Hundreds of millions of euros on transfers and salaries of stars, tens of millions spent on advertising the Saudi Arabian championship, have not yet brought the desired effect
Billion euro for transfer expenses for the last two seasons. Coming Ronaldo, Neymar, Benzema, Bounou, Mahrez. Large-scale promotion worth tens of millions of dollars – The Saudi Pro League, having received incredible funding from the state, has made a large-scale bid to become one of the most significant and interesting national championships in the world. But, as it turned out, football works differently – tournamentwhich, according to Cristiano Ronaldo, will soon overtake at least one of the Big Five championships, is of no interest to anyone, but the stars are ready to leave the country.
The first, let us remind you, was Jordan Henderson, who did not last even six months. Moreover, so much so that he even left for Ajax, which is now in crisis. Not long ago, Karim Benzema announced his desire to leave, and Neymar, who is recovering from an injury, is considering the option of returning to the Brazilian championship. Five-time champion of England with Manchester City, Aymeric Laporte, admitted that many stars want to leave, although he later stopped speaking out on this topic.
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But the main problem is different – the Saudi Arabian championship has not aroused interest outside the country. Namely, this – popularizing and improving the image of the Kingdom, as well as holding large-scale fighting evenings, was the main goal of incredible financial investments.
According to media reports, the television rights to the Pro League could not be sold to British providers. In Spain, the rights to broadcast the Saudi Arabian championship were sold for 60 thousand to the consortium that owns the Marca publication. Well, the viewing figures in France are terrifying.
According to L’Equipe, the match between Al-Hilal and Al-Ittihad, broadcast on March 1 on Canal+, was watched by only 5,000 viewers. And this despite the presence of Kante, Fabinho, Bounou, Koulibaly, Milinkovic-Savic, Lodi, Neves, Felipe in the teams. For comparison, the French third division match between Rouen and Sochaux was watched by more than 30 thousand spectators. The match in the Second League of the Ukrainian Championship between Skala 1911 and Rukh-2 was watched by 12 thousand people on the YouTube channel of the Professional Football League.
As the publication notes, the leadership of the Pro League is aware of the viewing figures, but believes that the significance of the problem is exaggerated, and the data provided in the media is incorrect. But perhaps the most eloquent evidence of the low interest in “star football” in the Kingdom and the lack of fans from abroad is the usually filled to a maximum of a third home stadium of the current champion of the country Al-Ittihad – an arena opened in 2014 and accommodating 60 thousand spectators “King Abdullah Sports City.
Of course, it is difficult to say and predict how the experiment will end, but for now the Pro League resembles a football black hole, easily absorbing huge sums.
Source: Sportarena
I’m Todderic Kirkman, a journalist and author for athletistic. I specialize in covering all news related to sports, ranging from basketball to football and everything in between. With over 10 years of experience in the industry, I have become an invaluable asset to my team. My ambition is to bring the most up-to-date information on sports topics around the world.
