Saudi football rise ‘long-term project’, says top official
Riyadh: Saudi Arabia’s extraordinary football expansion is a “long-term project” with strong government support, unlike the short-lived Chinese boom, a senior league official told AFP. The Saudi Pro League has a years-long commitment from the oil-rich kingdom’s rulers in its goal to become one of the world’s top competitions, chief operating officer Carlo Nohra said. Nohra was speaking at Al-Hilal’s unveiling of Brazilian superstar Neymar, who joins Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema and a host of other big names in a spending binge costing hundreds of millions of dollars.
