Why Is No One Watching Football In Saudi Arabia?

the Saudi pro league has been making waves in football over the last 10 months and by Making Waves what I mean of course is that four state-owned clubs have literally spent a billion dollars on you arrivals throwing more money at those players contracts than they did on contracts with British arms firms in order to bomb kids in Yemen the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo Caren benzar and Neymar Jr have all headed desert side signing contracts that are without precedent in the history of world football meanwhile lonel Messi and Killian mbappe are reported to have turned down even more money than them Saudi Arabia is a country of over 35 million people which in a European context makes it roughly the same size as Poland twice the size of the Netherlands and over three times larger than Portugal given that Saudi Arabia's population is also among the youngest and the most male dominated I mean in terms of the ratio of men to women though also in other ways that we need not get into you might have thought that those signings combined with Saudi Arabia's demographics would have resulted in pack out crowds the length and breadth of the Kingdom well I'm afraid to say that you would be sadly mistaken as some of you may have seen last weekend's game between Steven Gerard and Jordan Henderson's alyac and Al Riad where former Wat Striker Andre gray and Ray Al Bettis Looney juany now play their Club football attracted a crowd of just 696 people that's fewer Spectators than turned up to watch a game between Clyro and Newcastle town over the same weekend in the eighth tier of English football it comes as a crushing blow no doubt to Jordan Henderson and his oneman crusade to spread the game of football around the globe the former Liverpool Captain must be distraught personally I wouldn't be at all surprised if he simply handed his wages back now due to the overwhelming sense of guilt Gerard and Henderson's alac weren't alone in Saudi Arabia in playing in front of a pitiful crowd last weekend though nor have they been throughout the rest of this season in fact that wasn't even the lowest attendance of the weekend a game between alham and Al ryad attracted a crowd of just 532 meanwhile the lowest attendants this season came in Al o dude's 2-1 win against al rad last month when only 133 people turned up there are Sunday League teams playing on Park pitches that attract bigger crowds than that the highest attendance last weekend came at the King Abdullah Sports City Stadium where a crowd of 16,917 turned out to watch Roberto firmino and Riad marz's Al Ali take on AIA agalo Alva which is still considerably fewer than the 2,552 that went to watch Bradford City over the same weekend in the fourth tier of English football overall the average attendance in the Saudi pro league so far this season has been just 8,510 which is significantly lower than the average in both the sky League 1 and in Germany's thirdd Liga outside of the big four who were all owned by Saudi Arabia's sovereign fund which also owns 80% of Newcastle United there is not a single Saudi pro league team with an average attendance of more than 10,000 so far this season stadiums in the Saudi pro league so far this season have been on average just 30% full or you know 70% empty depending on your perspective on life I suppose the viewing figures online and on television are if anything even less impressive impressive so just what on Earth is going on why is no one watching football in Saudi Arabia either at home or abroad despite a summer of investment which was even more extreme than the form of wahhabism that Saudi Arabia seeks to export to the rest of the world well in today's video that's what we're going to try and figure out so sit back relax and join me on a journey to damam Riad Mecca Medina and jeda not literally of course I would rather not be hacked to pieces with a bone saw as we take a look at the Saudi Pro League's attendances why they are quite so low and what could be done to improve them some people may look at the crowds in the Saudi pro league even after the league has signed some of the biggest names in World football and conclude that most Saudis must just not be very interested in the sport but that is not the case anyone who witnessed the level of support that Saudi Arabia enjoys allbe it on their own doorstep of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar will know that there is not only a great number of Saudis who are very passionate about football but also that they can create a fairly rockus atmosphere football is believed to have been brought to Saudi Arabia by British merchants and missionaries in the late 19th century and though a Saudi Arabian Football Federation and therefore an official Saudi Arabia national team didn't exist until 9 1956 Saudi Arabia's oldest Club aliti had who now employed the likes of Karen Benzema and goo kante and Nuno esperito Santo were founded in December 1927 almost 100 years ago football rapidly became the most popular sport in Saudi Arabia enjoying a burgeoning fan culture meanwhile the Saudi national team are among the most successful in Asia having reached a joint record six Asian Cup finals winning