Saudi League

DJ said:
I don’t really see what the end game is with this? Spend billions of pounds to flood the league with enough talent to try and sell tv rights for far less than what’s being spent?

https://twitter.com/x/status/1671078637901152256
Click to expand...

The US league tried it decades ago and once the aging players retired it petered out. Since then it has grown organically and is probably stronger than ever before.

Not sure the Saudi project will be any different than the US all those years ago...but they do have a lot more money to throw at it.
 
I think people underestimate how long into the future the PIF are planning. Will the PIF turn annual profits in 20-30 years? That's the question, not now. People said the same about LIV golf. Ultimately it's just all a huge fund to diversify away from oil and provide income way down the line. My opinion is enough of what they're throwing will stick and be a success.
 
RobTrent said:
Sportswashing
Click to expand...

Long game is gain more of a foothold into the west... if playing devils advocate and wearing a tinfoil hat ;)

redharry said:
DJ, its a vanity project where money is no object. The Chinese have attempted similar but it has gone nowhere. This will hopefully do the same.
Click to expand...

This. Some of the money thatcertain families have in the middle East is obscene.

The amount some of them spend on absolutely useless things, or of little to no practical value or return, for vanity and to differentiate them selves from others just 'because they can' is insane.
 
It's about the 2030 World Cup and creating a football culture in the country.
I think it's also about looking ahead and creating tourism and sport to replace oil in the future.
And who knows, women might be given some extra rights out of all this? Not too many though!
 
Think of it like tech investors. They invest millions into lots of companies, some of which look ridiculous to us normal people, in the knowledge that they only need one in ten to hit for them to make huge profits over a 5-10 year cycle.

Transfer that to the 30-50 years mentioned above. They're going to throw money at loads of things, some of which will look silly, but they're talking in terms of billions (or trillions?) so the football money isn't that big overall. Some things will crash and burn, some will provide them with a diversified economy. Again, they only need so many hits among all the misses to make it worthwhile.
 
kirsikka said:
Think of it like tech investors. They invest millions into lots of companies, some of which look ridiculous to us normal people, in the knowledge that they only need one in ten to hit for them to make huge profits over a 5-10 year cycle.

Transfer that to the 30-50 years mentioned above. They're going to throw money at loads of things, some of which will look silly, but they're talking in terms of billions (or trillions?) so the football money isn't that big overall. Some things will crash and burn, some will provide them with a diversified economy. Again, they only need so many hits among all the misses to make it worthwhile.
Click to expand...

It sort of feels like the opposite of tech investment. Instead of backing fledgling ideas in the hope they'll become big, they're spending vast sums of money trying to big bang some competition for very well-established and funded industries.

Norway seems to be doing incredibly well with its sovereign fund without needing to build skyscrapers or flood its sports leagues with government money.
 
I’ve also read about a long-term plan to finance African club football too, and ultimately deliver a larger FIFA Club World Cup competition as a consequence of non-European club football standards improving.
 
Kudos said:
It sort of feels like the opposite of tech investment. Instead of backing fledgling ideas in the hope they'll become big, they're spending vast sums of money trying to big bang some competition for very well-established and funded industries.

Norway seems to be doing incredibly well with its sovereign fund without needing to build skyscrapers or flood its sports leagues with government money.
Click to expand...
Norways needs are miles smaller, Saudi have 7 times the population. Most sport is profitable at the end of the day and all they’re betting on is some of the ones they invest in will be in the distant future. It’s really not that crazy.
 
Silent AFCB said:
Norways needs are miles smaller, Saudi have 7 times the population. Most sport is profitable at the end of the day and all they’re betting on is some of the ones they invest in will be in the distant future. It’s really not that crazy.
Click to expand...

Appreciate you're closer to it than me so interested in the insight. From the outside it feels like most of it is invested in businesses owned by political allies and vanity projects. More for consolidating the status of the rulers than the long term prosperity of the country or even ruling elite.

I'm interpretating the population comment to mean that Saudi needs more volatile investments due to the larger population but I think the Norwegian Sovereign Fund outperforms the PIF.

Owning football clubs isn't profitable and there's NFT style price inflation as more people clammer over it. Hosting a world cup isn't profitable hosts are often massively out of pocket, more so if you're building bespoke stadia.

Whenever I see very rich people making what appears to be poor investment decisions I assume it's because I'm missing something but I find it really hard to find economic justification and very easy to find political or egotistical motive.
 
The Saudis aren’t looking for returns at the moment so I’m sure it out performs it. The population comment was more just along the lines of feeding 35 million in what is mostly desert compared to Norway with their 5 million is pretty different. Saudi don’t need to worry any time soon. Ultimately they have over 200 years of oil left at the current rate of extraction. Realistically it won’t be that long before they’re forced to give it up, but shows long they could invest for without worrying about returns. The UAE (specifically Dubai) went for tourism and kind of took that from the rest of the region, so Saudi is just doing everything else. The fund has tons of stuff and most of it is Saudi based, it’s only really the recent venture into sport grabbing headlines as for some reason people expect more morals from athletes than your standard businessman.
 
Silent AFCB said:
The Saudis aren’t looking for returns at the moment so I’m sure it out performs it. The population comment was more just along the lines of feeding 35 million in what is mostly desert compared to Norway with their 5 million is pretty different. Saudi don’t need to worry any time soon. Ultimately they have over 200 years of oil left at the current rate of extraction. Realistically it won’t be that long before they’re forced to give it up, but shows long they could invest for without worrying about returns. The UAE (specifically Dubai) went for tourism and kind of took that from the rest of the region, so Saudi is just doing everything else. The fund has tons of stuff and most of it is Saudi based, it’s only really the recent venture into sport grabbing headlines as for some reason people expect more morals from athletes than your standard businessman.
Click to expand...

I get that it's a future thing but obviously late returns means there's a lot of potential compound gains missed.

It's not just the sport some stuff like their tech investments seem safe but The Line looks like it'll be collosal failure.

Then again maybe in 20 years time I'll have egg on my face.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

;