team in Europe ahead of the Italian champions so I’m not convinced your “glorified retirement home” will remain accurate.
Ok we will see then. But I think the Mastercard ad "There are some things money can't buy; for everything else, there's Mastercard" applies here as well. You can't buy football culture and atmosphere you have to develop that. I don't think buying some players and then letting them play in a third division setting will make you the center of the footballing world. It all feels very artificial right now.Which they’ve already announced they’re going to do.
We all know Mancini is partial to a few petrodollars. It was probably an easy sell.Many are not even aware of what Saudi Arabia actually did with Mancini. It was an unprecedented show of power. Just got the reigning European champion coach to betray a country as crazy about football as Italy. There were many NT coaches who were available. Whether there is a Mancini, Tite, Conte, Galtier or Löw on the sidelines: what difference does that make? Although someone like Löw would not even take for free. They want people with decency and charisma, not someone who smells their balls all the time.
What they’ve invested thus far is a fraction of what they’re going to invest, seriously.It will for sure grow in relevance but to be really relevant they will have to invest a looot more.
It will happen if Uefa accepts the Saudi winners in. The only reason it was stopped from happening was due to UEFA having the moral upper hand when compared to our current european set up.I wish the Super League had just happened.
Yep, and for fans for thinking 'Sky' (who sold the game out) are on their sides.The biggest scam UEFA pulled was managing to get the big clubs to pull out of the Super League. What a shitty, corrupt organisation.
indeed. Said it at the time that football needs to break away from UEFA.I wish the Super League had just happened.
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I guess than they will be barred from playing for National Team in World cup/ Euros?UEFA have no choice really and this was obviously Saudi's play from the very start.
If they deny a place to a Saudi team, the Suadi's just set up the Super League themselves and slowly attract more teams to ditch UEFA for their competition. I anticpate some of the big teams are already in bed in the Saudi's on this (Real, Barca, Boehly)
Spanish FA are asking UEFA to ban them?? Is this what LVG called horny football masochism??They can replace Spanish teams, who are apparently going to be forced to pull out
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It's funny that all it is taking is one league outside Europe (and all uefa financial constraints) flexing its muscles like this and some are all in for going back to the exclusionary super league idea. Something that was led by those who would almost certainly have embraced any rich enough non-european teams/leagues over allowing smaller European league teams a fair chance at competing.Why do you people think European Superleague would have been different? Of course if that was made, Saudis would have been more than welcome to join. Perez, Agnelli and American investment bankers who were backing Superleague were ready to disregard tradition and everything because of money. So what makes you think they wouldn't welcome Saudi clubs with open arms?
There are no good guys in the footballing world, I think everyone should be aware by now.
More cheer than Man City winning the CL and the treble.
But football is also about tradition, history, rivalries and no matter how much money you spend you don't have those in Saudi Arabia. It will never get traction in Europe unless they join European competitions.If people from outside Asia start to massively consuming the Saudi League products (streaming, news, merchandising, tourism, etc), I can see them joining in in the long run. They would probably have to change from AFC to UEFA though, but as some pointed Israel already opened a precedent. Football is a business and is more tied to the entertainment industry than to sports industry, and Saudi League adding some more millions of extra viewers would be seen as a good value in a business perspective.
100% about the part of football being something that is an important part of history and somehow helped some countries to create an identity. I actually have a club per country that I support because I always loved football since very young and in the old times there was a lot of leagues in open channel : Man Utd in England, Athletic in Spain, Palmeiras in Brasil (clearly influenced on my teen years by Sepultura and Faith No More who used to wear Palmeiras shirts on concerts), etc, etc.But football is also about tradition, history, rivalries and no matter how much money you spend you don't have those in Saudi Arabia. It will never get traction in Europe unless they join European competitions.
You really think English, German, Portuguese, Brazilians, Italians or Argentinians will give a damm about Al Hilal against Al Nassr? European or South American clubs, cities, countries have decades even centuries of rich history and bitter rivalries. No billions poured into a soulless league will change that. You can't instill passion on people so they follow a certain sport that has no tradition and historial in a country. You just had a country pay supporters in the last world cup ffs.