three of them and six World Cups a tally which is bettered only by South Korea and Japan within the Asian football Confederation for decades now the biggest fixtures in the Saudi football calendar which are primarily the Riad and jeda dares between al-hilal and al- ner and Al Ali and alad have attracted crowds in the tens of thousands meanwhile the finals of the Spanish and Italian super cups which have both been held in Saudi Arabia several times in recent years always draw crowds in excess of 50,000 there is perhaps a Temptation or laziness that leads some people to amalgamate all West Asian or middle eastern states into one big authoritarian and monarchical block but doing so overlooks several important distinctions and nuances which includes but is by no means limited to football Saudi Arabia is not Qatar which also twice hosted the super coer Italiana and was never able to attract a crowd of more than 14,000 whereas Qatar has a third of a million citizens plus about 2.3 million migrant workers Saudi Arabia is the fifth largest country in Asia by area and the largest in what is often referred to as the Middle East unlike its Gulf neighbors with the exception of Iraq Saudi Arabia doesn't lack inhabitants or football fans nor is it devoid of longstanding passionate and vocal football fandom the lack of fans at Saudi pro league games therefore can't be explained away quite as easily as some of you might have thought while Saudi Arabia has a decent sized population though that population is incredibly spread out the landscape of Saudi Arabia consists primarily of arid desert lowland and mountains and it is among the least densely populated Nations on Earth in fact Canada Russia and Argentina Ina are the only countries with larger populations that are less densely populated than Saudi Arabia and unlike in those three countries Saudi Arabia's metropolitan areas aren't particularly closely congregated the west of the country home to the cities of jeda Mecca and Medina is the most densely populated region but even then you're talking about over a 4-Hour Drive between the two holiest cities in Islam Riad meanwhile the Saudi capital is a 10hour drive from the nation Second City of jeda and it's a further 4-Hour drive on from there to reach Steven Gerard and Jordan Henderson's new home of deam even Riad which is the largest city in the region with a population of over 7 and 1 half million people is not a modern Metropolis in the style of London or New York it is a sprawling city which has a single row of highrises surrounded by low-lying residential buildings for as far as the eye can see Riad Province meanwhile where the next largest city is home to barely 100,000 people covers an area of more than 400,000 km squared that is three times the size of England all of this is relevant because it means that though Saudi Arabia is home to over 35 million people many of them live nowhere near any of the nation's top flight football stadiums and even some of those who live in cities with Saudi pro league team team like Riad or jeda the latter of which is larger than either Bangkok or New York despite having fewer than half the number of inhabitants you could still face a 2 and a half or three-hour round trip just to watch home games meanwhile an alte supporter is looking at a 33-hour drive there and back to watch their team take on aloc dude even Plymouth fans would bulk at that there are other logistical challenges to attending matches in Saudi Arabia right now for example this season's average attendance of 8,510 is lower than last season's average of just over 10,000 which is pretty extraordinary given the players that have joined Saudi clubs in recent months but attendances are actually up about 25% year-over-year when compared to this time last season that may seem a little unusual but it is currently summertime in Saudi Arabia in which temperatures tend to range from around 30 to 43° C or 86 to 110° F for any American viewers out there Saudi Arabia's football stadiums as things stand are a far cry from the state-of-the-art venues that hosted the 2022 World Cup in Qatar in the winter no less and accommodated supporters in relative Comfort certainly in a greater degree of comfort than the people who built them were accommodated in at least the King Abdullah sport sports city nicknamed The Jewel and home to jeda Joo Al Ali and aliad is the only major modern football stadium in Saudi Arabia built at a cost of $560 million and opened in 2014 the only other modern venues are al- Nas's KSU stadium in Riyad where Cristiano Ronaldo plays his football which is still smaller than League 2 sides MK Dons and Bradford City stadiums damx tiny little 5000 sea open a stadium which opened in 2017 and the 12,000 sea Prince hakul bin abdulaziz sports city which opened its doors in 2020 12 years after construction first began another single Bowl open a stadium with a running track around it which plays host to both aloc dude and Nan the rest of the Saudi proleague stadiums like EA's Prince Muhammad Benard Stadium or Al Rad's Prince turkey bin abdulaziz Stadium were built in the 1970s or 80s and have been relatively untouched since then I mean just take a look at Al majak sports city which is one of the