Saudi Arabia’s sports minister announced on Monday that the country’s sovereign wealth fund would hold 75% of the capital of the four main soccer teams in the National League. With a stroke of the pen, the Public Investment Fund will inject a huge amount of money into these teams and into the Saudi League itself, which will go from receiving 120 million dollars a year to quadrupling its budget, up to 480 million. The president of the investment fund is none other than the crown prince himself, Mohamed bin Salman. With this aid, it is not surprising that figures such as Cristiano Ronaldo or Karim Benzema can be signed and that the rich Arabs can dream of joining Leo Messi, Jordi Alba and Sergio Busquets in the same team. While in Europe or South America, the continents where there is more passion for the beautiful game, the clubs are financially suffocated, in Arabia the teams do not know what to do to invest all their money.
Saudi Arabia’s strategy is to use oil revenues to become an influential power in the world that goes well beyond its regional space. Soccer is only a small part of this strategy, but it is the great showcase. The Arabs are aware of this and have already won the organization of the Club World Championship this year and aspire to organize the World Cup in 2030. The question that must be asked is simple: will petrodollars end up distorting football? ? Will the best players end up in second division leagues but earning astronomical amounts? The reality is that a large economic investment is not always a guarantee of success, and if not, tell Paris Saint-Germain, who receives injections of millions from Qatar but does not know what it is to win a Champions League.
In Spain, there is a piece of information worth highlighting: the last five teams in the league table that has just ended –Valencia, AlmerÃa, Valladolid, Espanyol and Elche– are managed by foreign capital that has invested a lot of money but without achieving good results. Therefore, there is still hope. We already knew that money did not bring happiness. Now we can also add that it is not synonymous with success no matter how many petrodollars are invested.
