Premier League chief executive Richard Masters has no immediate fears that Saudi Arabia will bankroll their way past the English top flight as the highest profile league in the world.
Eyebrows were first raised in January when Cristiano Ronaldo gave the Saudi Pro League some world class credibility when he moved there and that will climb another notch if the Al-Hilal is successful in its £259m attempt to recruit Kylian Mbappe.
Persuading a 24-year-old in the prime of his career to play in the Middle East would be seen as a gateway move for more top quality players to head to Saudi with a clear plan in place to develop the competition into major force in the game.
“Something new is obviously happening,” Masters told the BBC. “The Saudi Pro League have stated they want to be a top 10 league by 2030.
“They are investing in players and managers to try to raise the profile of the league and clubs.
“It has taken us 30 years to get to the position that we have in terms of profile, competitiveness and the revenue streams that we have.
“I wouldn’t be too concerned at the moment but, obviously, Saudi Arabian clubs have as much right to purchase players as any other league does.
“In the end, the Premier League is a £6bn-a-year operation in terms of revenue and that money is spent reinvested into the pitch.
“All good competitions have to have revenue streams to back them up.”
Four of the clubs are backed by the Saudi Arabia government funded Public Investment Fund, the same body who have transformed Newcastle’s fortunes in the Premier League.
However, with the Saudi’s dipping so many toes into the football world, there is concern that financial fair play could be lost among the many ripples.
With Newcastle set to sell Allan Saint-Maximin to Al-Ahli, rival Premier League clubs have expressed concerns that an inflated fee could further boost Newcastle’s spending power without seeming to break the regulations.
However, Master said: “That transaction hasn’t taken place yet but anything which is inter-company has to be a fair market value and the rules cater for that.”.
“I think our rules are robust. They are relatively new – 18 months old – but they should be able to cope with that particular transaction.”
