Editor’s Column: Saudi cash is changing the game and it’s hard to know what to do

Chelsea are laughing. All the mistakes they made in recent transfer windows and all the monstrous spending is about to be offset by offloading multiple players to the Saudi Arabian clubs which are owned by their State.

If you didn’t know, PIF, the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, is on the warpath to buying and running sport. They partly own golf. They have their fingers in boxing, F1 and WWE pies. And they are trying to change football as we know it.

The relationship between Chelsea and Saudi Arabia is also ambiguous. PIF are an investor in Clearview, the company which own a 60% stake in Chelsea. Has this eased the transfer of players from Stamford Bridge to the Middle East? Probably.

Some have compared the Saudi invasion to the Chinese wealth that infiltrated football a few years back. That was largely older players though – and nobody of the caliber of Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema. Benzema is the current holder of the Balon d’Or, remember? It also dried out fairly quickly when the Chinese Government put a stop to it by introducing rules about wages and Chinese players needing to be prevalent in squads.

The Saudi government wants this. They want to have a serious role in football, up to and beyond the World Cup which they hope to host in 2030. Lionel Messi is an ambassador. They have the money to basically buy anyone and everything.

And it became clear when the large majority of Newcastle United fans so easily ignored the multiple ethical and human rights issues that surround their Saudi ownership that the prospect of lots of money, big signings, and team success trumps all. After all, it’s not hard for the Toon Army to read about Jamal Khashoggi’s murder, or how, according to Amnesty International:

“The authorities targeted individuals for peacefully exercising their rights to freedom of expression and association. The Specialized Criminal Court tried and sentenced to lengthy prison terms individuals following grossly unfair trials for their peaceful expression or association, or for forming community organizations. Human rights defenders were harassed in prison and faced arbitrary travel bans following their conditional release from prison. Courts resorted to the death penalty following grossly unfair trials, including in cases of individuals who were children at the time of the alleged crime, and people were executed for a wide range of crimes. Thousands of residents were subjected to forced evictions in the coastal city of Jeddah. Migrant workers continued to be abused and exploited under the sponsorship system and thousands were arbitrarily detained in inhumane conditions, tortured and otherwise ill-treated, and involuntarily returned to their home country as part of a nationwide crackdown on undocumented migrants. The country’s first Personal Status Law came into effect, codifying male guardianship and discrimination against women.”

Not hard. A few clicks. The UK government lies and cheats and is downright awful, but our overall system is not apartheid-esque and we don’t execute those who speak out against the Conservatives. Last year in Saudi Arabia, 81 people were executed on a single day. It’s grim.

And football is quietly, loudly, and quickly getting into bed with them.

So what’s our role in it? What if Al Hilal offers £65m for Joe Gomez and takes an injury-prone Thiago off our hands for a similar fee? Do FSG, who literally need to sell players to provide any incoming funds for transfers, say no? How can they, when Liverpool’s prime sponsor Standard Chartered, was fined over £1bn for Money Laundering and breaching sanctions against Iran in pro-Israel moves back in 2019? Liverpool aren’t perfect. Far from it. Who knows who FSG has financial relationships with – where all the money comes from? We’re part of the problem, just perhaps more embarrassed about it.

Do we just get into bed with whoever is richest then? At the top level, the game is gone. No coming back from where it’s at now. There are too many world superpowers involved. It’s too big. Regulation was required at the turn of this century but we’ve missed the boat. Qatar will probably own Manchester United by the end of the summer. It’s hopeless.

So, do Liverpool cash in? How can keep afloat/compete if we don’t? Should Steven Gerrard have taken the money? Are we, like Rory McIlroy did with the LIV and PGA golf dispute, simply delaying the inevitable?

And why does nobody care? Why did we let it get like this? Football used to be football. It will never be again.

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