League's newest stadiums opened in 1990 and the permanent home of three Saudi football clubs one of whom alire competes in the pro league now without wanting to cast any aspersions I might suggest that sports city is slightly too grandios a name for a single rickety old stand and four massive flood lights but then again almak is a city which has a population of just 45,000 people which makes it a little bit smaller than Dum ferin in Scotland most of Saudi Arabia's stadiums are currently not very hospitable environments then especially not in 40° heat in the middle of summer when you've got a toour round trip just to get to the game it's also worth noting that almack for example and Al whose average attendance this season is less than 3,000 are based in Riad Province and are just two hours from al-hilal's King fard International stadium and even less from al- NASA's ala Park although Saudi Arabia does have a very distinct football culture that football culture is very different to the one that exists in Europe and especially in England support among Saudi football fans is much more intensely focused on Saudi Arabia's big four namely al- hillal Al Ali alad and al- Naser than most European football fans can probably comprehend even in Spain where Barcelona and Real Madrid are such behemoths compared to everyone else it still doesn't come close the likes of Betis bbau Atletico seev and Valencia all enjoy significant support despite the outsized influence of those two but in Saudi Arabia the enthusiasm for a club like Al Riyad who are alhilal and al- NASA's unloved neighbors is bordering on non-existent Al riad's average attendance this season is just 2,139 the second lowest figure in the Saudi pro league for a Top Flight football club based in a city of almost 8 million people Saudi Arabia's enormous investment has not only done nothing to increase the enthusiasm for clubs like Al Rad or address this imbalance in some ways it has served to do the precise opposite in June 20123 Saudi Arabia's Sovereign wealth fund known as the public investment fund or PF assumed control of the nation's four largest clubs pretty much all Saudi Arabian football clubs like most things in Saudi Arabia were already de facto stay toned or at least State controlled but pf's position formalized things at those those four clubs and facilitated unprecedented State investment in the sport those four of therefore each hoovered up a handful of superstars in recent months whilst most clubs have remained relatively unchanged whereas Al Halal have appointed George Zeus and signed Ruben neeves Alexander mitrovich and Neymar Jr and Al Nasser have signed Marcelo brovich sdio mané and America laort to play alongside Cristiano Ronaldo their local minut Al Rad's biggest signing has been Didier andong a man who is best known for being fairly UND dong himself after sundland paid a club record 13.6 million to sign him in 2016 the Saudi pro league was already unbalanced but pf's investment has made the Gap even more striking Al hillal are yet to lose a game this season and recently put six goals past Al Riyad in a turgent affair played at walking pace meanwhile Al Nassir struck five past alfat in their own backyard without breaking a sweat and in 40° heat that takes some doing Saudi minnows may see increased attendances when they host one of the big four as fans turn up to get a glimpse of Neymar or Ronaldo but outside of those four games of season it is quite plausible that their support and attendances could actually decline as that Gulf further widens the gulf between the Haves and hav Nots in Saudi Arabia football is reflected in the attendance statistics a crowd of over 59,000 turned up to watch alh Hal's opening game this season which was a one- draw against minnow Al compared to the 133 fans who turned up just two weeks later to watch Al ryad host aloc dude in the Saudi Capital just as most people supporting just four clubs rather than necessarily their local team is part of Saudi fan culture so is picking and choosing which games to attend that means routinely that big games see massive bumper crowds like Al Hal's opening game of the season or Neymar's debut and less attractive fixtures see enormous dropoffs that doesn't just go for smaller teams when they're not playing against the big boys it applies equally to the big four themselves Al Halal who usually play at the almost 60,000 capacity King fard International Stadium but are currently housed at the 22,8 188 capacity Prince fisel b f Stadium recently saw their attendance fall from almost 15,000 for a 2-n win against al-shabab to only 8,55 for a 1-nil win over Al Cales in their next home fixture the reason for that drop off you ask well because between those two home matches Neymar Jr was injured on International Duty the loss of neyar meant the loss of around 6,000 fans or over 40% of alh Hal's crowd from the previous match again much of this will seem inconceivable to a European audience but it is important to note that in this respect at least Saudi Arabia is not alone in Egypt or Saudi Arabia's mortal enemies Iran for example it is a similar story with the likes of Al Ali and zamac or persopolis and estal hoovering up a norm support whilst others feed off scraps