Witness Ronaldo's €200m deal to play for Saudi state-owned footy club Al Nassar.
That said, in futbol, it's not limited to the Saudis, as James Dorsey explains in this piece. Arab states in general are using soccer transfers to whitewash their image. (Even without these massive free agencies to the Gulf Arab states, European soccer salaries to top stars mean that American big three sports fans should note that free agencies here aren't that pricey.)
As part of that, as KSA, UAE and Qatar all battle for influence, Dorsey speculates that they'll come together to try to form an Arab-world federation for future World Cup qualifying, splitting Arab states off from the current Asian-Arab federation while trying to get North African states moved over from the African federation.
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