What's new

Saudi League chat.

bubble07

bubble07

Well-Known Member
Dec 27, 2004
23,155
30,326
Also wonder if Gerrard gets sacked whether he will hsve to pay back tax. I reckon he is just waiting to be sacked
 
D

Dillspur

Well-Known Member
May 18, 2004
3,750
9,926
bubble07 said:
Also wonder if Gerrard gets sacked whether he will hsve to pay back tax. I reckon he is just waiting to be sacked
Click to expand...

I think he would have to pay nearly 50% to the UK government, it has something to do with how much time they spend working out of the UK over the course of 12 months.
 
dontcallme

dontcallme

SC Supporter
Mar 18, 2005
34,293
83,557
Marty said:
Click to expand...

I taught English as a 2nd language abroad for 2 years. The teachers talked a lot about different countries to teach in. There are a handful of countries that pay well to native English speakers, even without qualifications.

Saudi came up a lot. I met a few who tried going there for a year, to save big money. None lasted the full year. They just hated the culture. It's no surprise to me to see the players not being able to handle it.
 
CantSmileWithoutYou

CantSmileWithoutYou

Well-Endowed Member
May 20, 2015
3,878
15,507
This league will disappear as quickly as it arrived. The high profile signings were all part of their sportswashing attempt to bring them the World Cup Finals and tourists.

I wouldn't go there on holiday if they paid me £700k a week.
 
S

spanishspur

Well-Known Member
Jan 27, 2005
435
972
CantSmileWithoutYou said:
This league will disappear as quickly as it arrived. The high profile signings were all part of their sportswashing attempt to bring them the World Cup Finals and tourists.

I wouldn't go there on holiday if they paid me £700k a week.
Click to expand...
I had the misfortune to go there for work in the 90s. It was a sales trip that was scheduled for 2 weeks. The team of 5 got all we needed in 5 days and flew back. One of the things that completely disgusted me was a few of the guys we were working with asked if we would like to go to the beheading on the Saturday as if it was a sightseeing must do thing never to be missed. We all turned it down.
The BA flight on the way back the stewardess was serving us bottles of champagne as the wheels left the runway.
We never submitted a tender as we all agreed we would never be able to get a team to stay out there for the duration of the proposed contract.
Henderson should have done a stay there before agreeing to his contract.
I assume things have improved there, but glad I never have to go back there even for one day.
 
Gassin's finest

Gassin's finest

C'est diabolique
May 12, 2010
37,607
88,452
spanishspur said:
I had the misfortune to go there for work in the 90s. It was a sales trip that was scheduled for 2 weeks. The team of 5 got all we needed in 5 days and flew back. One of the things that completely disgusted me was a few of the guys we were working with asked if we would like to go to the beheading on the Saturday as if it was a sightseeing must do thing never to be missed. We all turned it down.
The BA flight on the way back the stewardess was serving us bottles of champagne as the wheels left the runway.
We never submitted a tender as we all agreed we would never be able to get a team to stay out there for the duration of the proposed contract.
Henderson should have done a stay there before agreeing to his contract.
I assume things have improved there, but glad I never have to go back there even for one day.
Click to expand...
My Dad worked out there in Dhahran for 7 years or so. BAe contract. Great money, funded their retirement to France. But absolute shithole.

Entirely from my Dad's observations, 20 years ago now: Women are treat like cattle. The town square had a chopping block in the middle for cutting off hands and heads, and there was a pit for putting women in and stoning them if they went out of line. They aren't allowed to drink or mingle so all the lads race around in flash cars, smoking like chimneys. They're all gay as well, because they're sexually frustrated so basically turn to each other, which just highlights the further hypocrisy of their anti-gay laws. The date is literally 1400 or something there, because the Islam calendar started after the Roman calendar, and it feels like its the middle ages.

Different cultures and all that, fine... but it is not a pleasant place for westerners by the sounds of it.
 
Gassin's finest

Gassin's finest

C'est diabolique
May 12, 2010
37,607
88,452
Dirty Ewok said:
I think this is a much bigger factor than many people realize.

It is so much different in Saudi than most of them would expect.

Welcome to a "Western Compound", the housing and amenities are fairly nice in the compound. But outside of the compound....

Want a drink? - nope, sorry no alcohol available (i'm sure that the clubs ensured that the players had a 'contact' who could smuggle booze across the causeway to drink at home, but can't go out and drink)

Want to go out for an evening?.....no clubs or bars in country. 1 (ONE) movie theatre in country and the government decides what gets shown.

Forget about doing anything on a Friday before 5pm, everything is closed.

Want to do something during one of the 5 prayer times a day.....welp, sorry but everything is closed and the religious police don't like you even standing around idly.

Are you single?.....well, HUGE fucking mistake going to Saudi. You don't get to mingle with women.

Got a wife?.....goes without saying that Saudi will probably not be her cup of tea.

So you get paid a ransom to play football in empty stadiums for a league that is barely shown anywhere and no one fucking cares about. In your (considerable) downtime your options are basically.....lounge around your house, go to the compound community center, maybe golf, go to the mall or go to a restaurant (no wine or booze). Your wife/girlfriend is going to be wildly restricted in what she can do. Everything closes down several times a day....and on top of all that....Its hotter than the fucking sun.

I do wonder if the Western players actually live across the causeway in Bahrain and get driven/chopper across daily for practice etc. As Bahrain is at least a bit more lenient (you can get a drink!), but it would be like living in giant mall.

I imagine someone like Henderson must feel like he landed on the fucking moon going to live over there.
Click to expand...
My Dad lived on a US air base, they used to make their own homebrew.
 
Tucker

Tucker

Shitehawk
Jul 15, 2013
31,355
146,921
Gassin's finest said:
My Dad worked out there in Dhahran for 7 years or so. BAe contract. Great money, funded their retirement to France. But absolute shithole.

Entirely from my Dad's observations, 20 years ago now: Women are treat like cattle. The town square had a chopping block in the middle for cutting off hands and heads, and there was a pit for putting women in and stoning them if they went out of line. They aren't allowed to drink or mingle so all the lads race around in flash cars, smoking like chimneys. They're all gay as well, because they're sexually frustrated so basically turn to each other, which just highlights the further hypocrisy of their anti-gay laws. The date is literally 1400 or something there, because the Islam calendar started after the Roman calendar, and it feels like its the middle ages.

Different cultures and all that, fine... but it is not a pleasant place for westerners by the sounds of it.
Click to expand...
Doesn’t sound a pleasant place for Saudi’s either to be fair.
 
Marty

Marty

Audere est farce
Mar 10, 2005
40,173
63,898
Yiddo100 said:
I thought there would be downfall and all the players leave but I thought it would be longer than 6 months.
Edit - Nevermind
Click to expand...

That makes a lot more sense and of course somebody has completely misinterpreted it.
 
bomberH

bomberH

Well-Known Member
Jun 4, 2005
28,464
168,300
Steven Gerrard has signed a two-year contract extension to stay as head coach of Saudi Pro League side Al-Ettifaq until 2027.

The former Aston Villa boss joined the club on a two-year deal last summer.
Al-Ettifaq, who finished seventh last term, currently sit eighth in the table, 28 points behind leaders Al-Hilal.

😂😂😂
 
DJS

DJS

A hoonter must hoont
Dec 9, 2006
31,271
21,767
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

cjsimba
Classiest Premier League Club
Replies
5
Views
861
14/04/91
1
Trix
You want to know what's going on????
2
Replies
33
Views
7K
muppetman
muppetman
cooperman
Antonio Nusa
120 121 122
Replies
2K
Views
755K
aussiespursguy
aussiespursguy
Top