The PIF, which owns Newcastle, announced it June that it was taking over four of the Saudi Pro League’s top clubs. Al-Nassr, Al-Ittihad, Al-Ahli and Al-Hilal are now all under the control of the sovereign wealth fund and able to spend freely.
It is the same clubs that are seeking to sign Chelsea players, with Kalidou Koulibaly reportedly close to joining Al-Hilal. 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, the American hedge fund that was 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 of their relationship, 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.”
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