Beware, Uefa - After the PGA, Saudi is coming for you, too
Paul Macdonald
- Updated: 13 Jun 2023 12:49 BST
- 6 min read
Uefa should have been watching carefully.
The end of the Saudi takeover of golf transpired in the most surprising way possible, with the announcement of a merger between the PGA Tour and the upstart LIV Golf, despite nearly two years of aggressive posturing and intense litigation.
In the end, despite all the decision-making around whether to go and join LIV for the money, or stay in the PGA for the tradition, those who chose the latter have been left bitterly short-changed and money, inevitably, was the deciding factor.
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Football is even more money-orientated than golf and it also infinitely more dysfunctional; at least in the case of golf, there was one dominating governing body. But with football there are multiple competing factors not only with the same sport, but within the same country; from Fifa, to Uefa, to the Premier League, to the FA. It’s an organisational mess.
And while Uefa’s response to the now-dead Super League project was to rearrange the Titanic deckchairs in the form of a wholly diluted Champions League which starts in 2024, Saudi have been working quietly in the background to build something of their own, and it’s set to explode football as we know it.
The Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) have announced that the nation’s four major clubs, Al Ittihad, Al Ahli, Al Hilal and Al Nassr have become corporate entities, with PIF holding a majority stake in their activities. This essentially allows the PIF to play fantasy football, quite literally.
As part of today’s announcement of the Sports Clubs Investment and Privatization Project, four Saudi clubs – Al Ittihad, Al Ahli, Al Nassr, and Al Hilal – have been transformed into companies, each of which is owned by #PIF and non-profit foundations for each club. pic.twitter.com/TNZcbIniUE
— Public Investment Fund (@PIF_en) June 5, 2023
The PIF, royal dignitaries, agents representing them and everyone else in between have been throwing out offers quicker than agents can even query if they are legitimate. And Karim Benzema (now 35) and N’Golo Kante (seven appearances in 2022/23 through injury, and has been subjected to numerous disputes over his agency) will collect the best part of £175m a season between them.
It’s not about the players but the reckless abandon with which it’s being spent. It’s all part of Mohammed bin Salman’s all-out bid for Saudi diversification ahead of the positioned 2030 date, the year they have also bid to host the World Cup with Greece and Egypt.
The main four teams will split marquee players between them - as decided by the PIF - and the rest will be handed one, likely much further down the food chain.
They are realistic - it won’t be the Premier League nor will it become a competition particularly desirable to win - but in the absence of a China (no money), Qatar (no fans, no spectacle) or MLS (restrictions on designated player salaries), a gap in the market has opened up for marketable assets desperate for one more quick buck.
And though Lionel Messi ultimately turned them down to join Inter Miami - with the suggestion being that he didn’t want his family to live in Riyadh - that will not deter the development of having ‘marquee’ talents spread across the division as soon as they can acquire them.
But, as the LIV/PGA debacle has shown, the PIF have the resources to go to any and all lengths to ensure one of two outcomes, or perhaps both - legitimisation of Saudi as a global interest, and a sportswashing of their domestic activities to ensure Saudi is a long-term tourism destination.
That was always the case with LIV Golf - it was a means to an end (some might argue a needless one) in order to exert some control over a globally resonant pastime. Now they have it.
And that’s the main problem with Saudi; they have no real inherent desire to have an integrated relationship with sport, one in which they provide anything beyond dollar bills. Rather it’s a need for cultural appropriation, to buy into something already popular and then sell it back to those same people.
And football, in particular Uefa, need to be wary of sleepwalking into a similar position. Saudi’s approach to buying influence within the sport includes all and any methods necessary. It’s club ownership, it’s domestic league reform, it’s CVC influence, and it could ultimately be the majority stake in a major league. Nothing is off the table, money is being lobbed around and Uefa appear positively draconian in comparison.
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Uefa, this week, are actively debating a salary cap - again. We’ve been here a million times. The caps won’t work because there’s too many loopholes to get around the system. FFP has already been legally outmanoeuvred by both PSG and Manchester City and there’s absolutely no reason to suggest that this type of ‘good faith’ system wouldn’t be equally subject to manipulation.
And that’s before you get to the Saudi Pro League itself, which is completely outside of Uefa autonomy, or indeed that of any compelling governing body. Introducing a salary cap at this point would be like offering up talent to the Saudis on a plate; footballers play to win but play to earn far more. The exodus would be real, and damaging. The last thing Uefa needs to do is offer an alternative.
But the biggest threat comes to Uefa itself. The organisation is obsolete, its methods of attempting to feebly retain power only bolstered by Premier League fans unwilling to part with their own huge cash cow - had the EPL been struggling at the time, the Super League would likely already exist.
Against the PGA, LIV Golf had a bigger wallet, but were also smarter in executing other elements that attracted a younger audience, such as the team environment, quickening of the spectacle and activation across social media - where golf has really struggled to ignite interest.
Football doesn’t have that problem but then Uefa are not remotely liked by anyone within the game and wouldn’t have any loyalty such as a rival bidder - or usurper - were to enter the fray. That Uefa doesn’t seem remotely ready for this represents the same naivety and complacency that that threatened golf and - post Nadal, Federer and eventually Djokovic - will eventually destroy tennis, too. Football is crying out for reform, and Saudi might indirectly offer it.
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