Gary Neville demands Premier League investigate Saudi transfer deals and describes the game as ‘a mess’
GARY NEVILLE has called for an investigation into the plethora of Premier League players being signed by Saudi Arabian clubs.
Cristiano Ronaldo’s move to Al-Nassr back in December was the first in what looks set to be a long line of England-based stars switching to the Middle East nation.
Gary Neville has urged the Premier League to look into Saudi Arabia’s recent transfer businessGetty
N’Golo Kante signed for Saudi Pro League side Al-Ittihad earlier this weekGetty
Chelsea midfielder N’Golo Kante has signed for Saudi outfit Al-Ittihad in a four-year deal worth £86million.
And Wolves man Ruben Neves is set to join Al-Hilal.
A host more Stamford Bridge rejects are being linked with moves including Kalidou Koulibaly, Romelu Lukaku, Hakim Ziyech, Edouard Mendy, Callum Hudson-Odoi and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
The interest in those Chelsea players has raised eyebrows as Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund – who own Newcastle – are a major investor in Chelsea’s majority shareholder, Clearlake Capital.
InstagramNeville took to Instagram to vent his frustration[/caption]
PIF have billions of pounds of assets managed by Clearlake – a consortium led by Todd Boehly who bought a 60 per cent stake in Chelsea last year.
Blues sources insist there is no Saudi involvement in the purchase of the club – a move that would break rules given PIF-owned Newcastle also compete in the Premier League.
But Neville is convinced the Saudis’ sudden involvement in English football needs to be looked into – with an independent regulator the way forward.
Speaking on Instagram, he said: “Any chance the Premier League can look into this Saudi trading like NOW!!!
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“Get a Regulator in asap that’s agile enough to stop these things at source! If it doesn’t look right it’s probably not right!
“Independence is required asap. The Governance of our game is a mess!”
Chelsea are desperately needing to sell players to keep within Financial Fair Play regulations.
They have spent £600million on players over the past 12 months – although still only managed a 12th-place finish in the Premier League.
In September, they were one of 19 clubs placed on Uefa’s watchlist as they prepared for their finances to be “‘monitored closely in the upcoming period”.
Chelsea’s accounts revealed a net loss of £121.3m for the 2021/22 campaign.
But they look set to offload a number of fringe players to Saudi clubs Al-Ittihad, Al-Nassr, Al-Hilal and Al-Ahli – all of which were recently bought by PIF.
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