Saudi spending no one-off, says top league official
REUTERS – The vast sums invested to entice some of the world’s top players to Saudi Arabia this season is no one-off, but part of a long-term strategy to make the Saudi Pro League one of the best in the world, its chief operating officer has said.
Carlo Nohra told Reuters in an interview that authorities in the “football-mad country” are confident their strategy of going all out to sign the game’s biggest names would ensure that fans flocked to stadiums in the new campaign, which starts on Friday.
Saudi clubs have spent more than 400 million euros ($439 million) in the close season to sign players from Europe’s elite teams, including Ballon d’Or winner Karim Benzema from Real Madrid, Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson and treble winner Riyad Mahrez from Manchester City.
The influx began just a few months after Al-Nassr signed Cristiano Ronaldo on a reported salary of more than $200 million a year in December.
Football website Transfermarkt ranks the Saudi League as the fifth-biggest spender in the current transfer window, ahead of Spain’s LaLiga.
“It’s very straightforward and I tie it back to our strategy,” Nohra told Reuters. “One of the very first objectives that the Saudi Pro League was set was to improve the product.
“We had to improve quality and in order to improve quality, you have to bring in the best. Spending was always going to be an essential component for us to do this.
“What you’re seeing is simply the Saudi Pro League doing what other leagues needed to do ... We have joined these ranks, and we’re doing whatever it takes to improve quality on the pitch.”
Nohra added that the league’s strategy would take time to come to full fruition and that the spending was set to continue.
“Look, this is definitely a journey,” he said. “This is not just for one weekend. We’ve set out to achieve this objective to be one of the top 10 leagues in the world.
“We have a mission, and that is to unleash the potential we have to drive change.
“We want to become one of the recognised leaders for excellence in governance, in club development and player acquisition, and also in commercialization.”
Multiple media reports say Saudi Arabia has allocated more than $17 billion to support clubs under the country’s “Vision 2030” economic and social reform blueprint, but Nohra said each transfer period would be dealt with independently.
“We’re taking it one window at a time.”