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Other clubs' transfers

Greg

by Greg
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Yorkie

Yorkie

Posted
Posted

I think the Saudi Pro-League stands a chance of gaining a meaningful European audience if some of their teams start competing in UEFA competitions. I'd wager that, as it stands, none of the teams mean anything to the vast majority of people - certainly in terms of the British audience. As long as that's the case, it'll never gain sustainable interest, regardless of which players turn up there. I'd even argue that the casual observer would have difficulty telling teams apart given most of them start 'Al-' and all of the squads seem to have the same mix; i.e. predominantly Saudi with a few South American unknowns and a few household names doing the payday thing.

 

My assumption is that UEFA would resist any attempts from Saudi to enter the UCL or Europa competitions, but - then again - they could consider an 'enemies closer' approach. Rather than keep them at arms length whilst there's a growing perception that the Saudi Pro League is on the up; let them in, have them get routinely battered by Croatian sides and Swedish sides, thereby emphasising the hierarchy. 

 

Should be interesting over the next few years, whatever happens, but there definitely needs to be more to their strategy then just player recruitment. If it wasn't Saudi I'd be wishing them all the luck in the world; a proper agitator to get UEFA sweating could breed some positive outcomes, who knows?

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r0cafella

r0cafella

Posted
Posted
8 minutes ago, Yorkie said:

I think the Saudi Pro-League stands a chance of gaining a meaningful European audience if some of their teams start competing in UEFA competitions. I'd wager that, as it stands, none of the teams mean anything to the vast majority of people - certainly in terms of the British audience. As long as that's the case, it'll never gain sustainable interest, regardless of which players turn up there. I'd even argue that the casual observer would have difficulty telling teams apart given most of them start 'Al-' and all of the squads seem to have the same mix; i.e. predominantly Saudi with a few South American unknowns and a few household names doing the payday thing.

 

My assumption is that UEFA would resist any attempts from Saudi to enter the UCL or Europa competitions, but - then again - they could consider an 'enemies closer' approach. Rather than keep them at arms length whilst there's a growing perception that the Saudi Pro League is on the up; let them in, have them get routinely battered by Croatian sides and Swedish sides, thereby emphasising the hierarchy. 

 

Should be interesting over the next few years, whatever happens, but there definitely needs to be more to their strategy then just player recruitment. If it wasn't Saudi I'd be wishing them all the luck in the world; a proper agitator to get UEFA sweating could breed some positive outcomes, who knows?

Even if they could compete in Europe they would have to abide by FFP. these clubs are zero revenue. 

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Yorkie

Yorkie

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Just now, kocunar said:
5 minutes ago, Yorkie said:

have them get routinely battered by Croatian sides and Swedish sides

As a Croatian, this wouldn't happen

 

:lol: Maybe that's a bad example. Just Dinamo Zagreb.

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Yorkie

Yorkie

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Just now, AyeDubbleYoo said:

I mean, they aren’t in Europe. Why should they compete in European competition? 

 

I'm not saying they should, I'm just saying I think that's what it would take for them to have a fighting chance of gaining a sustainable European audience. 

 

@r0cafella makes a good point about why it probably can't happen anyway.  

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LV

LV

Posted
Posted

Saudi teams will get into Champion’s League/ UEFA competitions,

I’m sure of it.

 

Money/ promises of lucrative executive positions in the Saudi League talks and I can’t see UEFA officials resisting that. 

 

What that will mean for FFP though I don’t know.  I wonder whether the Saudi Teams would get a 5 year grace period where they avoid FFP restrictions for example. Or a sliding scale of compliance over time. 
 

Once again, individual greed will trump common sense.

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LV

LV

Posted
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4 minutes ago, AyeDubbleYoo said:

I mean, they aren’t in Europe. Why should they compete in European competition? 


Israeli teams do already and Israel isn’t in Europe. The precedent is there. 

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Yorkie

Yorkie

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Just now, Kanji said:

Nah, the actual reason they can’t compete is they aren’t even a UEFA nation :lol: the rest is obv true too 

 

If it was in UEFA's interests to invite members of the Saudi Pro League into their competitions, continental definition would suddenly become very arbitrary imo. And as others have said, there's already a precedent with Israel and Kazakhstan.

 

Again, not saying I'd be in favour of it, just discussing the hypothetical strategies. 

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The College Dropout

The College Dropout

Posted
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40 minutes ago, TheBrownBottle said:

KSA’s league would still need to justify the expenditure in some way or form.  Paying 10x what European clubs will play to persuade a player to sign isn’t sustainable, as the revenue streams won’t ever exist to meet that.  So it becomes a case of how long the KSA govt wants to prop this up.  Maybe that is forever; I doubt it, though. 

It’s largely the same situation with us btw. They will not make all of their money back. 

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Kanji

Kanji

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Just now, Yorkie said:

 

If it was in UEFA's interests to invite members of the Saudi Pro League into their competitions, continental definition would suddenly become very arbitrary imo. And as others have said, there's already a precedent with Israel and Kazakhstan.

 

Again, not saying I'd be in favour of it, just discussing the hypothetical strategies. 


Had no idea they were in uefa comp!

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enthusiast

enthusiast

Posted
Posted (edited)

There's a half-decent reason why Israel and Israeli clubs affiliate to UEFA, which is that a decent quantity of AFC nations don't recognize either their state or their passports (the latter being the case with Saudi Arabia). Were a Saudi club drawn against in Israeli club in the Conference League, at least one leg would be getting played on neutral ground.

 

 

Edited by enthusiast

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r0cafella

r0cafella

Posted
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2 minutes ago, The College Dropout said:

It’s largely the same situation with us btw. They will not make all of their money back. 

They will make money on us eventually, in terms of the Saudi league absolutely they will lose boatloads, fortunately for them it doesn’t matter. 
 

let’s just hope these players are smart enough to get the salary paid in USD to an account offshore. 

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The College Dropout

The College Dropout

Posted
Posted
Just now, enthusiast said:

There's a half-decent reason for Israel and Israeli clubs affiliate to UEFA, which is that a decent quantity of AFC nations don't recognize either their state or their passports (the latter being the case with Saudi Arabia). Were a Saudi club drawn against in Israeli club in the Conference League, at least one leg would be getting played on neutral ground.

Nah the reason is largely political. No other excluded nation would be invited to UEFA. 

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