First Cristiano Ronaldo came, now stars like Karim Benzema and Neymar are also under contract in Saudi Arabia. Where’s this going to end? FC Bayern’s honorary president Uli Hoeneß warns against a takeover of power.
“Now completely new things are coming to world football”
“I think we always thought that the opponents would be in England, in Spain and a little bit in France and Italy,” said Uli Hoeneß in an interview with RTL/ntv. “But now completely new things are coming to world football. Now a country like Saudi Arabia has suddenly emerged with an infinitely large pot of money.” The Saudis would try to “buy world-class players and also build a proper structure for football,” said the honorary president of FC Bayern. This is what distinguishes Saudi Arabia from China, which in the mid-2010s had attracted stars from Europe with sums worth millions.
“There is obviously money in abundance.”
“The Saudis seem to be really determined to perhaps dominate world football,” said Hoeneß and explained: “And of course there is a component that didn’t exist in China: There is obviously money in abundance. And We have to pay this through our oil bill.” But how can you defend yourself against it? According to Hoeneß, football, especially in Germany, must rely on old values and also strengthen its own youth. “They can only play with eleven players and there is enough talent in the world. We have to try to develop a lot of players ourselves through very good youth work. So we have to counteract this with our quality of life and our connection to our homeland,” said the patron of the FC Bavaria.
2023-11-16 16:08:51
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