Do the Qataris and other oil rich countries try and invest those billions in investing in making their own home grown teams?
There's a crazy bit at the end of Andrea Pirlo's book (he plays for Italy and Juventus, is prob 36 or so now) about when he was 33 (in 2011 anyway) and a Qatari club approached him. They offered him €10m/year. He said no. They offered his kids English teachers, he said he wanted Italian speaking kids. They said they would build a school and employ only Italian speaking teachers. They asked did he like cars. They offered him a "few" Ferraris. They said if he ever felt homesick, there was a private jet waiting on the runway whenever he wanted. He still said no, so they said "11m per yer? €12m? 13m?" etc. This is for someone who was 33 at the time, past his prime, to go to a club where a man and his dog walking by would probably double the attendance.
Look at Qatar on a map and it makes the whole thing even more insane. It is like a footnote on Saudi Arabia.
