RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s extraordinary football expansion is a “long-term project” with strong government support, unlike the short-lived Chinese boom, ...
Neymar enters the pitch during his unveiling ceremony at Al-Hilal in Riyadh on August 19, 2023 as he becomes the latest world-famous footballer snapped up by the big-spending Saudi Pro League. AFPPIX: Saudi Arabia’s extraordinary football expansion is a “long-term project” with strong government support, unlike the short-lived Chinese boom, a senior league official told AFP.
“It’s not something that we expect will happen overnight. It’s not a one-weekend event -- this is a long-term project, and everybody accepts that that’s what it’s going to take,“ Nohra said at the King Fahd International Stadium late on Saturday. At one stage, Guangzhou Evergrande made little-known Argentine Dario Conca one of the world's best-paid players, and Shanghai Shenhua was lavishing a reported 730,000 euros a week on an ageing Carlos Tevez.“But for us, the fact that this project is part of a transformation project that’s moving this country where it wants to go... provides the sustenance that we need in order to keep moving forward.
“The strategy is 360 degrees, many elements to it. At the heart of it, one of those objectives set for us is how do we improve performance on the pitch, with world-class sports performers.” Despite the enormous outlays -- Neymar's Al-Hilal is the world's second biggest-spending club this summer -- the budget is not bottomless, and the aim is for the teams to become financially viable and perhaps go private.
“But we also have the responsibility to ensure that they cross the bridge to the other side and become financially independent as well.”
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