Clubs in the Saudi Pro League might have all the money in the world – but the one thing they can’t buy is fans.
In the last year, players such as Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema, Neymar, Roberto Firmino, Jordan Henderson, Georginio Wijnaldum and N’Golo Kante have all made the move over to the kingdom.
The Saudi Pro League’s heavy spending was one of the key talking points from the summer transfer window this season, as several clubs from the country recruited some of the top names in European football with massive contracts.
And there could have been one other big name plying his trade in the kingdom had Liverpool not rejected a £150m offer from Al Ittihad for Mohamed Salah during the summer transfer window. The offer was understood to have been £100m up front, with a further £50m in add-ons.
However, the crowds are simply not turning up to watch the stars in action. In a recent game between Al-Wehda and Al-Khaleej, only 447 spectators turned up at Al-Wehda’s 38,000-capacity stadium.
While former Liverpool captain Henderson played in front of just 976 spectators when his Al-Ettifaq side beat Abha Club back in September. According to statistics by Transfermarket, half of the teams in the Saudi Pro League have average attendance figures below 5,000.
The highest attendance so far this season saw just shy of 60,000 supporters watched the 1-1 draw between Al Hilal and Al Fayha in August, while the lowest saw just 133 people watch Al Riyad lose 1-0 to Al Okhdood in September.
However, 12,300 supporters turned up to watch Gerrard and Henderson’s side take on reigning Saudi Pro League champions Al-Ittihad at the weekend. Wijnaldum opened the scoring before Abderrazak Hamdallah levelled things up nine minutes into the second-half.
And speaking after the game, Gerrard revealed his players were ‘full of sadness’. He said: “The dressing room was full of sadness on my players’ faces because of the draw.
“We are disappointed with the result. We were closer to getting the three points. No player deserves to be changed, to be honest. That’s why we did not use the bench for this match.”
Kop icon Gerrard hinted earlier this month that his team will raid European clubs once again in January for talents.
“To assure our fans, we are going to scour Europe for more options,” he said. “But we’ll also, more importantly, need to scour locally to improve this squad to be more competitive.”
But if Salah is thinking about making the move to the Saudi Pro League in the not-too-distant future, then he would be wise to take a long, hard look at how many people are watching the games before making his final decision.