“It’s happening on a large scale, so it’s a bit of a surprise. The main inspiration was the successful World Cup in Qatar, but football is still extremely popular in Arab countries, the clear number one. Saudi Arabia lives on football,” Hašek said.
Already in December, after the world championship, the Portuguese star Cristiano Ronaldo headed to Saudi Arabia, and other big names followed him in the summer. In addition to current Ballon d’Or winner Karim Benzema, other Champions League winners Sadio Mané, N’Golo Kanté and Rijád Mahriz also transferred to the local league.
According to Hašek, during the first World Cup in the Arab world, the players got to know what football life is like in the country. “This may also be one of the reasons why the participants of the championship go there now. But the first and basic one is, of course, the huge financial resources that the Saudi Arabian clubs have put into it. It is one of the richest countries in the world, the clubs can afford it,” he pointed out former coach of the national team and president of the association.
Hašek coached al-Hilal in 2012, and that is where, according to today’s BBC information, star Brazilian forward Neymar from Paris Saint-Germain is headed. “Al-Hilal is the biggest and most famous club in Asia. It is a mega club that can be compared with the top teams in the top five leagues of Western Europe in terms of its background or the interest of the local media. In short, it is a big club that we are used to from Europe,” he described former national team captain.
Transfers of football stars also attract attention for the reason that Saudi Arabia, like Qatar, has long faced criticism for violating human rights and freedoms. Human rights organizations draw attention to the so-called sportswashing, i.e. that ruling regimes improve their own image by investing in sports.
Hašek believes that the country is changing since his time in the Saudi Arabian League. “New stadiums have sprung up and, above all, there is a slightly different life there, in terms of tourism and access to people from abroad. Saudi Arabia is much more open now, it is no longer such a closed country where it was difficult to get a visa. They want to follow in the footsteps of Qatar or the United Arab Emirates, base it more on tourism. One of those entertainments can of course also be football,” said the player and coaching legend of Sparta Prague.
The 59-year-old coach, with experience in France, Japan, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar or Lebanon, sees no reason why the Saudi Arabian League could not be followed in the same way as European competitions. “I think we already watch it, and we can already find matches from their league in our TV offer. They invest huge funds, but they also want to get money back from it, for example for TV rights. It’s a huge business,” said Hašek.
However, he does not expect players from the Czech league to go to Saudi Arabia in the future. “The quality of foreign reinforcements has jumped there. Probably only Czech boys with experience from abroad could transfer, for example Schick and Hložek from the Bundesliga or Souček from the Premier League. There could be interest in players from the national team, but in our league it is difficult.” added the coach, who last worked with the Lebanese national team a year and a half ago.
2023-08-14 21:00:58
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