Saudi Arabia is sending nine players to Spain as part of the Asian country’s attempts to boost its World Cup chances. Their wages will be paid by Saudi Arabia so the La Liga sides are effectively getting a free player. The aim of the move is to help make Saudi Arabia more competitive at the 2018 Russia World Cup, where Saudi Arabia is in Group A along with Egypt, Uruguay, and the hosts Russia. Officially, it gets exposure to fans in Saudi Arabia, but with La Liga already popular in the region and less than 34 million people living in Saudi Arabia, this benefit doesn’t seem particularly large. Saudi Arabia is not the only Asian soccer association to try and use European leagues to give its national team a boost.

Source: Forbes January 22, 2018 14:03 UTC