Just see our own country as an example. You have rabid 3 big club supporters, who only care about their club, which also kills the competitiveness of our league due to the self centered nature, do you think anyone gives a damm about the Saudi League? We just had our arguably biggest player in history join AL Nassr and no one gives a shite. No amount of stars or pseudo stars bought will change that. People want the derby wins, the underdog cup runs, the regional clashes, beating the Spanish, the Germans, the English, the bragging rights, the taunts, the laughs, the tears, things that matter.
Al Nassr can come here and buy Gonçalo Inácio, Pedro Gonçalves, Diomande or Whoever they want for their Saudi Super League presented by McDonald's and I will still follow and root for Sporting till I die.
Americans having no soul or culture doesn't equate to the rest of the world and Messi is a complete outlier in terms of pull, too.100% about the part of football being something that is an important part of history and somehow helped some countries to create an identity. I actually have a club per country that I support because I always loved football since very young and in the old times there was a lot of leagues in open channel : Man Utd in England, Athletic in Spain, Palmeiras in Brasil (clearly influenced on my teen years by Sepultura and Faith No More who used to wear Palmeiras shirts on concerts), etc, etc.
The old school supporters like us couldn't care less about Al Nassr or Inter Miami. I myself only saw highlights when they are on the news, never went to youtube to search and watch Saudi League or MLS highlights, good grievance.
But the truth is, the new generations follow a lot the **** of personality. They will follow that player/manager everywhere, and the truth is that thanks to Messi in Miami and Ronaldo/Benzema/etc in Saudi Arabia, a lot of millions of sheeps are now consuming Saudi Football / MLS products. Just watch this thread and you'll see that a lot of people are actually starting to watch the games or at least following them live! The youtube views of Saudi League are now an average of 180k+ per video, when before they could barely get a couple of thousands.
Inter Miami has now millions of views per video (Messi clearly won the popularity contest on this league trade) and had to ask for suppliers to produce more merchandising because it's sold out!
Inter Miami stadiums are overbooked and people actually leave the stadium when Messi is substituted. We cannot underestimate that a lot has changed, and many millions of people now support personalities ahead of clubs.
The Saudis are perfectly aware of this: that's why they are trying to buy as many high profile players as possible, because that's what "the fans of the future" want.
As I said, this only depends on people: if people outside the middle east start consuming Saudi Football, they will get where they want.
The average football fan doesn't care about the Saudi league, and I doubt they will.100% about the part of football being something that is an important part of history and somehow helped some countries to create an identity. I actually have a club per country that I support because I always loved football since very young and in the old times there was a lot of leagues in open channel : Man Utd in England, Athletic in Spain, Palmeiras in Brasil (clearly influenced on my teen years by Sepultura and Faith No More who used to wear Palmeiras shirts on concerts), etc, etc.
The old school supporters like us couldn't care less about Al Nassr or Inter Miami. I myself only saw highlights when they are on the news, never went to youtube to search and watch Saudi League or MLS highlights, good grievance.
But the truth is, the new generations follow a lot the **** of personality. They will follow that player/manager everywhere, and the truth is that thanks to Messi in Miami and Ronaldo/Benzema/etc in Saudi Arabia, a lot of millions of sheeps are now consuming Saudi Football / MLS products. Just watch this thread and you'll see that a lot of people are actually starting to watch the games or at least following them live! The youtube views of Saudi League are now an average of 180k+ per video, when before they could barely get a couple of thousands.
Inter Miami has now millions of views per video (Messi clearly won the popularity contest on this league trade) and had to ask for suppliers to produce more merchandising because it's sold out!
Inter Miami stadiums are overbooked and people actually leave the stadium when Messi is substituted. We cannot underestimate that a lot has changed, and many millions of people now support personalities ahead of clubs.
The Saudis are perfectly aware of this: that's why they are trying to buy as many high profile players as possible, because that's what "the fans of the future" want.
As I said, this only depends on people: if people outside the middle east start consuming Saudi Football, they will get where they want.
