Via Haitham El-Tabei in sports.yahoo: The Saudi Pro League, the second biggest spender in the summer of 2023, behind only the English Premier League, dropped to sixth this year, trailing the Big Five European competitions that it aims to rival. According to analysts, Saudi officials are assessing the commercial returns of their record outlay as Saudi Arabias lavish drive to modernise its oil-reliant economy comes under budgetary strains. I think they achieved the purpose last year, they put themselves on the map, they put the league on the map, said James Dorsey, a senior fellow at the National University of Singapores Middle East Institute.
