What is Saudi Arabia hoping to achieve amid transfer takeover?

Saudi Arabia are set to sign some of the biggest names in world football this summer, but why is this happening? Is this spending power a threat to Europe’s big clubs?

In 2023 alone, Cristiano Ronaldo moved to the Middle Eastern country on a free transfer, while Ballon d’Or winner Karim Benzema refused another season at Real Madrid to join him in the country.

It’s by no means the end, with up to four Chelsea players set to leave the Premier League for the Saudi Pro League, with Sergio Ramos, Bernardo Silva and Heung-Min Son reportedly facing similar offers.

Sky Sports News chief correspondent Kawee Sorhkor breaks down this transfer market trend…

Why did Saudi Arabia suddenly spend huge sums of money to introduce foreign aid?

Saudi Arabia is looking to expand its economy through other industries to help secure its financial future.

The country relies on selling money through oil – this won’t last forever and they need to diversify their economy. They do this through the PIF – the country’s sovereign wealth investment fund.

Sports is a particular area they hope to develop in the country, and that includes football leagues. They hope to build their own leisure and entertainment industry and capitalize on the huge interest in football among the Saudi Arabian population, 70% of whom are under the age of 40.

Football is hugely popular in Saudi Arabia – let’s not forget, they were the most supported team at last year’s World Cup in Qatar as their team beat eventual champions Argentina in the group stage – and they see it as adding to that. A way for the country’s tourism industry.

The rulers of Saudi Arabia saw all this interest and thought, “Instead of letting other people make money from our people’s interest in sports, let’s make our own money and keep the money within our borders.” It wants to make Saudi Arabia Become famous and raise its profile.

What else does Saudi Arabia hope to achieve?

Amnesty International has accused Saudi Arabia of running a “sports shuffle” program to try to hide its dire human rights record.

“Saudi Arabia is spending billions of dollars on major entertainment, cultural and sporting events to reverse the country’s poor human rights record,” Human Rights Watch said.

Human Rights Watch concluded in its 2022 world report that Saudi Arabia had announced some reforms, “but continued repression and flouting of fundamental rights are major obstacles to progress.”

A United Nations investigation into the 2018 murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi says his death “constitutes an extrajudicial killing for which the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is responsible”.

In addition to being used for sports money laundering, investing in football can also buy influence and prestige around the world and project soft power.

Saudi Arabia is expected to join Greece and Egypt in bidding for the 2030 World Cup.

Is this a “flash in the pan” or a long-term goal?

Clearly, there are parallels to China and the birth of the Super League in 2004, when Brazilian star Oscar and West Ham’s Marko Arnautovic made a sudden move to the Far East.

What happened in China is that their Super League is a direct order of the chairman. He expressed hope that China could host the World Cup, have a good national team and a domestic league.

But then China’s ruling Communist Party changed its mind, and they didn’t like the fact that so much money was flowing out of China and into European and foreign pockets. They decided to put an end to that and created a number of different rules governing how many foreign players can be in the Super League.

As then, Saudi Arabia’s goals are long-term. But Saudi Arabia has more money. And it feels like they’re taking it more seriously.

So it’s the beginning of a process, not something that’s going to go away anytime soon. Sky Sports News has been told that Saudi Arabia wants 100 of its best foreign players to play in its league over the next five years.

Cristiano Ronaldo was the first to go there, and they tried to bring in Lionel Messi with a whopping $400 million-a-year offer, but he turned down a move to Major League Soccer. But that hasn’t stopped the Saudi Arabian club, with Ruben Neves on the verge of joining Al Hilal, while four Chelsea players, including Kalidou Koulibaly and Hakim Ziyech, are also in talks to switch. will go to the state.

So will the Saudi Arabian club be targeting Erling Haaland? Or Harry Kane?No player has been ruled out in an attempt to take them to the Arabian Peninsula

Middle East football expert and former director of Abu Dhabi Al Jasinla FC Mohammad Hamdi told Sky Sports News he believes the country will have no problem attracting top talent.

“They have the infrastructure,” he said. “They own the country. They can host (the World Cup). We’ve seen it in Qatar and it’s a fantastic event.

“It’s a long-term vision to attract TV contracts, media, sponsorships and more tourists to the country.

“It’s not just a certain player or a player who basically ends their career. You can see young players who are going to step into the Saudi league.”

Has Saudi Arabia distorted the transfer market forever?

We saw for the first time this summer that the Saudi club had to be mentioned in every transfer. Players you don’t think you can buy, like Tottenham’s Heung-Min Son, people are interested in them. Tottenham say Son Heung-min is not for sale.

Saudi Arabia has the money to sign any player they want – as long as the player wants to move there.

A lot of players at the peak of their careers would say no – but I think Neves at Wolves has changed a bit. He is someone Liverpool, Barcelona and Manchester United are interested in, he is only 26 years old and at the peak of his career, he has already decided to leave. Obviously, a lot of it depends on money.

So, with the club’s fierce competition with Saudi Arabia, the transfer market has changed – and a very lucrative market has opened up.

Will Chelsea use Saudi Arabia to fix Financial Fair Play after spending £600m?

This is something that has been brought up many times in recent days. Chelsea have spent £600m in the past few transfer windows and they need to balance their books and sell some players. Out of nowhere, the Saudis showed up and said: “We’re going to have some of your players, and we’re going to give you £100 million.” People on the outside looked at it and thought it was a little weird – all of a sudden, Chelsea With this way of balancing the books.

The people also said Saudi Arabia’s PIF, which owns four Saudi Arabian clubs interested in buying Chelsea players, had invested in Clearlake Capital, a private equity fund that is Chelsea’s majority shareholder. People try to see if something weird is going on there.

But according to Sky Sports News, that has nothing to do with the matter. The Saudi Arabian sovereign wealth fund has invested in a large number of private equity funds around the world, and Clearlake has invested in 400 different companies. Chelsea would say there is absolutely no conflict of interest.