Saudi Pro League

[mexico1970]

Another European winter WC, the European leagues really need to fuck FIFA off now.

European football will survive perfectly well without FIFA, but FIFA will be finished without European football.

Some people want less PL games, it's that bunch we have to be careful of.

 

[Alan Harper's Tash]

https://www.espn.co.uk/football/sto...-star-laporte-saudi-move-many-players-unhappy

Wonder if they will improve or the whole thing revert back to PreRonaldo

You can’t just manufacture a league, especially in a country that is too hot to play football in.

MLS tried it in the 70s, China about 10 years ago and now the Saudis.

They should stick to getting as many global international games played there if they want exposure.

 

[Gray]

You can’t just manufacture a league, especially in a country that is too hot to play football in.

MLS tried it in the 70s, China about 10 years ago and now the Saudis.

They should stick to getting as many global international games played there if they want exposure.

Of the 18 teams only 4 have an average attendance over 10k, the highest average is 26,842.

11 premier league teams top that along with 6 Championship sides.

 

[Alan Harper's Tash]

Of the 18 teams only 4 have an average attendance over 10k, the highest average is 26,842.

11 premier league teams top that along with 6 Championship sides.

That could grow if it continued, but maybe there’s something in no alcohol changing the atmosphere in stadia too.

 

[SkyBlueFlux]

Of the 18 teams only 4 have an average attendance over 10k, the highest average is 26,842.

11 premier league teams top that along with 6 Championship sides.

The average attendance of the Saudi Pro League is a good bit lower than League One. Macclesfield FC were in the 7th tier of English football last season and they managed a better average attendance than 5 of the Saudi Pro teams. I know that's an exceptional circumstance but I think it highlights the difference in footballing culture.

I think herein lies the problem... you can go down the footballing pyramid in England a long long way and find clubs pulling thousands of people to every match. That grassroots system is at least partially present in all successful European and South American leagues. Without the interest in the sport at that most fundamental level, it's not going to translate into more generalised national success. It's always just going to be a superficial veneer with no real foundations.

 

[jimharri]

You can’t just manufacture a league, especially in a country that is too hot to play football in.

MLS tried it in the 70s, China about 10 years ago and now the Saudis.

They should stick to getting as many global international games played there if they want exposure.

That seems to be dying a slow death.....

From bidding for Bale to selling team bus - the fall of Chinese Super League

Once it was China, not Saudi Arabia, on a multi-million pound recruitment drive to buy in the world's best football talent. In just a few years though, the Chinese Super League's big-money plans have imploded.

www.bbc.com

 

[117 M34]

You can’t just manufacture a league, especially in a country that is too hot to play football in.

MLS tried it in the 70s, China about 10 years ago and now the Saudis.

They should stick to getting as many global international games played there if they want exposure.

That would probably be their best bet.
Something similar to the harlem globetrotters.

 

[Slipper One]

I don’t know a single football fan from my group of friends that gives a fuck about the Saudi league, none of us have watched and I suspect never will.

Same here and the same response from a friend of mine in Germany. While probably not representative of the country, I suspect it is and would be the same in most countries.

 

[The Future’s Blue!]

Anybody watched a game yet?

 

[Paul1970]

Think you will find hardly any players will be moving to Saudi apart from the mercenary brigade .