Just horrible. Wonder what's the reaction from Newcastle fans? They obviously don't care as long as the money keeps flowing in. English fans hypocrites shocker.Now sentencing people to death based on their tweets, retweets and YouTube content.
https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/08/29/saudi-arabia-man-sentenced-death-tweets
Country like any other, nothing to see here
Just horrible. Wonder what's the reaction from Newcastle fans? They obviously don't care as long as the money keeps flowing in. English fans hypocrites shocker.
And Ronaldo to go there and promote this is unforgivable. I was already very critical of him for the sad egotistical show he put up in the world cup and now he's actively endorsing this. Very disappointed in Ronaldo and I don't think I'll ever get over this.
Literally all your posts are about whitewashing Saudis, did you really sign up here to serve us this whataboutist bullshit “yes they sentence teenagers to death in Saudi but don’t forget about how hard whistleblowers have in the US”? Embarrassing and ridiculous, I hope you at least have a skin in the game and not do this out of sheer idiocy.I definitely don't agree with that. But one should also be fair and mention who these people are, such as, Awad al-Qarni, Salman al-Odeh, Ali al-Omari and Safar al-Hawali. And how much chaos and mischief they have caused in the Middle East with their knowledge. Find out what "Takfiris" are and what extremist ideology they represent. Many "jihadis" refer to these scholars. This is hate speech and they would face similar threats in the USA as well. And if you researched in more detail you would know they are all backed by Qatari "Muslim Brothers". Exactly these Qataris, by the way, who will soon be in charge here. And now?
Anyway, I think politics and sport should be separated. Otherwise, things would not end well for western countries either. In the USA (Where Messi went) for example, concentration camps are operated. The torture facilities at Abu Ghraib were also not long ago. There, for decades, life has been made hell for critical journalists who have uncovered truths about war crimes by the US Army. Whistleblowers are brutally persecuted. In Israel, for example, critical journalists are simply executed on the street. They don't even bother to hide it. Why is nobody talking about this?
Literally all your posts are about whitewashing Saudis, did you really sign up here to serve us this whataboutist bullshit “yes they sentence teenagers to death in Saudi but don’t forget about how hard whistleblowers have in the US”? Embarrassing and ridiculous, I hope you at least have a skin in the game and not do this out of sheer idiocy.
And obviously you think politics and sports should be serparated
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Scottish Premier League?When they spent trillions of petrodollars on pointless war equipment, no one in the West wondered how useful it actually was.
Now they are investing in soft power that is ridiculous compared to what they have invested in hard power. It's not even worth mentioning. Suddenly you seem to be worried about the Saudis and wonder how sensible this waste of money actually is!?
For their circumstances, the soft power is available at ridiculous prices and also has the nice side effect of entertaining your own people.
Even if the SPL makes several hundred million losses every year, even after 2030: who says that they are necessarily interested in profit?
I don't think MBS will care that couple hundred million. That's how much he spends on paintings.
Many hope that at some point they will lose interest in it. But why should they? Football is a global phenomenon and too effective for their agenda for them to lose interest. It's far more important to them than the couple hundred million you pay for the SPL, if at all.
Probably the usual ''Let's keep football and politics separate, like.''Just horrible. Wonder what's the reaction from Newcastle fans? They obviously don't care as long as the money keeps flowing in. English fans hypocrites shocker.
And Ronaldo to go there and promote this is unforgivable. I was already very critical of him for the sad egotistical show he put up in the world cup and now he's actively endorsing this. Very disappointed in Ronaldo and I don't think I'll ever get over this.
A bit stupid saying that when this happens
I thought we were over this. There is a reason Israel is in UEFA and not in Asian confederation.A bit stupid saying that when this happens
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_football_clubs_in_international_competitions
I’m the last guy to defend state of Israel but they were admitted to UEFA in early 90s after numerous Arab countries in their region refused to play against them and it would be impossible to host games between those teams. Completely different situation.A bit stupid saying that when this happens
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_football_clubs_in_international_competitions