and big games selling out some of Africa and Asia's biggest Arenas whilst less attractive fixtures can result in almost entirely empty GRS nonetheless even taking all of these factors and various considerations into account attendances in the Saudi pro league are still low and they haven't increased in the way in which the league and the house of Saud would have hoped there will no doubt be those who say that Saudi Arabia and and Muhammad bin Salman won't care there are other issues at play here whether that be soft power establishing Saudi Arabia as the principal cultural and sporting Hub of the Arab world and winning the right to host the 2034 World Cup all of which are reasonable points but they Overlook one of the main reasons why Saudi Arabia's ruling family has invested quite so much money in football Saudi Arabia has a young population about half of the country is under the age of 25 an extraordinary economic growth fueled by oil exports over the last 50 years has created a small but growing educated and middleclass Bourgeois young populations and disempowered or at least non-ruling educated Bourgeois classes are pretty much the two most important ingredients or determiners for this quiet unrest and revolution in authoritarian and monarchical States Saudi Arabia is is just about the most authoritarian and monarchical Society left anywhere in the world and the house of Saud is well aware of the risks that the country's demographics and socioeconomics could pose to them in the long term Saudi Arabia's population and particularly young people are also incredibly enthusiastic about football though and the enormous State investment in the sport is very likely at least in part to be an investment in curring favor amongst that demographic and keeping them on side the lack of initial enthusiasm and lower than anticipated crowds therefore is likely to concern the house of Saud given the sheer scale of their investment and one of their probable primary aims then you have the issue of television and online viewing figures which are a less exact science in terms of measuring but would at first glance appeared to be even more concerning for the Saudis in August 2023 the the Saudi pro league sold its Global broadcasting rights to 12 networks covering 130 countries those networks include Canal Plus in France Sony Sports Network in India and the Zone in Austria Belgium Canada Germany and the UK both the Saudi pro league and IMG media the British business which negotiated the deals and also negotiates the Premier League's broadcast rights refus to reveal how much the deals were worth most likely because they're tiny it has been suggested that the deal is four times as large as the League's previous International broadcast deal but given that only eight people outside of the gulf had even heard of the Saudi pro league A couple of years ago that's not saying much it's reported that the theone deal for example which includes the rights to broadcast the League's games in five countries including the sizable markets of Germany and the United Kingdom was only worth £500,000 that's not even enough to pay neyar salary for 2 days and he's just been ruled out for the next 8 to 10 months with an ACL injury the reality is that in most of the world and practically all of the world's most lucrative markets almost no one is going to choose to watch a Saudi pro league game over a premier league or Champions League fixture and for very good reason what the Saudi pro league should have done and I am fairly surprised that they didn't is make all of the League's games free to a worldwide and able to be easily streamed across multiple platforms with no rights or copyright restrictions whatsoever for at least the first 5 years as I said if the calculation is the Premier League versus the Saudi pro league with all else being equal almost no one is watching a Saudi pro league game but if the calculation is watching a Premier League game at considerable cost or watching a Saudi pro league game for nothing suddenly the dynamic changes more people people will still watch the Premier League game a lot more in fact but amongst the young and those struggling with the cost of living which is an awful lot of people worldwide you could begin to make serious inroads older football fans and by older there I am sad to say that I'm including myself and indeed pretty much including anyone over the age of about 21 and even that might be generous are unlikely to start frequently watching Saudi pro league games under pretty much any circumstances fans in Europe and South America likewise are going to be extremely difficult to convert just given the deeply ingrained football culture that exists there and the pathways that tend to lead them into fandom younger supporters however particularly in less developed markets from a football perspective could provide much more fertile ground for the Saudi pro league had they been a bit more tactful in their marketing and distribution some of you might be thinking broadcast games for free with with no copyright restrictions that can't be sustainable and in the case of the Premier League for example you would be spoton the reality however is that the Saudi pro league will generate next to