Is Saudi Football a threat to the European leagues?

opethdisciple said:
I think you're missing the point. This is just the beginning.

Every snowball starts out small when you start rolling.

If they can convice a couple of players this season, 5 next, 10 after that, 20 then 40 etc etc... then in no time at all they will have loads of top players in their league over then next 5+ years.
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I don't think people are missing the point, they just don't agree that the snowball will gather as much snow as already exists in Europe.

As someone mentioned already, Oscar was the small snowball for China 6.5 years ago and we are still waiting for the avalanche.
 
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HangTime said:
I don't think people are missing the point, they just don't agree that the snowball will gather as much snow as already exists in Europe.

As someone mentioned already, Oscar was the small snowball for China 6.5 years ago and we are still waiting for the avalanche.
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China weren't doing it for the same reasons, top lad proper clobber covered this the other day:

 
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Doobedoo said:
He’s right though isn’t he?
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It what way is he right? Perhaps the Spanish, Italians and Germans should have an embargo against selling players to the UK for the damage it's done to their leagues? No one cares about Saudi football in the same way few of us watched Italian football for the few years that was huge or the Spanish league despite having two giants and some of the best players in the world. I just looked at La Liga and if my life depended on it I would have probably named 6 of the 20 who were in the top flight this year.

Perhaps clearing out this merch is actually a great thing for the EPL. We get rid of old players on huge contracts and sometimes get great fees as well. I bet Chelsea are telling Lukaku daily how great the Middle East is.
 
dannyjo22 said:
It what way is he right? Perhaps the Spanish, Italians and Germans should have an embargo against selling players to the UK for the damage it's done to their leagues? No one cares about Saudi football in the same way few of us watched Italian football for the few years that was huge or the Spanish league despite having two giants and some of the best players in the world. I just looked at La Liga and if my life depended on it I would have probably named 6 of the 20 who were in the top flight this year.

Perhaps clearing out this merch is actually a great thing for the EPL. We get rid of old players on huge contracts and sometimes get great fees as well. I bet Chelsea are telling Lukaku daily how great the Middle East is.
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He is saying and rightly so that there should be a stop put to it until it can proved that nothing dodgy is going on. Because as we know City have done plenty of dodgy dealings that is why they are being investigated.

Potentially it’s the equivalent to what I used to do on Football manager. I’d take over United obviously and then I’d also take over another team with lots of money. (usually city) I’d sell all my deadwood to them at inflated prices to inflate my war chest. Then I’d go and by all the players I wanted and when the transfer window closed I’d retire.
 
Ayahuasca said:
Yeah, I'm aware, that wasn't the point though. It's the likes of Neville stating the takeover would open the door for more open and honest conversations on those issues. It hasn't and sportwashing is in full effect.

In your example, you would only be a hypocrite if you openly support the government selling arms to SA and pretending it has some positive sides like "open and honest conversations".

It never does, the more power you give them, the more they can cover it up.
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Yup, we cant do anything about our government selling arms to SA and I don't think many would be supporting it. I mean plenty of people protested the Iraq war.

I didn't know Neville was in favour of Qatar buying UTD, not surprising though, most pundits are hypocrites and I wouldn't be surprised if they have been told to tow the line at certain times. He is right about this though.
 
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gingergundog said:
History of state sponsored terrorism just like Saudi. Not to mention all the other human rights issues.
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We also have a history of arming and supporting dictatorships.

United States involvement in regime change - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org en.m.wikipedia.org

Middle East problems stem from western and US interference | Middle East and north Africa | The Guardian

<strong>Letters: </strong>Readers critique the west’s actions in the region in response to an editorial on Arab democracies
amp.theguardian.com amp.theguardian.com
 
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Doobedoo said:
We also have a history of arming and supporting dictatorships.

United States involvement in regime change - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org en.m.wikipedia.org

Middle East problems stem from western and US interference | Middle East and north Africa | The Guardian

<strong>Letters: </strong>Readers critique the west’s actions in the region in response to an editorial on Arab democracies
amp.theguardian.com amp.theguardian.com
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Not really the point. Nothing you or I can do about it and they have been sticking their nose in for a long time, sometimes justified...sometimes not. There are a plethora of reasons why these states are the way they are and its not just because of the western interference, also they are far worse than anything the west does.

They seem unstoppable atm with the sportswashing, its spreading across other sports.
 
gingergundog said:
Not really the point. Nothing you or I can do about it and they have been sticking their nose in for a long time, sometimes justified...sometimes not. There are a plethora of reasons why these states are the way they are and its not just because of the western interference, also they are far worse than anything the west does.

They seem unstoppable atm with the sportswashing, its spreading across other sports.
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We are totally complicit. You think our government doesn’t know what the Saudis are doing with the weapons we are selling them. Do you think if Yemen had a blue and yellow flag we might actually wave a few and help fund them against a violent oppressive regime. No we are hypocrites, we on one hand demonise Putin’s illegal war, yet simultaneously remain completely oblivious and passive when it comes to our Country arming and supporting war crimes in various Middle East countries, be it Afghanistan, Yemen or Palestine.

This is quite clearly not the place for it but anyone claiming they have a problem with the Saudi money because of human rights issues needs to pipe down really.
 
I like Gary Neville, I really do but after his Qatar world cup climbdown and turn around how should anyone take him seriously talking about restricting the movement of out of contract players?
 
Vandle said:
I like Gary Neville, I really do but after his Qatar world cup climbdown and turn around how should anyone take him seriously talking about restricting the movement of out of contract players?
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Take the individual out of the equation it’s the point he’s making. Anyway nothings going to come of it but we should be keeping an eye on the Saudi ties that have vested interests in both premier league clubs and Saudi clubs.
 
gingergundog said:
Also they are far worse than anything the west does.

They seem unstoppable atm with the sportswashing, its spreading across other sports.
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I think this is where some of us differ. They aren't even close to the West when it comes to scumbag behaviour in my eyes. As I said earlier, the US and Western powers just goes about it differently. America has a long storied history of meddling in others affairs to the countries detriment. SA is like the little rich psychopath terrorising the kids at their school. America is the district head that pulls all the strings in the background to do the real damage.
 
Vandle said:
I like Gary Neville, I really do but after his Qatar world cup climbdown and turn around how should anyone take him seriously talking about restricting the movement of out of contract players?
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The only argument I'd make in response is that, if (as is the case) Saudi owns a number of clubs in Europe's top leagues, and if they keep buying old and overvalued players which affects the competitiveness/FFP in those top leagues, then it raises an issue of sporting integrity. Neville has had an issue of personal integrity in his trip to Qatar, but that has not risked affecting the competitiveness of the sport.
 
I raised the alarm bells before Jaime Carragher.

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opethdisciple said:
This is just stage 0, the beginning.
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That's true but to spark interest for me to even consider watching.. retiree marquee signings won't work. CR7 hasn't got me watching as he's not at his peak.
They need a player that can produce stardust now, Neymar seems like the one to go for to get me watching... but we will see how this all pans out after the summer transfer window.
 
Personality+ said:
That's true but to spark interest for me to even consider watching.. retiree marquee signings won't work. CR7 hasn't got me watching as he's not at his peak.
They need a player that can produce stardust now, Neymar seems like the one to go for to get me watching... but we will see how this all pans out after the summer transfer window.
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Well watching the Saudi League games never really occurred to me simply because even now I don't watch other Premier League games unless they are big games that affect the table position of the team I support.

Even if they had the best teams in the world I probably still wouldn't watch it.

I dont watch the El Classico for example.

I'm more concerned about the weakening of the European game.
 
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