In the coming years Saudi Arabia’s investment in football will reshape the Middle East by attracting footballers from Europe and monopolizing commercial deals.
This sports exodus to Middle East will have wide implications on the region and is detrimental to the growth of football in other countries.
Saudi Arabia’s investment in football has the potential to have long-term effects on the global football industry. Some of these potential effects are:
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Disrupting international soccer world: Saudi Arabia’s investment in football is disrupting the international soccer world, which has traditionally been controlled by Europe and the West. Instead of moving towards a balanced overall football development world wide, we are seeing a paradigm shift in the football landscape.
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Boosting Saudi Arabia’s economic prospects: Saudi Arabia’s investment in football is part of the kingdom’s strategy to strengthen its national economic diversification agenda, which could attract foreign investment, put the kingdom on the world map, and create jobs for Saudis.
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Using football as a tool to improve Saudi Arabia’s image: Saudi Arabia has a huge football fanbase, and football could be its most effective tool to improve the country’s profile and draw positive attention. This soft power strategy in an attempt to polish its public image on the international stage.
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Sportswashing strategy: Saudi Arabia’s investment in football is part of its broader strategy to expand its investments in sport, from golf to football to esports, and use sport as a political instrument for the leaders of Saudi Arabia. The process is known as sportswashing, a term popularized by Amnesty International to describe the use of sports by oppressive governments to legitimize their regimes and distract from their human rights abuses.
Overall, Saudi Arabia’s investment in football has significant implications for the global football industry.
The European leagues and countries/leagues in rest of the world should work on rules for its clubs that will put controls on such questionable transfers and curtail this shift before the game of football is vested in one country.
It will be interesting to see how it develops in the coming years.