27 May 2023 21:55:46
Hi ed01 I was wondering if you could explain why the Saudi clubs are willing and able to pay such crazy wages to Ronaldo and potentially Messi, are the owners of those clubs extremely rich or is it state backed, in which case how do they decide which are the lucky clubs?
They surely can't recoup anything close to that, European clubs have got in trouble paying a fraction of that with a larger income and I know they don't have to balance the books like European clubs, but I'm still wondering, what's the point? What is the return on the investment they're looking for?

{Ed001's Note - the owners are cash-rich oil sheikhs. Well now they are mostly owned by PIF, who own Newcastle. They pay it because it is a toy to them and the money is nothing in their eyes.}

1.) 15 Jun 2023
15 Jun 2023 11:43:59
Thanks for the reply, I had kept checking for it, but didn't see it for a while and forgot. I had read that PIF now owned most of them, which seems like such an odd situation for competition, how do they decide which clubs to favour with the best players if they own them all?

{Ed001's Note - that is something I have been trying to figure out. It is such an odd situation. How can it be truly competitive when they are all in essence part of the same group? I can't see how it can possibly work in the long term.}

2.) 16 Feb 2024
15 Jun 2023 11:43:59
Thanks for the reply, I had kept checking for it, but didn't see it for a while and forgot. I had read that PIF now owned most of them, which seems like such an odd situation for competition, how do they decide which clubs to favour with the best players if they own them all?