Ever Banega arrival, privatisation pondering and how coronavirus will impact the Saudi Professional League

BANEGA HEADACHE

An illustrative tale for the complex challenges ahead is provided by Ever Banega.

Al Shabab generated global shockwaves in January when they announced the exalted Argentina midfielder’s summer arrival on a free transfer, once his contract at Sevilla expires.

But when will the 31-year-old actually feature for the capital outfit? Extensive, unpredictable and asymmetrical alterations to competition schedules across the globe make this impossible to gauge.

FIFA approved plans last week to extend player contracts and move transfer windows to allow seasons on hold because of coronavirus to be completed.

Banega’s ties to Sevilla are supposed to end on June 30. But will La Liga be completed by then, and how will this fit in with the Saudi Professional League’s timings?

“Of all the different scenarios we have been looking at with UEFA to go back to competing, the most probable ones are 28 May, 6 June or 28 June,” La Liga president Javier Tebas revealed last week.

“We can’t say an exact date. This will be given to us by the authorities in Spain.

“But we still have time to get back to training before that.”

Real Sociedad abandoned plans on Sunday night to become the first La Liga side to return to training. They faced a stinging backlash in a nation that has suffered 18,255 deaths of coronavirus sufferers.

SPL executive director Abdulaziz Al Hamidi, meanwhile, was unable to provide any provisional timings when quizzed this week. He declared the process was open to continuous review and would require follow-ups with the Kingdom’s competent health authorities.

It is futile, at this stage, to predict when Banega will be available for Shabab’s pre-season training, yet alone whether 2020/21 start dates for Spain and Saudi will converge.

Flexibility about player registration is essential.

WHERE NOW FOR THE CLUBS?

Saudi Arabia boasts a domestic game that is the envy of nations across Asia – and beyond.

Globally renowned stars like Bafetimbi Gomis compete for giants like 2019 AFC Champions League holders Al Hilal, who enjoy social media followings in seven digits. More than one million supporters had packed into grounds for 2019/20 ahead of last month’s lockout and KSA Sports beamed the competition into homes across the nation for free.

This last facet, however, exhibits what underpins the national pastime. Football in the Middle East is, unlike most of the globe, largely funded by the state, rather than private sector.

How will coronavirus affect this?

May 2018’s transformational $340m injection by the General Sports Authority, facilitated by Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, helped clear onerous debts and land stellar names.

A further SAR 1.64 billion was earmarked in July 2019 as part of the “Support Clubs Strategy”.

“Total support for the clubs reached SAR 2.5bn, this can open prospects for clubs and athletes in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia”, GSA chairman Prince Abdulaziz bin Turki Al Saud announced last summer.

Top-flight clubs received SAR 80m this week, according to Arriyadiyah newspaper.

But amid the coronavirus crisis and a precipitous fall of oil prices, $13bn was cut from state budgets on March 19. More may follow in the weeks and months ahead.

Football is unlikely to be exempt.

Temporary wage cuts, clubs agreed this week to 50 per cent until training resumes, will bolster weakened accounts. Arriyadiyah estimated savings of SAR28m per month across the ‘big four’ of Hilal, Al Nassr, Al Ittihad and Al Ahli Jeddah.

Privatisation could provide a long-term cure for select teams.

This was a stated aim two years ago. A probable delay to this first tranche past the 2020 start date was, however, revealed to Reuters in January 2019 by then Saudi Football Federation chief Qusai Al Fawaz.

He said: “Privatization is the long-term plan. I don’t have an exact time for this.

“I don’t know whether it will be 2020 or 2022 until the plan is ready.”

Will coronavirus expedite the process, or bring further impediments as the private sector reels from a softened economic outlook? The International Monetary Fund has revised its prediction for Saudi Arabia’s projected real GDP (gross domestic product), contracting by 2.3 per cent in 2020 and growing by 2.9 per cent in 2021.

The 16 SPL sides can expect to feel a crunch.

THE FOREIGN QUESTION

An unwelcome pause does, however, provide an opportunity to reflect.

Does last month’s confirmation that a seven-player foreign quota would be maintained until 2022, at least, fit into a straitened reality?

Talk had grown about a possible return to the quartet boasted by each squad for much of the preceding decade. This would have helped reduce costs, in fees and wages.

It now appears certain, however, that the status quo will remain. Up-front costs of cancelling contracts or trying to undertake sales in a depressed transfer market would have negated possible benefits.

A slew of excellent expatriates have also, unquestionably, raised standards, plus international exposure.

The decision should not, though, dissuade each Saudi club from reviewing how they operate in the transfer market.

The rumoured €7.8m cost of annual wages for Hilal hero Bafetimbi Gomis, allied with August 2018’s €6m transfer fee to procure him from Galatasaray, has been made to look cheap by a startling influence on and off the pitch.

Even more praise must be lavished on Nassr for their on-boarding of, then, injury prone Moroccan striker Abderrazak Hamdallah on a free transfer from Qatar’s Al Rayyan. He would become 2019’s global top scorer on 57 goals and play an outsized role in 2018/19’s SPL title success.

Yet a record €16.5m was sent Leicester City’s way by them for Ahmed Musa. The Nigeria forward has proved a colossal waste of money.

Other egregious examples of waste include historical heavyweight Ittihad concluding 33 incomings since summer 2018 and battling relegation in both seasons.

Chief among this number is underwhelming – and idiotic – striker Aleksandar Prijovic, who risks missing out on €18m worth of wages if his contract is cancelled after being placed under house arrest for three months in Serbia for breaking a coronavirus curfew. The 29-year-old had notched once in 10 SPL run-outs this term.

Sharp outfits like Al Wehda should become the model for all clubs; small, medium or large.

The Mecca side’s diligence has brought them unheralded success stories. Australia winger Craig Goodwin cost $450,000 from Adelaide United and has notched five assists and four SPL goals; $2.3m secured French striker Youssoufou Niakate, who’s scored 12 times; and Spanish centre-back Alberto Botia was procured on a free transfer from Al Hilal.

These purchases have driven them up to third from last season’s seventh-placed finish.

Prudence and acuity are buzzwords in the transfer windows ahead. So, too, should be youth.

UNLEASH THE KIDS

“The [Saudi Arabian Football] Federation has put together a good plan for this generation. We believe this generation will provide more players, more in 2022 in Qatar and in 2026.

“I think they need to play more because nobody knows about these players.”

These were the words of head coach Saad Al Shehri after his Saudi U-23 side finished runners-up at January’s 2020 AFC U-23 Championship, earning a berth at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

His measured reaction was not without merit. First-team exposure had been chronically short for his charges.

Final opponents South Korea had 3.7 times more combined top-flight run-outs than the Saudi’s tally of 279 from a 23-man squad.

A similar imbalance existed to semi-finalists Uzbekistan (987), while even Australia’s total (658) was more than double.

Positive signs of club breakthroughs, however, have emerged. A pause in play provides opportunity to reflect on the worth of this drive, plus measures to expand opportunity.

Centre-back Abdulbasit Hindi is now picking up regular starts for Al Ahli Jeddah, while breakthrough teenage forward Khalid Al Ghannam is a substitute for Nassr after his winter switch from Prince Mohammad bin Salman League’s Al Qadsiah. Midfielder Mukhtar Ali was in the champions’ XI for SPL matches upon a return from the tournament in Thailand, the same figure as Al Fateh’s Ali Al Hassan.

Left-back Khalid Al Dubaysh is, also, picking up more minutes at promoted Al Adalah.

This is a trend which must continue when play resumes.