Cristiano, Neymar and Benzema aren't enough, Saudi Arabia's plan to attract fans

Undoubtedly the tournament that has evolved the most over the last year is the Pro League. During the last days of 2022 the world was shocked by the news of Cristiano Ronaldo's signing by Al-Nassr. The Portuguese striker had decided to leave Manchester United because of his bad relationship with coach Erik Ten Hag and, despite having offers from European clubs, he chose to go to Saudi Arabia in exchange for a salary of more than $200 million per season.

This changed the map of world soccer forever, as many other stars have since followed CR7's path. Al-Nassr also added Aymeric Laporte, Marcelo Brozovic, Otavinho and Sadio Mane; Al-Ittihad signed Karim Benzema and N'Golo Kanté; Al-Hilal paid a fortune for Neymar Junior, Bono, Aleksander Mitrovic and Sergej Milinkovic-Savic; Al-Ahli brought in Riyad Mahrez, Roberto Firmino and Kalidou Koulibaly; and Jordan Henderson left Liverpool to join Al-Ettifaq.

The arrival of these stars significantly raised the level of competition in the tournament and made it much more attractive to fans, but the Pro League chiefs are still not satisfied. The attendance of fans at the stadiums is very low (an average of 1200 spectators per game) and the audience levels of the TV broadcasts of the games remain low as well.

That's why they have an ambitious plan to grow the league even more. According to La Stampa, they have two objectives. The first is to sign younger players to develop there, and not just stars who are at the end of their professional careers. In addition, they intend to further professionalize the managerial side of the clubs. That's why they will hire top-level chiefs and sporting directors.

The other part of the plan

Finally, they will try to participate in competitions that are more attractive to the fans and that is why they want a Super League to be created in which Saudi Arabian teams will participate against the best clubs in Europe.