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Extended Clip - Sergej Milinkovic-Savic & Paul Pogba: Saudi Arabia Taking Over Football
1.4k Plays2 years ago
With Lazio star Sergej Milinkovic-Savic close and Juventus icon Paul Pogba being rumored with a move to Saudi Arabia, Nima Tavallaey and Carlo Garganese analyze, debate and discuss, how we got here, UEFA's responsibility to get here as well as the broader ramifications the emergence of the Saudi league will have on European football as a whole.
This is an extended clip from this weeks free Monday episode of The Italian Football Podcast which is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Google podcasts.
To listen to ALL complete episodes of The Italian Football Podcast, go to Patreon.com/TIFP and become a Patron for only $2.99 USD per month (excluding VAT).
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Transcript
Saudi Arabia's Football Strategy
00:00:02
Speaker
Welcome to the Italian football podcast. The bigger picture here, Nima, is, you know, and we have to talk about this, is that Saudi Arabia, this is a paradigm shift in football. It is. Right now. And it's not just Minklovic Savage, it's Pogba as well. There have been reports that, I mean, Paul Pogba businesses Saudi Arabia over the weekend.
00:00:24
Speaker
He was asked, is he moving to Saudi Arabia in a clip that you can see? It's on social media. He said, who knows? Now, no. Today, no. Tomorrow, we don't know. And then he was asked if he would join al-Hitihad or al-Hali. And he replied, I don't know. We'll see. I mean, this could have just been him, you know, just he just didn't want to talk. I don't know. But, you know, there are lots of reports, because Etta is saying that
00:00:52
Speaker
An intermediary met with an intermediary from Saudi Arabian clubs, met with his agent Rafael Pimenta, and to discuss his future. So that will play out.
Financial Implications of Pogba's Move
00:01:16
Speaker
For you, this is like winning the lottery.
00:01:22
Speaker
They're getting a 30 year old that they signed on a free transfer, even if they get just 10 million euros for him, which I'm sure they won't, they'll get more.
00:01:30
Speaker
Yeah, even if they just get more money financially, yeah, it will be that he's a huge burden on the Yeah, his wages are massive. They they sign him on a free transfer They sell him a year later for it's all capital gains this time not fictitious but actual ones and they say they offload his wages and They they get a player who you know what? I've my opinion about this. I think he's finished at this level I I don't think he can
00:01:58
Speaker
play at this level again i think and not that he's i think it's a physical issue with him his body just can't do it he can't even play for five minutes without pulling the muscle i mean it's you know that's such a sad thing to see because i think he was uh he was uh you know i think especially for france when they won the world cup i thought that midfield was so so good and he was such an integral part of that
00:02:22
Speaker
But no, it's... We'll see what happens with Pogba.
Pogba's Future at Juventus
00:02:26
Speaker
For Juve, this is like winning the lottery. For Juve, yeah. I think, deep down, I think Juventus would definitely want it. Oh, yeah. I mean, Romaino Agresti we had on the show last week, or the week before, and he said that Pogba wants to stay at Juventus. He wants to prove himself and try and make a success of it. But that's what Pogba wants. That isn't necessarily what Juventus want. So, yeah, I think... Let's watch this space, let's see how this develops.
00:02:51
Speaker
I think it could happen, I mean if they were to make a good offer to Juva around, I don't know, minimum 25, 30 million euros, Juva will bite that handle, like bite that, bite their hands, they'll snap it off. Oh, for sure, for sure. But the bigger picture here is, the bigger picture here
Saudi Arabia's Ambition in Global Football
00:03:06
Speaker
is
00:03:06
Speaker
Saudi Arabia is the Saudi Arabian Pro League is changing football completely there is 20 billion dollars to invest into football between now and What I mean it the World Cup's definitely gonna go to Saudi Arabia. It's 2034 is the target cuz they pulled out of that bit didn't they I mean that combined I don't think so. Yeah, they did the 2030 but they pulled out of yeah
00:03:31
Speaker
It's 2034. Is that official? Yeah, I checked it. It was 2030 they've pulled out. But 2034 is the one that they want to go for. They want that bid. And I think it gives them about 10, 11 years to build up something and they're going to invest.
00:03:49
Speaker
heavily in football not just now because again Qatar Saudi is not Qatar Saudi is a big country with a huge population and it's a football mad country and they have football history of football culture and this is just gonna they essentially want to be
00:04:07
Speaker
what the Premier League is and what the Serie A was, but in Asia, in the Middle East.
Impact of Saudi Ownership on European Clubs
00:04:13
Speaker
They want to export their domestic club football like that. Four clubs, four Saudi clubs, Al-Hitihad, Al-Ali, Al-Nasa and Al-Hilal, they've been transformed basically into companies that are owned by
00:04:27
Speaker
the PIF, and that's who owns the sovereign fund that owns Saudi Arabia, that owns Newcastle, and also has massive shares in Chelsea as well. Now, like I said, $20 million, it's just insane.
00:04:47
Speaker
Obviously, this has a big effect on Italian clubs in the sense that, you know, they can come over here, come over to Serie A and buy Sergei Milinkovich Savage, they can buy Pogba, they can buy... Well, they can do it to the Premier League as well. I mean, there's talk of Bernardo Silva. I mean, there's talk of, there's lots of, you know, they will, they are going to do that. They're going to build their domestic football up and they're going to do it their way.
Market Dynamics and Competitive Edge
00:05:13
Speaker
So this is this is just you know when when you have a completely deregulated market and you build it on big fish eating small fish There's always a bigger fish and the Premier League Compared to Saudi is not the biggest fish because they can pay they don't they're not they can do whatever they want
00:05:31
Speaker
they can do whatever they want and no one can stop them so this is just this is just a continuation like i said a couple of weeks ago of things set in motion decades ago yeah i think i think the big the big change within football here is that um the impact this has on uefa um not i mean we've been till we talk about it on the pod i mean football
Regulatory Challenges and UEFA's Response
00:05:57
Speaker
is, I don't want to use the word dead. I use that word, football is dead. I use that term about 14 years ago, I remember. But you look at what UEFA hasn't made the changes that required. They could have, they would have been protected to an extent from a new player like Saudi Arabia if they'd have made the changes to football that were needed. But they didn't want to. They've never done that. They didn't want to, they weren't interested. Footballers earn too much money.
00:06:24
Speaker
Adrian's take too much take too much money, you know out of game young players, you know been taking advantage of spurt certainly from the smaller from the smaller countries They've allowed state ownership to happen in football, which should never should never been allowed to happen There should never be any state ownership be permitted in football, you know fan ownership, you know, they that hasn't been
00:06:47
Speaker
possible in this type of football, the differences and disparity between leagues has got larger and larger and larger and larger to the extent where we're in this ridiculous situation now where teams like Nottingham Forest are spending more in a transfer window than the entirety of Serie A, which is just an absolute joke, and the difference in TV revenue between Premier League and all the other leagues.
00:07:17
Speaker
the financial fair play rules and how they've been a joke, you know, impossible to make the salary cap. They've not even tried it. That's the thing. They've not tried to do any of these things. They've made no attempt to make it a level to make rules in football and to make it competitive. And it's so imbalanced football now. And, you know, people like us are, you know, we're fed up with it. And, you know, our heart is still there because we grew up with it.
00:07:44
Speaker
It's sad to see what happens. Well, they've created a vacuum where well Saudi Arabia can come along and basically do what they want and spend like mad.