THE lists have been drawn up and the financing secured. Saudi Arabia is looking to lure some of the world’s best known football players to join Cristiano Ronaldo in its national league. And to close the deals, it is relying on money, the one commodity it knows it can offer more of than any of its rival leagues.
Similar in ambition to the Saudi-financed campaign to dominate golf through the new LIV series, the plan appears to be a centralised effort – supported at the highest levels in Saudi Arabia, and financed by the kingdom’s huge sovereign wealth fund – to turn the country’s domestic league, a footnote on the global football stage, into a destination for top talent.
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