If the Saudi Pro League brings together an impressive colony of star players from the old continent since the arrival of Cristiano Ronaldo in Al-Nassr in the wake of the 2022 World Cup, the TV audiences do not follow. At least, in France, the matches of the Saudi Arabian championship broadcast on Canal+ for two seasons have never found their audience despite “CR7” or Karim Benzema, Sadio Mané or Riyad Mahrez.
Canal+ has thus decided not to extend the TV rights of the Saudi League, as Thomas Senecal, the Sports Director of Canal+, announces in an interview with The team.
The Saudi Pro League clearly did not pack the C+ subscribers, which are an enhancement served in terms of high-level football with all of the three European Cups, all the Premier League meetings, but also the Ligue 1 Saturday afternoon poster, the Liga and the Bundesliga offered on the beIN Sports channels (included in the Canal+ Sport offer).
Beautiful people in Saudi Arabia
The Saudi clubs have just started their pre-season and the Saudi Arabian Supercup, on August 19, will launch hostilities between the reigning champion, Al-Ittihad, led by Laurent Blanc and led, in addition to “KB9”, by N'Golo Kanté, Moussa Diaby and Houssem Aouar, against Al-Nassr de Ronaldo. Sadio Mané, Marcelo Brozovic and Mohamed Simakan evolve with the fivefold Ballon d'Or, Jorge Jesus took control, but Aymeric Laporte will leave the club to join Bilbao.
As a reminder, Al-Hilal, brilliant champion of Saudi 2024 Arabia, comes out of a quarter-final of the Club World Cup after beating Manchester City. Yassine Bounou, Kalidou Koulibaly, Joao Cancelo, Sergej Milinkovic-Savic, Malcom and Aleksandar Mitrovic welcome the French international Théo Hernandez. Édouard Mendy, Riyad Mahrez, Allan Saint-Maximin or Ivan Toney still evolve in Al-Ahli and Alexandre Lacazette and Marcin Bulka joined Neom, ambitious promoted.
