{"id":292394,"date":"2023-09-28T08:35:19","date_gmt":"2023-09-28T08:35:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sports-life-news.com\/?p=292394"},"modified":"2023-09-28T08:35:19","modified_gmt":"2023-09-28T08:35:19","slug":"saudi-arabia-plan-to-tempt-premier-league-referees-to-the-kingdom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sports-life-news.com\/soccer\/saudi-arabia-plan-to-tempt-premier-league-referees-to-the-kingdom\/","title":{"rendered":"Saudi Arabia &apos;plan to tempt Premier League REFEREES to the Kingdom&apos;"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>Saudi Arabia &#8216;will look to tempt Premier League REFEREES to the Kingdom&#8217; as they continue their big-money revamp of the Saudi Pro League<\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Officials could be drawn by substantially bigger salaries than offered in Europe\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Saudi Pro League&#8217;s summer spend was second only to the Premier League&#8217;s\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Mail Sport&#8217;s new WhatsApp Channel: Get the breaking news and exclusives here\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Saudi Arabia will look to tempt Premier League referees to work in the Kingdom as they continue to overhaul their league after a summer of mammoth spending, according to reports.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The Saudi Pro League stole headlines during the latest transfer window with their recruiting of big names to burnish the budding league including Neymar Jnr, Karim Benzema, Jordan Henderson, and Ruben Neves.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Big-money deals have also lured a slew of international coaches to the league, such as former Wolves and Tottenham manager Nuno Espirito Santo, who joined Al-Ittihad, and Liverpool legend Steven Gerrard, who now manages Al-Ettifaq.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>But as the Gulf state develops its on-pitch talents, focus has now shifted to the officiating of the game.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>As per the Times, referees from the Premier League and throughout the European top flight are being sounded out for a potential move to Saudi Arabia as the next step in the development of their league.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/09\/28\/08\/75926425-12569899-image-a-1_1695886688483.jpg\" height=\"429\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>European top flight and Premier League officials could soon be refereeing in Saudi Arabia<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/09\/28\/08\/75926767-12569899-The_Saudi_Pro_League_is_intent_on_developing_their_league_to_the-m-5_1695887254392.jpg\" height=\"417\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>The Saudi Pro League is intent on developing their league to the highest standard and after a summer of spending, could now turn their attention to officials<\/p>\n<p>Your browser does not support iframes.<\/p>\n<p>International referees have been used by the Saudi Pro League for exceptional matches, with officials travelling from New Zealand, Paraguay, and Argentina to oversee games, but the Saudi Pro League are thought to be looking into offering season-long contracts for top officials in a move which could cause alarm for leagues in Europe over a possible talent drain.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>As with the players they have recruited this summer, the Saudi Pro League may be able to draw officials to the Kingdom on the basis of salary.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Whilst a Premier League referee can earn between \u00a3120,000 and \u00a3300,000 at the top of the game, the Saudi league are thought to be able to offer a substantial increase in wages.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In April, Premier League referee Michael Oliver earned \u00a33,000 to referee a tie between Al-Hilal and Cristiano Ronaldo&#8217;s side Al-Nassr, refereeing a domestic match outside of England for the first time.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The official travelled business class to Riyadh, and collected a fee worth roughly double what he might earn for an English top-flight fixture.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/09\/28\/08\/75927443-12569899-image-a-3_1695887054064.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Premier League referee Michael Oliver earned \u00a33,000 from a one-off match in April 2023<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/09\/28\/08\/75927399-12569899-image-a-4_1695887058038.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Cristiano Ronaldo (left) clashed with a referee during an August Asian Champions League tie<\/p>\n<p>The standard of refereeing in Saudi has previously been called into question, with former Premier League referee Mark Clattenburg stating that officials he oversaw in 2017 and 2018 as the country&#8217;s head of refereeing &#8216;failed the basic standards and understanding of the laws of the game&#8217;.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Saudi&#8217;s eye-popping investment in the sport saw their league close the transfer with a total spend of \u00a3800million second only to that of the Premier League&#8217;s, but not all of their new imports have settled with ease.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Portuguese star Jota &#8211; drafted in from Celtic for \u00a325m in July &#8211; was reportedly left out of Al-Ittihad&#8217;s squad for league fixtures this season just two months after his arrival at the club, whilst landmark signing Neymar has been dogged by speculation that he called for the sacking of Al-Hilal head coach Jorge Jesus.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The Brazil forward, who secured a dazzling \u00a378million transfer from Paris Saint-Germain, called the claims &#8216;lies&#8217; and &#8216;fake news&#8217; on social media.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<h3>IT&#8217;S ALL KICKING OFF!\u00a0<\/h3>\n<p><span>It&#8217;s All Kicking Off\u00a0is an exciting new podcast from Mail Sport that promises a different take on Premier League football, launching with a preview show today and every week this season.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>It is available on MailOnline, Mail+, YouTube , Apple Music and Spotify<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Your browser does not support iframes.<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/sport\/football\/article-12569899\/Saudi-Arabia-look-tempt-Premier-League-REFEREES-Kingdom-continue-big-money-revamp-Saudi-Pro-League.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Saudi Arabia &#8216;will look to tempt Premier League REFEREES to the Kingdom&#8217; as they continue their big-money revamp of the Saudi Pro League Officials could be drawn by substantially bigger salaries than offered in Europe\u00a0 Saudi Pro League&#8217;s summer spend was second&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":292393,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Saudi Arabia &amp;apos;plan to tempt Premier League REFEREES to the Kingdom&amp;apos; - Sports-Life-News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sports-life-news.com\/soccer\/saudi-arabia-plan-to-tempt-premier-league-referees-to-the-kingdom\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Saudi Arabia &amp;apos;plan to tempt Premier League REFEREES to the Kingdom&amp;apos; - Sports-Life-News\" \/>\n<meta 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