Saudi Pro League: A cash-grab opportunity for players or nation’s development system for continental and global domination?

Saudi Pro League’s most successful team Al Hilal caught headlines in the summer of 2023, when it attempted to draw the likes of Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe to play in the country, by offering upwards of €500 million (Rs. 4,456 crore) in yearly wages.

While both Messi and Mbappe rejected the offers, Al Hilal still managed to rope in some of Europe’s big names like Neymar, Aleksander Mitrovic, Ruben Neves and Kalidou Koulibaly, spending €376 million (Rs. 3,352 crore) in just transfer fees in 2023.

Despite the splurge, Al Hilal crashed out of the semifinals of the AFC Champions League on April 23, after losing to UAE’s Al Ain 4-5 on aggregate, ending its hope of winning a fifth title.

What triggered the spending spree?

Over the last two years, the highest division of football in Saudi Arabia, funded by the country’s sovereign wealth fund, has been attracting players from around the world, posing a threat to Europe’s long-standing dominance in the sport.

It all began in December 2022, when five-time Ballon d’Or winner Cristiano Ronaldo signed a contract with Saudi club Al Nassr after leaving English giant Manchester United. 

The transfer caught headlines in the sporting world and in June 2023, Saudi’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) announced that it was obtaining a 75 per cent share in top clubs Al Nassr, Al Hilal, Al Ahli and Al Ittihad. 

This move ended up initiating a mass arrival of big names to the league like Karim Benzema, Riyad Mahrez, Sadio Mane, N’golo Kante and Edouard Mendy, raising eyebrows and questions regarding the integrity of the game.

The exodus of players from Europe’s top leagues to Saudi resulted in a remarkable increase in the market values of the teams backed by PIF. 

Before Ronaldo’s arrival, Al Nassr’s market value was Rs. 473 crore. The current value is Rs. 1,152 crore, indicating a 143% increase in just over a year.

Similarly, the other three clubs saw a surge in their market values.

While it is too soon to judge how effective the addition of players is for the Saudi clubs against Asia’s top football teams, Al Hilal’s consistency in the AFC Champions League over the last few years is a positive sign for the future, as long as the clubs continue the flow of bringing in quality players to compete in the continent.

Performance in the AFC Champions League

Ever since the Asian Club Championship, Asian Cup Winners’ Cup and Asian Super Cup combined to become the AFC Champions League, Saudi Arabian teams have been regular challengers for the trophy. Al-Ittihad won it back-to-back in 2004 and 2005, while also being runner-up in 2009.

More recently, Al Hilal won the AFC title in 2019 and 2021 and came close to a third before being defeated by Japanese club Urawa Red Diamonds in the final of the 2022 edition.

The success of Saudi clubs over the last four years meant that Saudi Arabia ranked first among the other AFC member associations, allowing it to field four teams (three in the group stage + one team through playoff) in the 2023-24 edition of the AFC Champions League.

Al Nassr, Al Hilal, Al Fayha and Al Ittihad were the four teams to participate this season. Al Fayha was knocked out in the round of 16 while Ronaldo’s Al Nassr and Benzema’s Al Ittihad were knocked out in the quarterfinals. 

In terms of individual performance, Mitrovic and Ronaldo were among the top scorers in the competition until their exit.

Contrastingly, local players Mohammed Alburayk of Al Hilal and Abdulrahman Ghareeb of Al Nassr occupy the top two spots in the assist charts, indicating that there is no shortage of local talent available.

Moreover, Saudi Arabia’s performance in the Qatar World Cup 2022, beating eventual winners Argentina in its first group game, showcased the country’s footballing ability.

More recently, the nation impressed during the AFC Asian Cup, where it almost defeated a Son Heung-min-led South Korea in the round of 16, before losing in penalties.

Even the players that have moved to Saudi have heaped praises about the quality of football in the SPL, with Ronaldo and Neymar suggesting that it might be even better than France’s Ligue 1.

Parallels with the Chinese Super League

This extravagant spending by Saudi Arabia is very similar to the attempted rise of the Chinese Super League (CSL) in world football.

The CSL broke the Asian transfer record five times in the space of a year (2016-2017) when players Ramires, Jackson Martinez, Alex Teixeira, Hulk and Oscar were signed by various clubs. 

Oscar remains the most expensive player in the league’s history but CSL’s plan of establishing itself as a competitor to its European counterparts has not fared well. Salary caps, corruption at the head, and the coronavirus pandemic all have played a part in the league’s decline.

The club owners, a majority of whom were property owners showing interest in the sport to appease the ruling Chinese Communist Party and its football enthusiast President Xi Jinping, were forced to go out of business due to the pandemic.

For example, Jiangsu FC (formerly Jiangsu Suning) broke the transfer record twice when it signed Brazilians Ramires and Alex Teixeira in 2016. In 2020, it was crowned the champion of CSL for the first time in its history.

However the following year, the club’s owner Suning Holdings Group announced that all footballing operations were ceased due to financial constraints, which meant that Jiangsu FC could not defend its title.

Additionally, suppose you look at the performance of the Chinese clubs in the AFC Champions League, since its inception in 2004, only Guangzhou Evergrande has won the title, ironically winning it twice (2013 and 2015) before the money splurge began.

In 2022, Guangzhou was relegated from the CSL after key players left the club owing to financial crunches.

Will the Saudi Pro League be any different?

The acquisition by PIF has immediately created an imbalance in the SPL consisting of 18 teams. Only the four clubs will have access to ludicrous amounts of money which in turn will be able to lure in players from the top clubs in Europe.

Speaking about the concern of spending money lavishly, SPL sporting director Michael Emenalo in an interview with  Sky Sports said, “We can reasonably deduce that whenever there is a high level of economic remuneration, it means the ambition is high and there will be work in other areas, the quality of the league will be great, infrastructures will be good.”

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According to him, what prevents a CSL situation from happening in Saudi Arabia is the fact that its population is very passionate about the game, which will help in developing academies and creating opportunities for competitive and recreational football.

“We are not just bringing players in to pay them so that they can run around and be famous for a few days,” he added.

UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin in an interview with  L’Equipe criticised this method and said, “The system of buying players that are almost at the end of their career is not the system that develops football.”

With the money pumping from the PIF, the Saudi Pro League clearly aims to challenge European dominance and disrupt the existing pillars of the sport. Only time will tell if the league will end up being a cash-grab opportunity for players who cannot keep pace with the quality of the top leagues, or if it will build upon the deeply rooted love for the sport and dominate on a continental and global level.