Saudi Pro League

[sne]

29 minutes ago, villa4europe said:

agree but a step further for me

a FIFA backed CL competitor that takes the UEFA money off them, this club world cup occurring annually rather than every 4 years, the only way saudi teams play european teams in a ratified cup competition is if the saudis get in to bed with FIFA and FIFA challenge UEFA, FIFA would have to kill the CL

you can definitely see the first step of FIFA taking the saudi coin happening

Yup, thats the long term play 

[fightoffyour]

On the UEFA/FFP thing, they could spend as much money as they want now assembling squads and then potentially fit into the FFP wages / outgoings last year or so more easily with just a few transfers per season (not to mention dodgy self-sponsorship deals).

Edited August 8, 2023 by fightoffyour

[Jareth]

The Saudis have absolutely zero inclination to use other people's rules, least of all FFP in any shape or form. My feeling is that they intend to create the number 1 league in the world and then have everyone bend to their rules. 

[HKP90]

I'm on holiday in Cornwall at the moment, and we usually see a good number of football shirts. Villa well represented as always, as are Liverpool, Arsenal and Spurs. 

Dishearteningly there have also been some kids wearing Al Nassr shirts. 

I really hope this sportswashing league does not take off.

[His Name Is Death]

The Saudi league will succeed because the government are relentless enough to want it to (and wealth beyond imagination to fall back on), much more so than the Chinese government. Considering the other megaprojects they've got in the works, I don't know why people think they're a flash in the pan.

46 minutes ago, HKP90 said:

I'm on holiday in Cornwall at the moment, and we usually see a good number of football shirts. Villa well represented as always, as are Liverpool, Arsenal and Spurs. 

Dishearteningly there have also been some kids wearing Al Nassr shirts. 

I really hope this sportswashing league does not take off.

Yeah, sadly, my 14 year old cousin (a Man U fan, but I still love him) recently expressed an interest in following Al Nassr because he loves Ronaldo so much.

You have to remember that we're the 'legacy' fans stubbornly tied to supporting one club and we've already been dumped to make way for fans of superstar names.

Edited August 8, 2023 by His Name Is Death

[Zatman]

1 minute ago, His Name Is Death said:

The Saudi league will succeed because the government are relentless enough to want it do, much more so than the Chinese government. Considering the other megaprojects they've got in the works, I don't know why people think they're a flash in the pan.

Yeah, sadly, my 14 year old cousin (a Man U fan, but I still love him) recently expressed an interest in following Al Nassr because he loves Ronaldo so much.

You have to remember that we're the 'legacy' fans stubbornly tied to supporting clubs and we've already been dumped to make way for fans of superstar names.

In fairness be better off letting him support Al Nassr than United

[HKP90]

12 minutes ago, His Name Is Death said:

The Saudi league will succeed because the government are relentless enough to want it to (and wealth beyond imagination to fall back on), much more so than the Chinese government. Considering the other megaprojects they've got in the works, I don't know why people think they're a flash in the pan.

Yeah, sadly, my 14 year old cousin (a Man U fan, but I still love him) recently expressed an interest in following Al Nassr because he loves Ronaldo so much.

You have to remember that we're the 'legacy' fans stubbornly tied to supporting one club and we've already been dumped to make way for fans of superstar names.

Yeah. I must say though, I just don’t get the cult of following just one player. It's a flipping team sport. 

[Zatman]

6 minutes ago, HKP90 said:

Yeah. I must say though, I just don’t get the cult of following just one player. It's a flipping team sport. 

Its a new thing since last 5/10 years. People support Pogba/Neymar etc over the club

[villa4europe]

14 minutes ago, Zatman said:

Its a new thing since last 5/10 years. People support Pogba/Neymar etc over the club

the juve and madrid guy when they bleated about the super league were right in how they described young international fans gravitating more towards big name players

where they were obviously wrong was in their belief that the biggest clubs have a god given right to buy the biggest names in football in order to keep their machine ticking over

[MWARLEY2]

19 minutes ago, HKP90 said:

Yeah. I must say though, I just don’t get the cult of following just one player. It's a flipping team sport. 

Instagram. All about yourself . Selfies. Personal glory personal wealth.  Drives me mad .The selfie is the  most damaging thing despite seeming the most innocent. 

[villan95]

30 minutes ago, HKP90 said:

Yeah. I must say though, I just don’t get the cult of following just one player. It's a flipping team sport. 

Agreed, hate it. Also what do they do when they retire? pick a new player?

Slightly related but I hate when I go to read the comments on a football post I found interesting and it will be full of unrelated Messi/Ronaldo/Mbappe fanboy shite.

[DJ_Villain]

55 minutes ago, Zatman said:

Its a new thing since last 5/10 years. People support Pogba/Neymar etc over the club

It’s an African/Asian “fan” phenomenon.

 

They often don’t have any links to show devotion to a club… They won’t be able to see them live as to get into the country probably involves a visa application that will be declined… They have no reason to support Rotherham or Plymouth or Scunthorpe et al.

It’s essentially parasitising off of the success so they have something to gloat about.

And considering their love for the player is what got them interested in the club in the first place, as soon as the player buggers off, so does their love for the club.

