American investment has recently arrived and the ‘big five’ clubs will contest the title in an increasingly strong league
T
he Saudi Pro League season kicks off on Thursday, just before the international break, when Cristiano Ronaldo will probably make headlines by saying the Saudi Pro League is one of the top five in the world. If so, the 40-year-old is bound to reference Al-Hilal reaching the quarter-finals of the Club World Cup, drawing with Real Madrid then beating Manchester City 4-3. There is now something else, though, that the league has in common with its European counterparts – US money.
In July the ministry of sports announced that three clubs had passed into private hands. Al-Kholood, the only one in the top tier, have been taken over by an American investment company, the Harburg Group, run by the venture capital investor Ben Harburg. “The first three Saudi sports clubs have been privatised through a public offering – Al Ansar, Al Kholood, and Al Zulfi – with their ownership transferred to investment entities,” the ministry said
It is part of a strategy from the league to bring in foreign money. Building the brand of Al-Kholood is not going to be easy: the club have spent much of their history outside the top tier and are based not in Riyadh or the Red Sea port of Jeddah but Ar Rass, a city of 120,000 people about 250 miles north-west of the capital. But there is something to work with.
