Premier League told to apply ’embargo’ on Saudi Arabia transfers

Gary Neville has urged the Premier League to apply a ruthless transfer embargo on Saudi Arabia to ensure the Middle East nation’s Public Investment Fund has no power at Chelsea. Several Blues stars seem set to depart for Saudi Arabia as the West Londoners seek to balance their books after spending over £600million under the co-ownership of Todd Boehly.

In June, PIF, which owns Newcastle, announced that it was taking over four of the Saudi Pro League’s top clubs. Al-Nassr, Al-Ittihad, Al-Ahli and Al-Hilal are all under the control of the sovereign wealth fund.

Some of those clubs are seeking to sign Chelsea players. Kalidou Koulibaly is reportedly close to joining Al-Hilal, while Edouard Mendy and Hakim Ziyech are also supposedly discussing moves to the Gulf nation.

Those deals will help ease Chelsea’s concerns over passing Financial Fair Play restrictions. However, there is uncertainty over PIF’s involvement with Clearlake Capital, part of the consortium that purchased the Premier League outfit from Roman Abramovich in May 2022.

PIF invests in Clearlake but is unclear to what extent, while Chelsea deny that PIF has any involvement within the ownership structure. Despite that, Neville has called for a ban on Premier League players moving to Saudi Arabia until there is clarity, with questions over the integrity of the sport coming into focus.

“The Premier League should put an instant embargo on transfers to Saudi Arabia to ensure the integrity of the game isn’t being damaged,” Neville told BBC Sport.

“Checks should be made on the appropriateness of the transactions. If it comes through that process, obviously transfers could open up again.

“But I do believe, at this moment in time, transfers should be halted until you look into the ownership structure at Chelsea and whether there are beneficial transfer dealings that are improper.”

Chelsea spent over £600m last season, including on ground-breaking January deals for midfielder Enzo Fernandez and forward Mykhaylo Mudryk. The Blues hoped to recoup at least some of that money by trimming their bloated squad.

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