Former Manchester United captain Gary Neville has called for the Premier League to ban transfers to Saudi Arabia to 'ensure the integrity of the game'.
Neville was speaking after a flurry of transfer activity in the Middle East country saw big names like Karim Benzema and N'Golo Kante complete moves to the Saudi Pro League. In June, Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF), which owns Newcastle United, declared they were buying four clubs in the country including Cristiano Ronaldo's Al Nassr.
Chelsea's Kalidou Koulibaly, Edouard Mendy and Hakim Ziyech have all been linked with moves to different teams in the league which has led to further controversy given it is unclear whether PIF holds a stake in Chelsea's ultimate owners Clearlake Capital. Sources close to the club have reportedly rejected these claims but Neville believes action needs to be taken.
"The Premier League should put an instant embargo on transfers to Saudi Arabia to ensure the integrity of the game isn't being damaged," he said, speaking to BBC Sport.
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"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."
This is not the first time this week Neville has called out the transfer dealings between the Premier League and Saudi Arabia. On Tuesday, he posted on Instagram: "Any chance the Premier League can look into this Saudi trading like NOW!!!!
"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."
Currently the Premier League has a fair value assessment system to try to ensure deals, both commercial and transfers, are conducted at market value.
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