Saudi clubs in the Champions League, here we are

Attracting several big football stars is not enough for Saudi Arabia. The Kingdom wants the best competitions on its soil: the World Cup of course in 2034 but also the UEFA League.

Can Saudi Arabia have a competition as attractive as the big European leagues? For two years, she spared no expense in bringing in the biggest football stars: Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar, Karim Benzema, Sadio Mané and even N’Golo Kanté. Unfortunately, this did not explode the ranks of the Saudi Pro League. Meetings between Saudi clubs do not inspire enough European spectators despite well-endowed teams. We need more games against clubs from the old continent.

The Saudis in C1 thanks to Kazakhstan?

The next FIFA Club World Cup will not help the Kingdom. In fact, only one local team is qualified for the tournament in 2025, Al-Hilal with Neymar, Joao Cancelo and Aleksandar Mitrovic. There is only one solution left to face the best teams: playing the Champions League. Something impossible in theory because Saudi Arabia is not a European country. A fact regularly repeated by UEFA to justify its refusal to welcome Saudi clubs in C1. However, this speech has a flaw and was identified by Saudi Arabia according to information from the OK Diario media.

Saudi Arabia wants to reach an agreement with UEFA to put its clubs in the Champions League https://t.co/NmTnHKWXML

– okdiario.com (@okdiario) October 22, 2024

The Saudis are taking refuge behind the case of Kazakhstan, a Central Asian country that has participated in European competitions for several years. Kazakhstanis are only connected to Europe through their borders because the continent of Europe ends at the Ural Mountains that cross Kazakhstan. Enough to give an optimistic view to the Saudis who are pushing hard behind the scenes to win their case. Will UEFA introduce them? Nothing is impossible with such heavy economic pressure, especially since rugby has opened the way by including South Africa in its European competitions.