Mikel Arteta has called on FIFA to look at when the transfer window closes in Saudi Arabia after the Middle East nation stepped up its ambitions to become a football powerhouse.
While most leagues in Europe, including the big five – England, Italy, Spain, Germany and Holland – will all finalise summer transfers on 1st September, clubs in Saudi Arabia will have until 20th September to complete their business.
Given the manner in which the PIF-owned clubs – Al-Ittihad, Al-Hilal, Al-Nassr, and Al-Ahli – have been splashing the cash, there’s a good chance they could use their financial muscle to unsettle some of the continent’s biggest players at a time when their clubs won’t be able to recruit replacements.
Asked if that’s fair, Arteta said: “No, because they are a competitor now. I think we have to change that. That’s my opinion.”
The Spaniard was also asked how much of a threat Saudi spending poses to the strength of the Premier League. By and large, he sounded bullish about the way contracts protect Premier League clubs looking to fend off interest in their stars.
“It’s another competitor and it brings other opportunities for players, for managers, for people that work in the industry to decide,” he said of Saudi Arabia’s big football push.
“At the end, we are free to decide, you know, when clubs, players or whoever has to agree to something, you have to have the intention to go and you need to find agreements; that’s why there are contracts. So if people agree to go, it means someone agrees to go there, but also that one agrees to sell him, so it goes two or three different ways.”
He added: “The player has to be willing to go and the club has to be willing to sell him, so we still have choices and contractually, especially in this country, when there is no release clauses, you are very protected to do that.
“So at the end, I don’t think all the responsibilities is for them. They [Saudi] have the resources, like we have. To compare, in other countries they will look at a Premier League and say, yeah, if a Premier League club comes in, we are dead. But there are still a lot of things that have to happen. So it’s another competitor, that’s for sure.”
So far this summer, Saudi clubs have been linked with moves for Thomas Partey, Gabriel Magalhaes and Nicolas Pepe. So far, nothing has materialised and if it did, it seems very likely the Gunners would dismiss any attempts to lure Partey and Gabriel away. Pepe is another story.
Reading between the lines, you sense Arteta will be relieved when he can focus on matters on the pitch. In between the Fulham match on Saturday and Manchester United’s visit to the Emirates, the boss is likely to spend a lot of time on the phone, finalising the outgoings of several fringe players. He’s keen to get to a settled squad as soon as possible.
“It’s really important, especially for the players,” he reflected. “Everybody needs to have clarity on their roles and where they are playing, obviously their families as well.
“We need clarity in the number of numbers we are going to have and who can do what. But until the window is open, which is still a bit strange to be competing already in different competitions and still the window is open, we have to deal with that, it’s happened for a long time and we are used to it.”
Lovely touch to include the updated definition of the top 5 European leagues
Mbs is going to be bidding for the entire league in 2026.
Buying a club like chelsea for 6 billion vs Buying all the best players for around the same cost.
Smart business decision.
Mbs not exactly smart when it comes to investments- look up his plans for that line city he has (logistical nightmare), and also his tech investments with softbank in japan.
He has so much capital that it’s a given some investments will fail. When you make that many picks, you can’t pick all winners.
Early this week, there was a report that Saudi Arabia border patrol has shot and killed more than 100 Ethiopians trying to cross their border. Shame on all the players who were taking the knee and as soon as Saudi Arabia comes with money they started putting in transfer requests.
Money rules for a lot of people unfortunately. What actually bugs me a lot is seeing BBC cover Saudi league. Everyone understands that it’s a level of sports washing. To my mind European media shouldn’t be giving them oxygen. Report on the transfers, fine, but don’t be putting up reports on how Jordan Henderson is playing, or CR7 scored his 435th goal of the season. Let the players go and let them rot. Salaries will go so far but if nobody watched commercial deals will dry up. I understood people putting worries aside for the world cup. But nobody needs… Read more »
Their names will live in infamy.
I might be naive but I don’t think this will work out for them long term. Just like Messi and his family chose happiness over money I think a lot of other players will, and I don’t think many of them think they will be happy there, least of all those with wives and/or maybe a darker skin colour. Some stars will go there for sure, but even those I don’t think will want to stay there for too long… it’s just a tough ask to live there as someone used to the human rights we enjoy in this part… Read more »
I tried to give you one thousand upvotes but I couldn’t.
I agree with your sentiment here, but unfortunately I think most players will be very sheltered in their millionaire lifestyles. They won’t be exposed to the undercurrent of human rights issues. On the surface the cityscapes are extremely impressive and even beautiful, and for the wealthy, there is a certain luxury and decorum in it’s modernity that will be very attractive. And sadly, once the players are there, I don’t think they would be exposed to the criticisms and narratives that we hear and receive, so they are unlikely to use their platform to promote and cajole public opinion to… Read more »
Until one day, after shopping Gucci & Prada for 8 hours, they’ll walk through the plaza in the city centre in the midst of 80 public beheadings. Many of those beheaded for pretty innocuous things like; being born homosexual, having the profession of journalist and wanting press freedom, looking at a woman’s ankles, showing your ankles to a man, stumbling across the wrong website/s with lots of X’s in their URL, etc… I think there’s only a certain amount that they’ll keep out of their site.