See also the quick turnaround in Tanzanian fans we had just because of a single player coming and going…

[OutByEaster?]

9 hours ago, villa4europe said:

That's what I mean though, it would be the same as sky, you wouldn't be paying any extra for the Saudi league it would be added to the package you are already paying for

If you pay dazn to watch the CL and UFC you're now getting this

I would be amazed if anyone picks up dazn off the back of this, they'll already have it and now take a passing interest at best, based on ze germans protests over Qatar WC I can't imagine the SA league doing well here

It's weird though, for the most part in this country DAZN is seen as a single event broadcaster - you might buy a fight off them for example - I didn't know until this thread that they had the rights to any football and I wasn't really aware that they had an underlying channel, just that they sold big fights.

I'd guess that of their fifteen million global subscribers, the number in the UK that have bought a fight is in the lower hundreds of thousands and the number that have an ongoing subscription would be short of 100,000.

When money is no object, you'd think you'd want to put your product in front of a whole lot more eyes than that - they'd have more viewers on Dave.

 

[Xela]

6 hours ago, Zatman said:

In fairness be better off letting him support Al Nassr than United

One plays in a backwards regime that treats minorities and women with utter contempt. The other is in Saudi. 

[villa4europe]

1 hour ago, OutByEaster? said:

It's weird though, for the most part in this country DAZN is seen as a single event broadcaster - you might buy a fight off them for example - I didn't know until this thread that they had the rights to any football and I wasn't really aware that they had an underlying channel, just that they sold big fights.

I'd guess that of their fifteen million global subscribers, the number in the UK that have bought a fight is in the lower hundreds of thousands and the number that have an ongoing subscription would be short of 100,000.

When money is no object, you'd think you'd want to put your product in front of a whole lot more eyes than that - they'd have more viewers on Dave.

 

Wiki tells me they're big in Japan too strangely

Here they've got CL and international football, looks like the same in Japan, Canada, Switzerland and Austria with then also some stuff in Italy, Belgium and Portugal, they then show the PL in Belgium, Spain and Portugal (it's sky here) they show the EFL, FA Cup and league cup in 7 countries, they show the FA youth cup in Japan, la liga in 7 countries, the Friday night bundesliga games, Serie a in 5 counties, ligue 1 in 6 countries, Portuguese league in 5 countries, Dutch league in 4, Belgian league in 4, Czech league in 3, oz, Brazil, argie leagues

I'm talking myself in to getting it as I look I can watch loads, more than sky and BT back in the UK

And then NFL, college football, NBA, European basketball, UFC, boxing, IPL Caribbean cricket, PDC darts, fish o mania, pga tour, pga championship, formula 1, moto GP, indy car, summer and winter Olympics, WWE, 6 nations, Rugby world cup, americas cup sailing, Australian, French and US open

They've got their fingers in every pie going

[Zatman]

6 minutes ago, villa4europe said:

Wiki tells me they're big in Japan too strangely

Here they've got CL and international football, looks like the same in Japan, Canada, Switzerland and Austria with then also some stuff in Italy, Belgium and Portugal, they then show the PL in Belgium, Spain and Portugal (it's sky here) they show the EFL, FA Cup and league cup in 7 countries, they show the FA youth cup in Japan, la liga in 7 countries, the Friday night bundesliga games, Serie a in 5 counties, ligue 1 in 6 countries, Portuguese league in 5 countries, Dutch league in 4, Belgian league in 4, Czech league in 3, oz, Brazil, argie leagues

I'm talking myself in to getting it as I look I can watch loads, more than sky and BT back in the UK

And then NFL, college football, NBA, European basketball, UFC, boxing, IPL Caribbean cricket, PDC darts, fish o mania, pga tour, pga championship, formula 1, moto GP, indy car, summer and winter Olympics, WWE, 6 nations, Rugby world cup, americas cup sailing, Australian, French and US open

They've got their fingers in every pie going

Has gone downhill in last few years. Used to have NHL and also Premier League highlights and some Cup games before Sky got involved

Naturally if have a vpn can watch Premier League but they are closing down a lot more VPN than before

[duke313]

DAZN in the UK is a bit shit, it’s only really PPV boxing. I had managed to sign up to Canadian DAZN with a VPN, had PL, CL/Europa and Serie A.

Was pretty decent. Just select a match like you would a show on Netflix.

The PL really need to sort their own DAZN like app, they’d make a fortune. 

[villa4europe]

2 minutes ago, duke313 said:

DAZN in the UK is a bit shit, it’s only really PPV boxing. I had managed to sign up to Canadian DAZN with a VPN, had PL, CL/Europa and Serie A.

Was pretty decent. Just select a match like you would a show on Netflix.

The PL really need to sort their own DAZN like app, they’d make a fortune. 

That's what sky Germany have, was £10 month 2 seasons ago for every PL game on demand

Now it's £30 with other stuff that I don't want, tempted though

[Zatman]

Neymar along with Ronaldo will get people tuned in who just support the players. Was a time they were among the highest followers on social media

Pogba is another they should be trying to add

[Genie]

36 minutes ago, Zatman said:

Neymar along with Ronaldo will get people tuned in who just support the players. Was a time they were among the highest followers on social media

Pogba is another they should be trying to add

I bet Juve would pay for his flight