In this section, I will state my view on the situation while trying to use information from both sides to create somewhat of a middle ground.
My name is Ryan. I am a recently turned 19-year-old who's a freshman in college. I have played soccer all my life and even am continuing to play the sport I love in college. I have grown up watching the sport along with playing it. This situation with Saudi Arabia and their attempted "sportswashing" by bringing the best soccer to the kingdom is an interesting one. My favorite team in probably all of sports is Arsenal, an English soccer club based in North London. Due to this fact I've spent a lot of time watching English soccer, learning about the players, understanding the clubs' histories, and being engaged in the title race every year. In early 2022, Manchester United star Cristiano Ronaldo went on an interview with Piers Morgan and decided to drag his club, his teammates, and manager through the mud. It was quite the interview to say the least. As a result of this, Manchester United did what any sensible club would do and cut Ronaldo from the team. Ronaldo, being one of the world's best soccer players, was now without a club. The soccer fandom was very excited to see where one of the greatest of all time would take his talents. What no one expected was Ronaldo signing for Saudi Arabian side "Al Nassr" in one of the most lucrative deals in the history of sports. This signing eventually led to more and more players leaving European soccer teams and joining the new up and coming Saudi Pro League. Almost two years later the Saudi Pro League has recruited some of the world's best players and is on pace to become one of if not the premier soccer league in the world. As a fan of European soccer, it was hard for me at first to watch players leave the clubs with the legacy and the history in exchange for huge sums of money. However, I have thought about it and decided on what my actual opinion on the matter is.
As a soccer player myself and having grown up with the sport, I have met and played with people from countless different backgrounds. I have played with people who are both comfortable economically and people that are just barely getting by. What I'm saying more or less is that I know how important money is. While money can't necessarily buy happiness, money can fix a lot of problems that would cause someone not to be happy. A lot of the professional players in the world come from poorer backgrounds. Playing soccer and making it to the big leagues was their only chance in life to take care of themselves and provide for their families. While I would personally not play for a paycheck, I'm also someone who is comfortable. I don't have to worry about money for the most part. Another large part of sports in general is injuries. A freak accident could happen and one's career is just over. That's why, even though I personally don't think that I would, understand a player seeing how much guaranteed money being offered to them from Saudi Arabia and then taking it. It's essentially guaranteed economic stability for one and their family. That's something I can't imagine someone having an easy time turning down, especially considering their particular circumstances.
While I understand having a hard time turning down that money, I think it's also important to check one's own morals before agreeing to go be a part of an economic scheme for Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia is known for its questionable human rights, specifically it's treatment of women and members of the LBGTQ+ community. As the majority of these players have partners and potentially even children, it may not be the best place to take one's family. There is a theory that Saudi Arabia is attempting to "sportswash" the world. Sportswashing can be defined as something creating a stake in the sporting world to realign the way that other things feel about them. The theory is that Saudi Arabia is investing so much into the soccer world so that people will forget about the atrocities they've committed. The counterargument to that claim is that Saudi Arabia is just after another form of income. The majority of the money the kingdom makes is through the selling of oil, and oil is a limited resource. In an attempt to achieve financial stability, Saudi Arabia is forced to branch out into other fields to try and gain revenue elsewhere. The field they just so happened to choose is that of the largest sport in the world.
Saudi Arabia obviously have a competitive advantage over their competitors in the sense that they can offer much more money than any other league is able to. A lot of the soccer fanbase is upset about this, but Saudi Arabia is technically not doing anything wrong in that regard. They are following all of FIFA's (the soccer governing body) laws when they spend money on players to bring them to Saudi Arabia. It also appears to be a bit hypocritical. A decade or two ago, the English Premier League, the league I've grown up watching, did something very similar to what Saudi Arabia are doing now. However, nowadays we are in the age of social media and instant news so the English takeover of soccer didn't get even remotely near the same amount of press that the current Saudi Arabian soccer situation is receiving. Granted Saudi Arabia does have some very questionable human rights polices, but it still appears to be a bit harsh considering how hard England in particular are bashing them.
I personally don't agree with Saudi Arabia creating a soccer empire, but I can without a doubt understand why they are. While I don't agree, I don't necessarily think that Saudi Arabia is technically doing anything wrong either. As long as Saudi Arabia continues to follow the official FIFA rules, no one should necessarily be able to fault the kingdom itself. It really is fully up to the players themselves on what they value most. Do they care more about legacy and going down in the history books or being able to reward their life long hard work and having a guaranteed way to support themselves and their family? There is no answer to that question as it is truly up to only the individual person. The conclusion that I support is that while I feel it's right to not be okay with the soccer world being run in a country that treats women and members of the LBGTQ+ community as poorly as they do, Saudi Arabia is just doing what anyone else would do if they had the money that Saudi Arabia had. Since Saudi Arabia is not doing anything wrong in the soccer world necessarily, the only fault one can have is with the players, and none of us know them at a personal enough level to judge their decisions. This situation has happened before and will without a doubt happen again, and it will play out in a very similar way every time.