Exclusive: Saudi Pro League needs a 30-year plan to succeed where Chinese Super League failed | OneFootball

Although the Saudi Pro League are seemingly wasting no time at all in trying to make their league one of the best in the world, one of the Premier League’s co-creators has sounded a note of caution.

It can’t have escaped anyone’s attention that, at present, the Pro League is only the 68th best on the planet, per TeamForm.

To put that in some kind of perspective, they are significantly poorer than England’s League One (63rd), the Peruvian Primera Division (52nd) and the Israeli Ligat ha’Al (28th).

There is a long, long way to go to ensure the league is in the top five as Cristiano Ronaldo believes it will be, per an interview with the SPL (h/t BBC Sport).

Former super agent, Jon Smith, writing in his exclusive CaughtOffside column, believes that the Pro League need to be in it for the long haul.

‘President Xi made his statement about enjoying football and wanting more top football in China, and the Chinese Super League to represent the best in the world of football but it didn’t quite work out that way,’ he wrote.

‘I guess part of that was because of their relatively closed society and having all that cash leaving the country all in one go via some very interesting deals, so they clamped down on it.

Cristiano Ronaldo Al-Nassr

‘But I think doing what the Middle Eastern countries are doing is using sports as the political tentacle. I don’t mean that in a bad way particularly but, you know, Saudi have a difficult international reputation and, as such, establishing political influence other than through finance has its barriers.

‘Whereas if they’re helping sport, it doesn’t really have that many barriers because sport is very international. I think it’s a very clever move, I think they can afford it, and so now you come to the question of does it work or how can it work?’

As someone who helped co-create the Premier League and was behind the advent of the Australian A League and MLS, Smith knows what he’s talking about and should therefore be listened to.

‘Money talks, full stop. Second line on that is money talks, full stop. The third line, I guess, says the same thing, but it also says that you’ve got to have a desire to win. Young men and young women I guess will follow, but you’ve got to have your sporting appetite satiated as well,’ he continued.

‘Just going there, kicking a ball in what I’m sure will be a very pleasant environment but not in a competitive environment, will therefore affect your international potential, so there are these consequences on a sporting level.

‘I think the Saudi Pro League will have a faster route map than some of the other leagues because they’ll have more money to throw at it – but they don’t have the infrastructure around it. The ownership is is very tight and, I’m hesitating to say this, probably uncompetitive at the moment.

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‘So I think, if there was a 10, 20, 30 year plan, it would allow the league to flourish and bring in some really good players.

‘[…] The challenge currently is if you were a 25-year-old and you sign a four-year contract to go and play in Saudi, you’ve sort of sold your sporting soul because by the time you come back you’ve got to rebuild your reputation.

‘You’ve basically gone there for the bank account rather than the cups and winning medals and it’s an interesting dichotomy of views. I think it’s going to take a lot longer because of all the things I’ve said and I think it needs to be planned over a period of years to create a competitive league in an environment that people want to play in, rather than just cashing the cheques.’

Time will tell if having what appears to be a bottomless pit of money will be enough to bring the SPL up to the standards required to make them a genuine contender for elite status.

Playing the long game could stand them in good stead and, perhaps, in 30 years time, players moving to the Middle East won’t be seen as the groundbreaking switch that it is at present.