What now for Saudi sides? Plus: Man Utd's new Mbeumo bid, England penalty drama and more

New York Times

18-07-2025

The Athletic FC ⚽ is The Athletic's daily football (or soccer, if you prefer) newsletter. Sign up to receive it directly to your inbox.
Hello! As yet, foreign investors haven't crossed the border into Saudi Arabian football, but that's about to change. Big time.
On the way:
Al Hilal's impact at the Club World Cup, amounting to more than token window dressing, was not a classic underdog story. Their squad list featured Ruben Neves, Joao Cancelo and Kalidou Koulibaly (above). They had a coach, Simone Inzaghi, who led Inter to the Champions League final a few weeks earlier. Their pockets were deep enough to double the Italian's Serie A salary.
Advertisement
All the same, their success in reaching the quarter-finals and knocking out Manchester City reframed the conversation, or should reframe the conversation, about what the Saudi Pro League is. There's an ample supply of reasons to deride it as a vanity project, a sportswashing exercise or an overpriced charade, but on the evidence in front of us, it would be churlish to deny that Al Hilal have built a team.
Their performance was the product, though not the culmination (because football in Saudi Arabia isn't programmed to stand still), of the state's cash-rich Public Investment Fund taking majority control of four Pro League clubs, including Al Hilal and Cristiano Ronaldo's Al Nassr, two years ago. Private domestic cash has enhanced a number of other teams, too. And now the country is changing tack again by opening the door to overseas ownership.
Jordan Campbell has written this morning about a shift in policy which, as a starting point, should see one Pro League side pass into foreign hands for the first time soon. What they envisage in Saudi is a day where the majority of clubs are privately controlled, in theory maintaining growth — and ensuring that Al Hilal ambushing City isn't a one-off.
The inclination in many quarters is not to care about the Pro League (beyond concerns about what it and the Saudi project represents). But the state is so embedded in the sport that, over time, there'll be no choice but to pay attention. It's already at the centre of FIFA's universe.
There's less chance, then, of the Pro League being flash-in-the-pan, like the ill-fated Chinese Super League fad. The stronger the Saudi scene gets, the more it will seek to engage with football's traditional markets — and the more those markets will want to engage in return. Italy and Spain didn't take their Super Cups to the Middle East nation this year for the purposes of a holiday.
Advertisement
The setup is constantly evolving. For one, the Pro League now has responsibility for overseeing its clubs' financial operations, a job which formerly belonged to the ministry of sport. PIF is talking increasingly about returns on its investment, and the importance of sustainability. Spending on new players, while continuing apace, isn't quite as free and easy as it was before.
Scepticism continues apace too. FIFA's indulgence of the Saudis — rubbing shoulders with royalty and awarding the country the 2034 World Cup — received a roasting from its previous president, Sepp Blatter, this week. He says FIFA has 'lost' the game to Saudi but the world governing body rides out most dissent, so it's unlikely to heed the words of a man it left by the roadside a decade ago.
On the contrary, Saudi has FIFA support and Saudi knows it. Other emerging competitions, like Major League Soccer and Mexico's Liga MX, must quietly wish they enjoyed the same cosiness. Al Hilal demonstrated at the Club World Cup how far state funding has taken the project. Foreign equity deals promise to take it further.
England versus Sweden in the Euro 2025 quarter-finals threw up, simultaneously, the best and worst penalty shootout I've witnessed in years. The teams waded through 14 attempts. Five went in.
Lucy Bronze, having strapped up her own injured leg as players dropped like flies during extra time, turned the drama England's way by spotting that tame efforts towards either corner were achieving nothing and sledgehammering hers instead. From 2-0 down in the 79th minute, the Lionesses got out of jail — but their tournament nous is so ingrained.
The main character of the evening, though, was Sweden goalkeeper Jennifer Falk. After setting up a chance to win the shootout by saving three penalties, she took spot-kick five herself — and ballooned it over the bar in a manner which only Swedish pole vaulter Armand Duplantis could have loved.
If Falk was nominated for penalty five in advance on the basis that she's normally a competent taker, then fine. That's on head coach Peter Gerhardsson. If it wasn't? Well…
Football club documentaries are all the rage but Burnley — newly promoted back to the Premier League — are taking the genre in a different direction. They've partnered with Elon Musk's X, to produce a series which promises to be more real-time than anything we've seen before.
X plans to deliver 'world-class fan engagement, content and brand amplification.' What this means in English is 20 episodes of 10 to 12 minutes in length, chronicling the year ahead of them and released once a fortnight. It's tied into the 'X Originals' stream on Musk's platform. Pre-season friendlies might also be shown there.
It's a bold mash-up because X is not politically neutral, and nor is it benign. Musk is incredibly polarising. But the site has an extraordinary reach — and for a club in northern England with a limited local fanbase, global exposure on this scale is manna from heaven. We'll be watching.
(Selected games, times ET/UK)
Friday Women's European Championship quarter-final: Spain vs Switzerland, 3pm/8pm — Fox Sports/BBC.
Saturday Women's European Championship quarter-final: France vs Germany, 3pm/8pm — Fox Sports/ITV.
MLS: New York Red Bulls vs Inter Miami, 7.30pm/12.30am; Houston Dynamo vs Philadelphia Union, 8.30pm/1.30am; Real Salt Lake vs FC Cincinnati, 9.30pm/2.30am; LAFC vs LA Galaxy, 10.30pm/3.30am — all MLS Season Pass/Apple TV.
Sunday Belgian Super Cup: Union Saint-Gilloise vs Club Brugge, 12.30pm/5.30pm — DAZN (UK only).
First Luka Modric, now Snoop Dogg. Let's just say Swansea City's investor group is diversifying. Between Snoop buying in there and Gareth Bale trying to acquire Cardiff City, it's pinch-yourself time in south Wales. Fo shizzle.