Kaveh Solhekol explains Saudi Arabia's transfer strategy

foreign

for more on Saudi Arabia's Ventures into

football our chief reporter Carvey solo

joins us in the studio could I have a

very good afternoon to you why is Saudi

Arabia suddenly the epicenter of big

money transfers

well look there's a lot of interest in

football in Saudi Arabia uh Saudi Arabia

were the best supported team at the

World Cup in Qatar they beat Argentina

who ended up winning the World Cup uh in

Qatar they had something like 70 000

fans in Qatar I met some of them they

are football mad they're football crazy

and they're crazy about the Premier

League now the rulers of Saudi Arabia

have looked at this seen all this

interest in sport uh I think the 70 of

the population of Saudi Arabia is under

40. and they've thought instead of other

people making money from our populations

interest in sport and Football let's

make money ourselves let's keep the

money within our own borders we've got a

league uh we need to professionalize

that League we need to get better

players into that league and that's what

they've been doing The Sovereign wealth

fund of Saudi Arabia has bought majority

stakes in four of their biggest clubs I

think some of the other clubs in the

league are going to be privatized as

well and basically what Saudi Arabia

wants to do is put itself on the map it

wants to build on the success it had in

the World Cup it wants to raise its

profile now a lot of people will be

saying yes at the same time they want to

sport wash their image because Saudi

Arabia has a very bad human rights

record so this helps change their image

around the world so that when you think

of Saudi Arabia you don't think of Human

Rights abuses you think of Cristiano

Ronaldo or you think of Karim Benzema

scoring goals so there is that at play

as well and I think the final reason of

course is that a country like Saudi

Arabia is very dependent on the money it

makes from selling oil and that oil is

not going to last forever and they need

to diversify their economy and that's

why we've seen through the Sovereign

wealth fund that that is exactly what

they've been doing but basically they

want to build their own Leisure and

entertainment industry and tap into the

massive amount of interest there is

among the Saudi Arabian population in

football but of course there are other

reasons as well and Carvey we saw

something similar happen in China didn't

we but that peted out so what's to say

that this Saudi model is actually

sustainable

very good question I think the Saudis

have more money I think they're more

serious about this than the Chinese were

I think what happened in China that was

almost an order that came from the

president of China he said that I want

us to host the World Cup I want us to

have a really really good national team

I want us to have a great league and so

lots of businessmen in China went about

buying these clubs bringing in players

on massive contracts paying people like

Carlos teves Hulk hundreds and hundreds

and thousands of pounds a week but then

the ruling Communist party in China had

a change of heart they didn't like the

fact that all this money was flowing out

of China into Europe and into foreigners

pockets as they saw it and they decided

basically to end it and loads of rules

were introduced about how many foreign

players you could have in the Chinese

super league and that is why it petered

out I get the sense that these Saudis

are more serious about this and this one

has more legs than the Chinese Super

League had I mean the Chinese Super

League is still going uh it just doesn't

have the kind of wages and the kind of

foreign players playing there who were

going there back in what seven or eight

years ago is there a danger Carvey that

the influx of Saudi money will distort

the transfer market globally

I think there is I mean we've seen for

the first time this summer uh every sort

of transfer you talk about you're

mentioning these Saudi clubs and players

who you would think are

impossible for anyone to buy for

instance son from Tottenham uh there is

serious interest in him from Saudi

Arabia now Spurs have made it clear that

he's not for sale but basically Saudi

Arabia has the money to buy any player

they want as long as the player wants to

move there and of course a lot of

players at the very peak of their

careers will say no I don't want to go

and play in Saudi Arabia now but I think

that has changed a little bit with Ruben

Neves because he's somebody who

Liverpool Manchester United Barcelona

were interested in he's only 26 so at

the peak of his career he's decided yes

I would like to go to Saudi Arabia I

mean obviously that could have a lot to

do with money but it has changed the

transfer market because clubs now have

competition from Saudi Arabian teams for

their players but also they've got a

market to sell their players as well a

very very lucrative Market has opened up

one club in particular is Chelsea that's

been linked with possibly a number of

players moving on to Saudi Arabia is

that potentially a way of getting around

the financial fair play problems they're

facing well this is interesting this is

a this is something that's been brought

up a lot in the last couple of days

because obviously Chelsea have spent so

much money 600 million pounds over the

last two windows they need to balance

their books they need to sell some of

their players and out of the blue

suddenly the Saudis have come along and

said yeah we'll have some of your

players and we've got 100 million pounds

to give you so people from the outside

are looking in and maybe saying looks a

little bit strange suddenly you've come

up with a way to balance the books and

people have also said uh that the public

investment fund of Saudi Arabia who owns

these Saudi clubs has also invested in a

U.S private Equity Fund Clear Lake

Capital who are majority shareholders at

Chelsea and people have sort of tried to

see if there's something strange going

on there but from what we're being told

that has got nothing to do with it the

public investment fund of Saudi Arabia

sorry The Sovereign wealth fund invest

in lots of private Equity firms all over

the world and Clear Lake has investments

in like 400 different companies so

Chelsea would say that there is

absolutely no conflict of interest there

whatsoever but obviously you know you're

going to be hearing a lot more about

players moving to clubs in Saudi Arabia

because I think the Saudis are here to

stay they're very very serious about

this and obviously they've got the money

basically to do what they want carve a

brilliant stuff as always thank you so

much

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