But, critically, it accomplishes the important task of keeping the football bubble from bursting for another decade.
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Throw in shortening the match for tv then that concept is the football equivalent of LIV golf.
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WWE signed a 10 year agreement with Saudi Arabia a whole while back. It’s now getting to the stage where it’s apparent that the interest by Saudi Arabia is long term. I think that the WWE women participated in Saudi Arabia as well which is another first for that country.
Football is another in a whole different stratosphere.
The geopolitical nature of Saudi Arabia from being an isolated country (relevant only in Asia , Muslims and Oil) has now been changed to being a country which is a crucial part in the land trade between Europe and china / India and beyond.
Think China’s BRI initiative , this is Saudi Arabia and their powerplay. The recent peace deal with Iran is one such initiative.
MBS wants to ensure that enough goodwill is generated by Saudi Arabia to both appease his masses at home and to negate any possible blowback about valid human rights abuses etc that Saudis have been plagued with for a long time.
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anyone else putting a question mark on the 700k figure.
i know they are ‘loaded’ and that they have to pay a premium to prize footballers away, but quadrupling a wage and throwing in tax free…
they are still businessmen… probably 300k would have got it over the line
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I may have read it wrong but we put a package to Virg, off the books, while away from his club, just to gauge the response. We didn’t approach his club first, got caught, then put the transfer off for fear of FA response. I’d suggest most transfers are probably done that way now.
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And the 40m bid for Fabinho 
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It’s literally incredible.
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Appears to be a standard season for northern hemisphere end Aug to end May Saudi Arabian Premier League 2022/2023 Fixtures & Results - Football Scores | Eurosport
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I’m calling hoax at that figure.
Wouldn’t trust one of those Al teams.
It’s now morning in the UK and Hendo is on the phone.
WTF is this shit??? Unsettling our player by making a contract offer and now they don’t have the transfer funds. *uck off!!!
https://twitter.com/thisisanfield/status/1679890860232650768?t=qqY8rqsRhLqdb22cr4YTrQ&s=19
Isn’t this just exactly what we do. Claim poverty in the hopes of paying a lower fee because the player has already set his heart on moving.
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I think it’s bound to raise some eyebrows when you can offer a player £700,000 in weekly wages but you can’t pay £20m as transfer fee.
I don’t think the clubs have any fund shortage, they just don’t want to pay the fees.
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well if jordan wants to go there i suggest he only gets the low wage of £500k a week and the extra £200k a week saved by club can go towards fee.
Im sure i read on twitter that these clubs dont actually have the huge wages to give him. It wouldnt be a weekly wage they would pay it in chunks a few times a year.
If that was true then and i am Jordan alarm bells would be ringing - quartley payments and they dont have £20m to buy me…maybe they dont have the money. They arent one of Suadis richest clubs. He could go and end up not being paid.
An interesting article by Barney Ronay in the Guardian on the moral dilemma faced not only by Hendo but by everyone else in English football, or indeed in Britain. He makes an interesting comparison between what the Saudis are doing now in sport and what Britain did in the 19th century. There is a reason why most of the world’s most popular sports originated in Britain.
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Liverpool and Al-Ettifaq REMAIN in talks for the transfer of Jordan Henderson. -
Oh look, there’s the captain of one of the top clubs in Europe, he’d be ideal for us. Let’s offer $0.
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Apparently, the hold-up is because Jordan has said if he can’t wear the Rainbow Laces… He want YMCA played as the teams walk onto the pitch instead…! Knew that guy had principles all along 
Good on ya Jordan lad :0)
What are they ̶s̶m̶o̶k̶i̶n̶g̶ drinking over there?
Camel piss?
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