Saudi Arabia

[pudseyblade]

With the Saudis opening their doors to tourism, could this be a potential pre-season friendly destination? As a collector of countries / football grounds I'm certainly hoping so

 

[woody_7]

With their human rights issues i,m not !

 

[Inter_blade83]

Been to Mecca and Madinah. Madinah is nice, fairly chilled. Mecca is lovely around the mosque, but a shithole everywhere else. Quite surreal seeing all shops and restaurants close 5 times a day for prayer time.

If the country does open up more to tourism, it's an archaeologists wet dream. Far more historical sites than anywhere else around the region but no one goes there to see them.

Baboons in the mountains too.

 

[Sheffsteel]

The significance of Saudi Arabia links wasn’t really mentioned in the last Beans podcast.

Noticed that our owner mentioned that he intends to take advantage of his inside knowledge and will look towards Saudi for future sponsorship deals.
The Prince said we can do much better than the current sponsorship deals.

Saudi (with Iran) are traditionally 2 of the most conservative, Islam based cultures in the world.
However Saudi have offered tons of money to stage the boxing. Eddie Hearn says that Saudi Arabia could become a big player financially in the sport of boxing.

Regards the other Arab countries, Qatar own PSG, United Arab Emirates own Man City but Saudi Arabia have stayed away from major financing football.
When the World Cup in played in Qatar, it could make football and the PL massively fashionable all over neighbouring Saudi.

So it is feasible over the next few years that we might receive massive viewing interest and also major financial interest from Saudi Arabia.
We might even receive interest from hugely wealthy Saudi investors wanting to jump on board the PL train.

Might sound daft but I believe that one of the reasons we would be popular in Saudi Arabia is due to our badge.
Our badge has the cross scimitars, these swords are close to Saudi culture and their national flag even has a sword on it.

 

[Sheffsteel]

Been to Mecca and Madinah. Madinah is nice, fairly chilled. Mecca is lovely around the mosque, but a shithole everywhere else. Quite surreal seeing all shops and restaurants close 5 times a day for prayer time.

If the country does open up more to tourism, it's an archaeologists wet dream. Far more historical sites than anywhere else around the region but no one goes there to see them.

Baboons in the mountains too.

I’ve been to Dubai, was chatting to the taxi driver who was a Pakistani national.
He told me that Dubai is (on the surface) very westernised. Where Islam lives side by side with western culture.
Said the King of Dubai welcomes and encourages western tourists and western businesses to come to his country.

He then told me that he’s been to Saudi Arabia and that’s very different.
He said it’s still very traditional and old fashioned, so Muslims feel more welcome than westerners.
He did say maybe it will change over time....like has happened in some of the other Arab states.

 

[Berkshire Blade]

Think its more likely we face Almeria in the south of Spain who also are owned by a Saudi and the prince often tweets back and forth to than any pre season games in saudi

But yes the 'opening' up of the country is well timed for us in terms of sponsorship which the Prince is clearly looking at. We already have the car hire company sponsor the training kit. Guessing we'll get tweets sponsored and the like in the coming months!

 

[8lade]

The forward thinking Arab countries are welcoming Western culture, I was in Oman about 10 years ago and they had realised that the oil revenue wouldn't last forever and were branching out into tourism.

 

[Houston_Blade]

With the Saudis opening their doors to tourism, could this be a potential pre-season friendly destination? As a collector of countries / football grounds I'm certainly hoping so

Pre-season Saudi would be between 35 and 45 degrees. Some of the stadiums are air conditioned but I don't think a load of Shoreham boys singing about shagging women and drinking beer would be welcome.

The tourism that they are aiming for is Arab nationals, it will be a long time before it will be become a western destination in the same way that UAE and Oman are.

Having been to a lot of the countries around the region Saudi are very far behind on the tourism side, I've only been in and out of Riyadh for a meeting but I wouldn't rush back. I do know a lot of western ex-pats who've lived there and they said it was ok as long as you were within the compound, anything outside and it was unsettlling. This isn't the case in other Middle East countries where westerners can still have a good time as long as they operate within the rules of the country.

 

[snootyfenooty]

Been to Mecca and Madinah. Madinah is nice, fairly chilled. Mecca is lovely around the mosque, but a shithole everywhere else. Quite surreal seeing all shops and restaurants close 5 times a day for prayer time.

If the country does open up more to tourism, it's an archaeologists wet dream. Far more historical sites than anywhere else around the region but no one goes there to see them.

Baboons in the mountains too.

Be interested to know how you got into Mecca as non-Muslims aren't allowed in there (unless you're a Muslim of course). I drove from Riyadh to Jizan in the 80s and had to take the ring road around Mecca. You had to go through toll booths to go downtown and they would only let you through if you had "Muslim" stated as your religion on your Iqama.

For anyone who's interested, Jizan is on the Yemeni border, Yemen being the origin of the Bin Laden's. They had the construction sector tied up in that region whilst I was there and we even did a bit of work for them! The local Emir picked up on my accent at one meeting and told me he went to Sheffield Uni. Very surreal looking back.

 

[SwissBlade]

Been to Mecca and Madinah. Madinah is nice, fairly chilled. Mecca is lovely around the mosque, but a shithole everywhere else. Quite surreal seeing all shops and restaurants close 5 times a day for prayer time.

If the country does open up more to tourism, it's an archaeologists wet dream. Far more historical sites than anywhere else around the region but no one goes there to see them.

Baboons in the mountains too.

Iraq has a lot of historical sites, but a lot have been damaged after years of war and neglect

As for a preseason destination, it might be a tad warm!

 

[Kev Gee]

Maybe a friendly will be organised between Al Hilal and the Blades?

 

[Harry's Game]

Been to Mecca and Madinah. Madinah is nice, fairly chilled. Mecca is lovely around the mosque, but a shithole everywhere else. Quite surreal seeing all shops and restaurants close 5 times a day for prayer time.

If the country does open up more to tourism, it's an archaeologists wet dream. Far more historical sites than anywhere else around the region but no one goes there to see them.

Baboons in the mountains too.

Leeds would have took more..

 

[BigBed]

Been to Mecca and Madinah. Madinah is nice, fairly chilled. Mecca is lovely around the mosque, but a shithole everywhere else. Quite surreal seeing all shops and restaurants close 5 times a day for prayer time.

If the country does open up more to tourism, it's an archaeologists wet dream. Far more historical sites than anywhere else around the region but no one goes there to see them.

Baboons in the mountains too.

They have them in S6, no mountains though.