Essential The Official Football (Soccer) Thread - Life and Death for South America, Pre-Season for Europe: The Club World Cup

[nyknick]

Highly doubt this is a serious offer at all. Feels like Saudis just rubbing salt into Qatar wounds.

 

[Regular Developer]

Highly doubt this is a serious offer at all. Feels like Saudis just rubbing salt into Qatar wounds.

The Qataris don't really have a choice, because losing Mbappe for free affects PSGs ability to bring in players because of FFP.

 

[hashmander]

why is this old woman sexually harassing rashford?

 

[MikelArteta]

So does the Asian Concacaf/Uefa not of FFP?

no one wants to get Khashoggi'd

 

[EA]

I get the CSL comparisons but this Saudi pot of money won't ever run out like the Chinese one did.

Ultimately the aim is to either be invited to the Champions League(extremely unlikely), or be part of the breakaway Super League(more likely).

Both could be unlikely however once the European elites start feeling threatened. They'll move to block them out.

That’s a good shout re: the Super League. Madrid, Barca & the Serie A teams are still trying to make that happen and considering that both Madrid and Barca have middle eastern ties, bringing the Saudi teams in could be a possibility. Would be absolutely terrible for the sport though.

 

[Ukbrotha]

I get the CSL comparisons but this Saudi pot of money won't ever run out like the Chinese one did.

Ultimately the aim is to either be invited to the Champions League(extremely unlikely), or be part of the breakaway Super League(more likely).

Both could be unlikely however once the European elites start feeling threatened. They'll move to block them out.

Ultimately, Money talks. Saudi investors have set aside 700Bn for their investment projects. $700bn. The european elites at some point will just want a piece of that pie.

 

[thatrapsfan]

Highly doubt this is a serious offer at all. Feels like Saudis just rubbing salt into Qatar wounds.

They’d be actually doing them a favour here, giving them a massive return on a player that was about to walk on a free. Politically Qatar and Saudi have reconciled at the moment too, so more likely working in concert on this one.

 

[thatrapsfan]

If it was any other team, I’d totally agree with you but Real is the prestige club in world football so I don’t think there’s much shame in losing a player to them. The way they’ve been spending money right now, I don’t see any actually footballing IQ behind it.

For the record, I think this Saudi situation is gonna be another Chinese Super League situation and players will stop going once they start missing out on awards and international appearances. Money can’t build football heritage overnight and Saudi would still need to improve their own homegrown players to have any lasting power.

Chinese Super League did not have this level of state backing and players will still get international call ups while abroad.

Just look at players who’ve gone so far (Mahrez, Savic, Koulibaly, Mendy, Brozovic, Neves, Ronaldo) - only player at a remote risk of losing their NT spot is Neves the rest are mainstays no matter where they play.

 

[Low End Derrick]

Highly doubt this is a serious offer at all. Feels like Saudis just rubbing salt into Qatar wounds.

Kylian Mbappe: Paris Saint-Germain grant forward permission to speak to Al Hilal after world-record bid

Kylian Mbappe will receive a loyalty bonus of £51.6m if he is still a PSG player on August 1; Striker has been put up for sale by PSG and left out of their pre-season tour; France captain has one year remaining on his contract and is unwilling to sign a new deal

www.skysports.com

 

[concise]

Chinese Super League did not have this level of state backing and players will still get international call ups while abroad.

Just look at players who’ve gone so far (Mahrez, Savic, Koulibaly, Mendy, Brozovic, Neves, Ronaldo) - only player at a remote risk of losing their NT spot is Neves the rest are mainstays no matter where they play.

Saudi Arabia is also a lot closer to Europe than China or USA, so shorter flights, less jet lag.

 

[EA]

Chinese Super League did not have this level of state backing and players will still get international call ups while abroad.

Just look at players who’ve gone so far (Mahrez, Savic, Koulibaly, Mendy, Brozovic, Neves, Ronaldo) - only player at a remote risk of losing their NT spot is Neves the rest are mainstays no matter where they play.

I don’t think it’s a given that players will still get called up. Players like Ramires, Oscar and Hulk were regulars for Brazil and the call ups stopped when they went to China. The level of competition is taken into account for the top countries when selecting players.

For players from the smaller countries, it may not impact them as much but I’d bet money that players in their prime from countries like France, England, Spain, Italy, etc are going to be taking this into consideration.

 

[Liu Kang]

Kylian Mbappe: Paris Saint-Germain grant forward permission to speak to Al Hilal after world-record bid

Kylian Mbappe will receive a loyalty bonus of £51.6m if he is still a PSG player on August 1; Striker has been put up for sale by PSG and left out of their pre-season tour; France captain has one year remaining on his contract and is unwilling to sign a new deal

www.skysports.com

Of course they accept, they are possibly recouping on a 180m transfer

Realistically I think it's just them putting pressure on Flo so he officially goes for the transfer now.

 

[MikelArteta]

Chinese Super League did not have this level of state backing and players will still get international call ups while abroad.

Just look at players who’ve gone so far (Mahrez, Savic, Koulibaly, Mendy, Brozovic, Neves, Ronaldo) - only player at a remote risk of losing their NT spot is Neves the rest are mainstays no matter where they play.

Damn you left off Kante?

 

[Gilver]

Ultimately, Money talks. Saudi investors have set aside 700Bn for their investment projects. $700bn. The european elites at some point will just want a piece of that pie.

You may be correct, but i think at a certain point these clubs will realise that once they're in the same competitions, what's to stop the Saudi teams completely overtaking them? I think that will be in the back of their mind.

There could be some sort of situation where the Saudis fund the league but there's also (albeit very high)regulations on spending on playing staff.

No way they let the Saudis in without some sort of safety net to keep them on top.

 

[phcitywarrior]

It's still crazy, because you basically have to win one big group, they should have had done best 8 runner ups to the playoffs.

Look at how much more forgiving Asia's qualifying is for their 8 spots.

2026 FIFA World Cup qualification (AFC) - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

Too many rounds imo. AFC nations have better footballing infrastructure to warrant that many rounds. I think this one from CAF is fair. Ideally you want your strongest nations to go to WC. This gives them that route.

Last time you’d win your group then still have a final playoff round. This time win and you’re in.