At a playground in a well-kept residential area, youngsters run from swings to brightly painted roundabouts, laughing and shouting as they enjoy the rides. The parents look on, talking politely to each other.
It is a common scene that takes place in most places on the planet. The difference here is that it is one in the morning.
“It’s the hottest time of the year,” a local tells me. People go nocturnal. It’s too hot to go outside during the day.
The first thing that hits you when you get off the plane in Saudi Arabia is the blistering heat. When the nationally talked about Pro League kicked off on Friday night, the temperature at the start was 40 degrees.
It may explain why Al-Ahli, one of four lucky clubs chosen to receive Public Investment Fund (PIF) backing, built a 2-0 lead thanks to a blossoming partnership between recruits Riyad Mahrez and Roberto Firmino, and then ran out of gas, eventually prevailing 3-1 against Al-Hazm.
Roberto Firmino started life at Al-Ahli with a hat-trick at the start of the Saudi Pro League season
The passion was not lacking in the stands in the match between Al-Ahli and Al-Hazm
Cristiano Ronaldo with his Golden Boot after Al-Nassr won the Arab Club Champions Cup by beating rivals Al-Hilal on Saturday night.
Money can buy you many things. He can take Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema into the desert. But you can’t make it rain.
Not that Michael Emenalo, the man who decides how the PIF ‘goodies’ are doled out, sees a major problem. “I think we’re going through the worst part now,” he says.
And on Friday night, they all survived. We will reach the best months in September, it will be smooth sailing.
Emenalo, the director of football for the Saudi Pro League, is the man with the PIF checkbook and all the answers. He believes that, armed with the backing of the PIF, more will follow Ronaldo’s example.
Emenalo, a former Chelsea manager, is also optimistic in his view that within a few years the Saudi Pro League, currently ranked 58th, will be among the best in the world.
Some feel this will go the way of the Chinese Super League. A passing fad; a vanity project Others compare it to hosting the World Cup in Qatar, an often contrived affair.
But a trip to Saudi Arabia quickly reveals an existing soccer culture.
Earlier in the week TV screens in hotels and restaurants were showing Wrexham v Wigan in the Carabao Cup.
Michael Emenalo, the Saudi Pro League’s transfer chief, says he wants ‘all the best players’
Ronaldo and his Al-Nassr teammates celebrate winning the first trophy of the Saudi season
Three hours before kick-off on Friday, in that grueling heat, excited Al-Ahli fans poured into the stadium and created an uproar that continued throughout the game.
They sang songs about rivals and their loyalty to their club. The referee was peppered, and when former Chelsea goalkeeper Edouard Mendy delivered a goal to his opponents and made another mistake soon after, there were howls of derision. It was a true football experience.
There was a strong sense of pride. People were delighted to see the Western journalists present at the match and thanked them for coming.
At Jeddah airport, a passenger in front of me at security turned around, smiled, and handed me a tray. There was no eye roll, no disbelief at the guy who had forgotten to remove his belt, or the woman who had left a bottle of water in her bag.
‘People feel that the view of the Arab people from the West is scary, based on historical facts,’ they told me.
“They make a big fuss trying to show that this is not right. Being hospitable is a big problem.
Al-Hilal fans create a colorful scene ahead of Saturday night’s game against Al-Nassr
Former Real Madrid talisman Karim Benzema is another star brought to the Saudi league
However, welcoming the women to the grounds remains a work in progress. Opening night, it was a male-dominated crowd.
Carlo Nohra, executive director of SPL, agrees that it takes work. ‘We have to make the product more accessible by improving the infrastructure by making facilities like family sections available,’ he says.
Competition can also be a problem. PIF’s four favorites in an 18-club league are not on equal footing. The difference between Al-Ahli and Al-Hazm was instantly noticeable.
The Al-Ahli dressing room, two hours before kick-off, was abuzz with activity, with a large backroom team making sure everything was in place for the arrival of Firmino, Mahrez, Allan Saint-Maximin and their other expensively purchased imports.
On the other side of the corridor, a lone kitman brought his opponents’ team into near silence. While the game was, at times, hotly contested, you’d imagine that as the season continues, the gap between the haves and have-nots will widen.
The gap between the ‘haves’ like Al-Ahli with their PIF cash and the ‘have-nots’ in the Pro League is only likely to grow wider.
Emenalo, however, stresses that Europe is not immune to similar scenarios. “There is no problem here because this is something we have seen in other places,” he says.
‘The clubs in England, Spain or Italy are not owned by a big organization called PIF. But they are big clubs and they had significantly more economic power than the other clubs.”
Emenalo believes the Premier League should not feel threatened, but adds that Saudi spending is far from over. “The Premier League was pioneering in the sense that it changed the media content for football, it changed the commercial interest in football.
“I think we are on the right path and it won’t take us that long to get to where we want to go, where the ambition has always been, which is to be one of the best in the world.”
