JEDDAH, 12 January 2007 — So much for fan loyalty. Disenchanted by the quality of local football, football fans in increasing numbers are watching and following European football.

“Maybe, before people couldn’t watch foreign football leagues but now all European leagues are aired live via satellite. People know that the best enjoyment lies in watching European football,” said Saudi football commentator at the ART channel, Madani Rahimi.

The football pundit believes there are many flaws in Saudi football and therefore there is not much entertainment for ardent football fans. Rahimi says that football games in the Kingdom have become somewhat dull and stadiums are no longer as bright and colorful as they used to be.

“The press has a big hand in it too... There have been a lot of rumors which have affected players and caused problems and tension between players and their clubs. This is something that shows during matches,” said Rahimi.

Jeddah resident Ghassan Bataweel, 30, said: “People would have to admit, you watch better football when you watch the European league... Our national teams have not developed in 10 years while the rest of the world has. Even other Arab teams and players with fewer assets have advanced and are playing better.”

In an ongoing Arab News survey, results have so far shown that Saudi football fans prefer to watch and follow European leagues. Spanish football leagues were the most popular followed by Italian and then British. Saudi football was the least popular at fourth place.

Saudi footballers are generously paid compared to players in other countries that exhibit better performance. “Our players are not of professional standards. The Saudi youth and sports federation should turn Saudi leagues back into amateur leagues like they were in the past,” said Bataweel.

According to experts, teams overpay players in the Saudi leagues to ensure they stay with their respective clubs and are not poached by rival teams.

Bataweel believes that it is difficult for Saudi players to gain stardom while playing in a European league for two reasons. “Firstly, during the first years of playing for a European league, players will not make the same amount of money that they would while playing for a Saudi club.

“Secondly, at the beginning, players would not get the opportunity to play for prominent European clubs. It takes hard work and training to develop the level of skills that are required in order to make it on such teams.”

Another aspect of the growing popularity of European leagues over local ones is the growing popularity of fantasy football leagues, where young Internet-savvy Saudis create imaginary teams based on real players and then compete with each other online. Thousands of Saudis play fantasy football on the UEFA (Union of European Football Association) Internet site.

In order to play fantasy football, fans need to be able to closely follow media coverage of teams and the performance of players — the kind of deep analysis that is unavailable for local Saudi teams. Fantasy football also acts as a kind of promotional mechanism for leagues, helping their popularity among sports-crazy people.

“Fantasy football keeps us following teams and their performance,” says Ahmed Badgaish, a fantasy football fanatic. “It keeps you following teams’ tactics and strategies in order to score more points,” he said, adding that watching football is like watching movies. “No one wants to watch low-budget movies.”

According to Igor Masnjak, marketing and research manager at UEFA Media Technologies, there are over 250,000 players in the top fantasy leagues. Users of the fantasy leagues as well as users of the uefa.com site come from over 120 countries.

Recently at a Jeddah coffee shop on the Corniche, dozens of Saudi football fans closely watched a match between Spanish team Barcelona and the English football team Chelsea. The crowds cheered along as if they were watching a match between the Kingdom’s two most popular clubs, Al-Ittihad and Al-Ahli.

Perhaps part of the reason for the popularity of foreign football in the Kingdom is the fact that European matches are pay-per-view, causing fans to venture out to local cafes to watch matches. Meanwhile, Saudi teams restrict their play to local network television. The carnival-like enthusiasm of fans that watch European football is clearly demonstrative of the growing trend among Saudi fans, who are embracing foreign football.

“Even if my home team was playing right now, I would rather be watching the European league,” said Ibrahim Shamsan, a 27-year-old Saudi businessman. Shamsan was smoking a sheesha and cheering Barcelona. He added that in his opinion Saudi football seems to be “caught in a rut” and unable to develop strategies and skills.

Shamsan said that with all the money being pumped into local clubs by businessmen and the General Presidency of Youth Welfare (the government organization that regulates the sports industry in the Kingdom) Saudi football should be in a much better situation.

“A number of our players have tried to play for European teams and none of them have managed to succeed,” said Abdul Aziz Naser, a football fan.

Sami Al-Jaber, captain of the Saudi national team and Al-Hilal football club, broke ground in August 2000 when he spent five months on loan to Wolverhampton Wanderers becoming the first Saudi player to feature in professional English football.

Although the Saudi national team and Saudi football clubs have been favorites in Asian tournaments a number of times but unlike other countries in Asia, such as Japan and Korea, Saudi Arabia has not produced players of international caliber, added Naser.

Many football fans complain that other Arab countries that spend much less on football have managed to export players to European clubs. This includes the likes of Egyptian forward Ahmad Hosam “Mido,” who plays in the English Premier league for Tottenham Hospurs.

In fact, many Saudi fans, who spoke to Arab News, said that they felt that the Kingdom would be one of the primary exporters of football players from among all of the GCC countries. But the Saudi league has again failed to succeed, the only GCC national playing in Europe is Oman’s international goalkeeper, Ali Al-Habsi, who plays in the English Premier League for Bolton Wanderers.

In press interviews, Al-Habsi said his dream came true after playing for three years for Lyn in Norway. After only three weeks’ training with Bolton, he said, training in England is more intense than at Lyn. “I can say that the training is 70 percent different from what I was used to,” he said.

It does seem that local Saudi players do not train intensely enough, something that becomes visible when Saudi players compete on an international level. Saudi players want stardom but do not want to achieve it through hard work.

Instead, they want to directly play for a major team such as Barcelona. Why? Because their goal, on a short-term basis, is to make lots of money for a season or two and then go into something else. Bataweel says that Saudi players that go abroad do not get paid the same as they would while playing in the Kingdom and would definitely not be the prize horse. Something that he believes puts players off.

The negative aspect of this is that now Saudi fans have abandoned supporting their teams when playing home by simply just not attending matches. According to some news reports, the slow start to the season is just a fad and attendance may pick up as competition between various clubs gains momentum. Meanwhile, others attribute the problem to a loss of talent. They say that people are just ignorant to notice the problem.

As dark clouds cover Saudi football, one fan suggested that the best way to win viewers would be to increase prices on pay-per-view sports channels that air European football and pay less for Saudi players that perform badly. It is left to be seen what the next few years hold for Saudi football.