Oh dear. Gary Neville is at it again.The left-wing right-back has waded into the latest trend in British football: superannuated superstars ending their playing days in Saudi Arabia. Neville – a man who has never met a camera he didn’t like – is calling on the Premier League to stop the transfer of players to the oil rich nation until ‘it is certain the integrity of its competition is not being put at risk’.
Saudi Arabis’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), which owns Newcastle United, declared in June that it was taking over four leading clubs in the country, including Al-Nassr, who signed Cristiano Ronaldo in December. Questions have been asked about whether PIF holds a stake in Chelsea’s ultimate owners, the private equity firm Clearlake Capital. And Neville, card-carrying Labour member that he is, has now fumed to the BBC (who else?) that:
The Premier League should put an instant embargo on transfers to Saudi Arabia to ensure the integrity of the game isn’t being damaged.
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