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Top footballers like Neymar are moving to clubs in Saudi Arabia. This has caused a lot of criticism in recent weeks. Why actually? Why is Saudi Arabia interested in these players? SRF Kids explains what’s behind it for children.
Neymar’s club move has made big headlines in recent weeks: the Brazilian top player now also plays in the Saudi Arabian league. Namely in the Club Al-Hilal. The change causes a stir.
Why is the move being criticized by top players?
Neymar isn’t the first top player to join Saudi Arabia. Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema and Rúben Neves also now play for clubs like Al-Hilal and Ittihad FC. Many people don’t understand that because Saudi Arabia has never had anything to do with football. “The country and the region do not have a football tradition like Europe,” says Rainer Maria Salzgeber, sports presenter at SRF. In Qatar (neighbouring country of Saudi Arabia) during the World Cup he felt that the population’s enthusiasm for football was not nearly as great as in Europe.
Facts about Saudi Arabia
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Caption: Mother with child in Saudi Arabia Keystone
Saudi Arabia is located on the Arabian Peninsula. The capital is called Riad. 35 million people live in Saudi Arabia. The country is about 52-mal as big as Switzerland. However, the land area consists almost entirely of Desert and stones.
Saudi Arabia is a very rich country. That’s because huge in the ground oilfields lie. We need oil to produce electricity, among other things. Saudi Arabia sells the oil all over the world. And deserves a lot lot of money.
There is no democracy in Saudi Arabia. But a Monarchy. That means: one König definitely all over the country. All other people cannot have a say. Whoever criticizes the king and the government will heart punished. You are not allowed to go out into the streets to protest. Anyone who does so can end up in prison without a trial, and for many years. Saudi Arabia also applies the death penalty at. So people who have committed a certain crime are killed by the state.
The current crown prince Mohammed bin Salman relaxed the rules a bit. That’s how they have to Women no longer in public disguiseand they may too drive a carwhich was not the case before.
That’s why many critics say that players only move to Saudi Arabia because of the large sums of money, and not because of the sport itself. The players can’t deny that money plays a big role. According to media reports, Neymar, for example, gets around 144 million francs a year. He has signed a contract for two years. So he earns almost 288 million francs in two years. That’s 274 francs every minute!
Why is Saudi Arabia buying so many top players?
There is no definitive answer to this question from the outside. “It’s about football and having good players in the country,” says Rainer Maria Salzgeber. But Saudi Arabia also wants to ensure that the world speaks positively about the country. “Because there are also things in Saudi Arabia that are negative,” he says. Among other things, this means the human rights situation: In Saudi Arabia, people who do not belong to the royal family have no say and cannot have a say (see box above).
Legend: Sports presenter Rainer Maria Salzgeber in an interview with SRF Kids News presenter Angela Haas. SRF
Why are top players like Neymar moving to Saudi Arabia?
“Whoever has a lot of money always wants more. You are never satisfied», this is how Rainer Maria Salzgeber explains this question. “In my eyes, the players only do it for the money.” He thinks that if they earned the same amount in Saudi Arabia as they do in England or Paris or Madrid, no one would switch jobs. But: “I don’t judge the players. The system is similar in England, a lot more money is paid there than in Germany, for example.”
After all, football players only have a certain amount of time in which to make a career. But if they then decide on a club in Saudi Arabia, it is also clear that they say goodbye to great career successes. Because: The Champions League is still won in Europe. It remains to be seen whether Al-Hilal or Ittihad FC will be at the top soon.
These are the “SRF Kids News”
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The world is not always easy to understand, even for adults. The “SRF Kids News” supports you in talking to children about current topics.
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2023-09-03 08:38:21
#Declared #children #Neymar #transfer #Saudi #Arabia #criticized
