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There is an informal alliance between MBS, Netanyahu and the Israeli right wing, and the Trump movement that is really a uniquely malevolent actor in world affairs, and this Saudi league project is an unambiguous effort to raise its prestige, influence and power in the world, and the stars playing in that league are lending their soft power for its benefit. It's bad.
That being said, there's an attitude about a handful of European leagues, and increasingly just a handful of European clubs being the "pure" or "natural" destination for 100% of the world's best players that kinda rubs me the wrong way in all of this.
The Saudi Pro League is a dark cloud, but the UEFA Champions League being deprived of its monopoly on global football stardom is very much a silver lining.
That being said, there's an attitude about a handful of European leagues, and increasingly just a handful of European clubs being the "pure" or "natural" destination for 100% of the world's best players that kinda rubs me the wrong way in all of this.
The Saudi Pro League is a dark cloud, but the UEFA Champions League being deprived of its monopoly on global football stardom is very much a silver lining.
Great picture but doesn't negate my point about why one countries crimes are more important than another.
Didn't realise it would offend so many people. These things are well documented.
Raf
was one of the few who actually offered a reasonable explanation and didn't throw his toys out of the pram. The fact that Saudi football clubs are state funded and the US clubs aren't is a valid point. However judging by the response here, it looks like the Saudi clubs could be privately owned and people would have the same stance.The Saudi/US/Israel alliance has played a big role in all this. Its no coincidence that both Saudi and UAE have pivoted to a pro-Israel stance with the support of the US at the same time as the emergence of Saudis sudden interest in football, boxingetc.
Great picture but doesn't negate my point about why one countries crimes are more important than another.
Didn't realise it would offend so many people. These things are well documented.
I can deplore the shitty treatment the US metes out to some people, and at the same time think the Saudi lawmakers are cunts. These things are not exclusive. It's entirely possible to care about more than one issue at once.
Hope this helps.
So we agree - what's the problem then?
Not just a money horny twat, but a naive, deluded, brainwashed money horny twat.
And we're free to do that here in the "West".
As Saudi citizens this very conversation would carry a death sentence, which is the VASTLY different circumstance that you seem to be glossing over.
Fuck off.
That’s utter tosh.
The Saudis won’t even allow the Israelis to broadcast the Saudi League.
I'm not glossing over anything. I already said MBS' Saudi regime is despicable.
Like many here, you have no understanding of Saudi politics and changes since MBS has taken power. Some here still think its a religious theocracy. Others think the Mutuwa morality police is still the enforcement. And now you have missed the last few months of MBS/MBZ overtures to Israel. I will post more when I have time but all this stuff isn't news or hard to find. This Saudi isn't the Saudi of ten years ago.
No, I haven’t missed the sea-changes going on in Middle Eastern geopolitics — none of which means that the Israelis are involved in financing the Saudi Football League.
They aren't, nor are Americans, but a cynical, tactical private-ish rapprochement with Netanyahu on regional security issues and an increasing Republican partisanship in its diplomacy with the US (shared by Israel) is part of the broader MBS strategy to announce Saudi Arabia as a larger presence on the global stage.
It's very stupid. They are going to lose unholy amounts of money and remain an oil-dependent backwater that everyone hates anyway. But they have plenty of money, military strength, and evil intent to cause the decent world a lot of headaches in the meantime.
A number of regional states support Saudi:
I can think of UAE. Bahrain, Egypt, Kuwait and Morocco off the top of my head.
What’s their involvement in the axis of evil supporting the Saudi Football League?
I suspect that some of these countries actually broadcast the matches. Why are we calling out one specific state that doesn’t?
Well when we say "Saudi Arabia", we implicitly mean "the Saudi side of the regional Saudi/Iran conflict" which includes the Gulf monarchies. That's a bloc and always has been.
That Israel is ever-less-secretly a military ally of that group would have been unfathomable 25 years ago and is thereby worth noting.
I only raise the point as context for what MBS is up to, he didn't just decide to buy a billion pounds of football stars on a whim, there is a broader vision here. An ugly, cynical and doomed to failure vision, but an important one in the meantime.
Aristotle had a theory of causality involving 4 different causes explaining how something exists. This included a material cause so if we’re applying causal conditions to the universe that would mean the universe would also require a material cause from previously existing materials. Which is why the notions of existence differing is important because the universe is very different to everything that we know exists, mainly because according to proponents of the argument, the universe has no material cause unlike everything else we observe.
The point of the last paragraph is that if something can’t come from nothing, then why can the universe be created from nothing?
Everything we observe coming into existence does so from already existing materials. Wouldn’t that make a material cause one of the causal conditions of existence, including the universe?
It isn’t even the fact that they’re state funded. If they were just funding a sports league it wouldn’t really be a problem. It’s the fact that it’s used as a propaganda tool to help rehabilitate their image.Great picture but doesn't negate my point about why one countries crimes are more important than another.
Didn't realise it would offend so many people. These things are well documented.
Xavi for example played and managed in Qatar but no one really cares.
It’s very similar to the rebel tours in South Africa, which was done for the same reason.
Obviously having a problem with players going to play in countries with bad human rights records makes no sense. If we did that there wouldn’t be any countries for them to play in.
All countries are horrible, the only reason some have worse human rights records than others is because they’re able to do it and get away with it.
Prima facie case of whataboutery. There's plenty of room on the US threads to point out exactly how much of a car crash the US is, and most of the best contributors (most honest) are American
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I dunno what he came out with all the guff. Just say "yeah, I don't agree with the Saudi stance on everything, but the money was just too good to turn down." Still come off as a greedy cunt, but far better than trying to spin some bullshit.
Nobody goes to that shithole for anything other than piles of cash.* Just t say it!
*Ok, I'll give you the Mecca thing...
Nobody goes to that shithole for anything other than piles of cash.* Just t say it!
*Ok, I'll give you the Mecca thing...