nothing through its broadcast deals and by creating a barrier to entry at all they are pretty much guaranteeing that most football fans worldwide will never even interact with or take any active interest in the division the Premier League is marketable because of its clubs the narratives the quality of football and the entertainment the Saudi Pro League's most marketable asset at least outside of Saudi Arabia is the league star players very few people want to watch aloc Dude versus Al khales for 90 minutes on a weekend but there are plenty of people strange as most of you watching this or I may find it who would watch a game if it was free and easily accessible just because Cristiano Ronaldo is playing there are even more who would watch Clips or highlight fights especially with commentary from streamers that they follow and the like of bigname players scoring goals or being involved in notable incidents not only are the Saudi Pro League's broadcast deals likely to be worth almost nothing at this stage and making games free to AAR a more strategic option in the long term if done right I suspect that it could be more profitable even in the short term if the Saudi pro league streamed all of their matches or at least all of the big fours matches for free on a plat form like twitch and generated an Engaged audience of young people I'm not joking when I say they could probably make more money through people paying for things like emotes in the comments and for other forms of access or engagement than they are likely to generate through 12 pitiful broadcast deals in countries where no one cares about the league the Saudi Pro League's total annual revenue right now from all sources is less than 100 million that is less than the individual team that finishes bottom of the Premier League re receives even the saud's own stated internal ambition is only to reach an annual revenue of £400 Million by 2030 that's not even enough to cover Cristiana Ronaldo Neymar and Angolo can salaries the Premier League by comparison already generates 5 a half billion pounds a season and Rising the Saudi pro league would have very little to lose therefore by targeting a younger and more online audience rather than operating through conventional channels which has so far yielded put generously not very good results even the League's online content which is free to AAR has been fairly abysmal the Saudi Pro League's official YouTube channel which has fewer than half as many subscribers as me some guy in East Yorkshire making documentaries about the downfall of the Bosnian national team and in the last 6 months I have more videos about Saudi Arabian football which have reached over 100,000 views than them and I've only made four of them well five now I suppose here's hoping that this one does better than theirs as well on average the Saudi Pro leagues match highlights do well to scrape 3,000 views they have got interviews with Karen Benzema and Riad mahrez with fewer than 6,000 and 4,000 views respectively which is almost an achievement in of itself I could make a video interviewing a potato while claiming that it was Ian dowy and it would get more views than that the point being not that he and Dai looks like a potato that is not what I meant at all and I wouldn't wish to insinuate anything of the sort he was very nice when I met him despite being absolutely rubbish Jing his brief stint managing Hall City but that given Saudi Arabia's investments in football this is my real point it is fairly spectacular how poorly they have managed the star power that they now have on their hands and how atrociously the league has been marketed I've talked about this before but there is this idea that Saudi Arabia is this all powerful Behemoth with Limitless resources that can do whatever it wants the reality is that it has a lower GDP than Australia and the Netherlands a lower GDP per capita than belgiam and Canada and a smaller Sovereign wealth fund the Norway and Q8 Saudi Arab IA generates vast resources through exporting oil but it is not the richest country in the world by any metric and it faces some pretty severe headwinds as the world moves away from fossil fuels and as it is forced to contend with increasingly unlivable temperatures in that part of the world due to that transition not happening anywhere near soon enough Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman recently stated that he didn't care about sportswashing but economics and that quote I have 1% GDP growth from Sports and I'm aiming for another 1.5% call it whatever you want we're going to get that other 1.5% end quote it is a worthwhile point that sport can make economic sense especially for a country that needs to diversify more than just about anywhere else but football does not currently make any economic sense for Saudi Arabia the Chinese economy is roughly speaking about 20 times the size of the Saudi Arabian economy China invested much less money in football than Saudi Arabia most of which wasn't even directly State resources and saw greater returns and higher attendances in return for their investment nonetheless president Xi Jinping and the CCP very quickly decided that football was demanding far too much capital outflow for far too little