With regard to Saudi Arabia’s rise in football, Premier League chief Richard Masters is not too concerned at the moment since he believes it takes time to establish relevance.
PSG star Kylian Mbappe is offered a world-record deal worth £259m to join Al Hilal this summer, and he has been given permission to speak to the Saudi club. With his contract expiring next summer, PSG are keen on selling him for a fee in order not to be at a loss when the player will leave for free next summer.
Karim Benzema and Cristiano Ronaldo have already signed up with the country’s Pro League, and Liverpool and Steven Gerrard’s Al-Ettifaq have reached an agreement for Jordan Henderson, to be sold.
“Something new is obviously happening,” Masters told BBC Sport. ”The Saudi Pro League have stated they want to be a top 10 league by 2030.
”They are investing in players and managers to try to raise the profile of the league and clubs.
”It has taken us 30 years to get to the position that we have in terms of profile, competitiveness, and the revenue streams that we have.”
Masters also said that he wouldn’t be too concerned at the moment as Saudi Arabian clubs have as much right to purchase players as any other league does.
”In the end, the Premier League is a £6billion-a-year operation in terms of revenue and that money is spent reinvested into the pitch. All good competitions have to have revenue streams to back them up,” says Masters.
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