Even Cristiano Ronaldo is struggling to solve Saudi Pro League's humiliating problem

Despite the Saudi Pro League signing some of the world's biggest football stars, it seems they're still struggling to attract fans to their matches.

Even with former Manchester United forward Cristiano Ronaldo joining Al-Nassr in January, followed by a summer spending spree of over £750million on players like Neymar, Riyad Mahrez, Jordan Henderson and Fabinho, stadiums across Saudi Arabia are seeing low attendances. For instance, only 696 spectators watched Steven Gerrard's Al-Ettifaq lose 1-0 at Al-Riyadh last weekend.

Similarly, less than 800 fans attended matches between Al-Akhdoud and Al-Feiha, and Al-Hazm and Al-Raed. The highest attendance was at King Abdullah Sports City where Al-Ahli played Al-Wehda in front of 16,919 supporters, just slightly more than the 16,875 who saw Ronaldo score for Al-Nassr against Damac FC.

The match between Bradford City and Wrexham in England's fourth tier had more spectators (21,552) than any Saudi Pro League game over the weekend. Two games in League One saw over 17,000 fans, and nine Championship fixtures had more supporters, including 28,449 at Middlesbrough's win over Birmingham.

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The average attendances for the Saudi Pro League aren't much better. Al-Ittihad, who have stars like N'Golo Kante, Fabinho and Karim Benzema, have the highest average crowd in the league, with 29,044 fans.

The other three of the 'big-four' state-backed teams are next on the list, with Al-Hilal second on 22,381 and Al-Nassr (20,615) and Al-Ahli (19,296) third and fourth. However, they are the only four clubs to average more than 10,000 fans this season.

All other teams, including Gerrard and