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As I said in the golf thread, if this happens again, it will be with tennis.
It is much easier to do with a sport that has individual athletes.
And the fears around this changing European football I think are unfounded.
About a decade ago there was fear that the Chinese Super League would do this exact same thing. Buy their way into having the best players.
They did attract a lot of good to great players towards the end of their careers.
But then the money dried up and players began to end their contracts early as they realized living in China was not for them.
Now we still see a handful of transfers, but that league has shifted to instead trying to focus on developing domestic talent and attracting the occasional regional player from Korea, Japan, Australia and New Zealand.
Some players towards the end of their careers will be lured into big paydays to pad their retirement. But I cannot see in their prime players wanting to move there.
Money is always important to them, but their are also professional athletes and want to play against the best and also live a European lifestyle.
It is really hard to adapt to go from living a western lifestyle to suddenly living in China or SA.
I think this is a temporary blimp that will pass.
But I could foresee the Saudis after the success of this golf venture going after another sport that employees individual athletes.
My prediction is tennis or maybe auto racing.
But I would say tennis would be the best guess.
It has a similar situation as in golf where players 1-25 are happy but players 26-100 are very interested in bigger pay days per event and more guaranteed money.
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