reward and they slammed on the brakes Saudi Arabia has different priorities to China different motivations for investing in football and may well prove to have the stomach to sustain far greater and longer term losses within the sport but it doesn't have Limitless resources and at some stage if football is simply sinking State resources into a black hole they are likely to reach the same conclusion as you it may well be the case that Saudi Arabia's extraordinary spending was just one final push to ensure 203 34 worker hosting rights which are now all but guaranteed and either when their bid is confirmed as having been successful or after hosting the tournament Saudi Arabia scales back that would create the rather unusual scenario however that at the very moment that Saudi Arabia is likely to have hospitable modern football stadiums and improved transport links conducive to getting more fans to attend games that is when they pull the plug on their football project which would would seem a little counterintuitive at least on the face of it finally it is worth noting that one of the biggest problems for the Saudi pro league even if it hadn't been horribly marketed and distributed which it has is that the product they're selling just isn't very good fans aren't idiots or you know most of them aren't and as much as marketing is important you need only look at the Premier League in the early 2000s for an illustration of that fact so is quality and entertainment and fans don't want to watch dross when they have no emotional investment in the teams or the storylines involved there is also an element in which match day attendances and viewing figures tend to have a symbiotic relationship empty stadiums provide terrible optics for television as has previously been a problem in Sera and in La Liga that's why clubs leagues and broadcasters like to fill seats around the pitch first which are most of often in shot to give the illusion of a stadium being Fuller than it really is TV audiences want packed crowds and good atmospheres And when they see empty stadiums either consciously or subconsciously they tend to think that if locals and supporters don't give a damn then why should we a handful of Saudi pro league teams are capable of creating excellent atmospheres even in small numbers but stadiums run at between a quarter to a third full which is just a abysmal that creates yet another problem in terms of attracting and motivating players of course for everyone other than football's Crusader Jordan Henderson the primary or only motive for moving to Saudi Arabia is financial and that will remain the case regardless of television or match day attendances there will be those however who look at Lionel Messi selling out venues across the United States even in a so-called retirement League when compared with some some of the soulless dust balls in Saudi Arabia and question which they would rather even if it came with a financial hit Messi is one of several players to have decided that the negatives outweigh the positives in Saudi Arabia and poor Optics and attendances are likely to convince several others likewise don't underestimate the extent to which footballers feed off a crowd we saw that during the coid 19 Behind Closed Doors season Elite level footballers are used to playing in front of crowds and they feed off that adrenaline it is one of the things that they find hardest to deal with when they retire he won't say it publicly but there is no way that Jordan Henderson doesn't miss playing in front of over 50,000 fans at anfield every week when he steps out in front of fewer than 700 people and a crowd lower than that of any team in the National League the fifth tier of English football anyhow that is why attendances and viewing figures are so low in the Saudi pro league why it is problematic for the Saudis and why they should have hired me to carry out their marketing and distribution if it wasn't for the fact that I would say no and they tried to kill me with the hacksaw the second that they saw any of my previous videos that is it for today's video though hopefully it doesn't get me killed thank you all very much as ever for watching hit the like button if you enjoyed it or found it remotely interesting hope that was the case let me know your thoughts Down Below in the comments and of course goes without saying make sure that you're subscribed and have notifications turned on for both this Channel h7s and also my second Channel alots Arma both of which should be on or about to appear on your screens now along with a couple of videos that you might fancy watching after this one you can also find me on Twitter Instagram or threads via the username @ HD cc7 on all three and all of those links plus everything else that matters in life should be down in the video description below cheers but

Channel: HITC Sevens

Views: 405,728

Keywords: HITC Sevens, Football, Soccer, Saudi Arabia, Saudi Pro League, Fans, Attendances, Low, Crowds, Watching, Documentary, Cristiano Ronaldo, Steven Gerrard, Jordan Henderson, Premier League, Champions League, Al-Hilal, Al-Ittihad, Al-Nassr, Supporters, No One

Id: LDAgWWShFkw

Length: 34min 57sec (2097 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 30 2023