As Saudi Arabia continues to devote some of its massive wealth to sports, the NFL can only watch and wait to see whether the Public Investment Fund will try to invest in pro football — either by attempting to buy a franchise or setting up a competing league.
On Tuesday, Jaguars chief football strategy officer (and son of owner Shad Khan) Tony Khan had some things to say about the efforts of Saudi Arabia to attract Aleksander Mitrovic from Fulham of the English Pro League, a soccer club also owned by Khan.
“It’s amazing and I think if you have enough money you can get away with anything, including murder, and try to sign up all the top players in the world,” Tony Khan said on Dan Le Batard’s show, via LondonWorld.com.
That’s quite a strong statement, and one that is not entirely inaccurate, considering what happened to Jamal Khashoggi. But it’s the kind of thing that could inflame the situation, prompting a more aggressive run at Fulham players — or possibly an attempt to compete with the NFL.
On one hand, it would be incredibly petty for the Public Investment Fund to decide to compete with the NFL simply because the son of an NFL owner said that the Saudis have enough money to get away with anything, including murder. On the other hand, consider what happened to Jamal Khashoggi.