Saudi Arabia’s Al-Nassr banned from signing players over ‘outstanding debts’

The Saudi Arabian club Al-Nassr have been banned from registering new players due to “outstanding debts”, Fifa has said.

Al-Nassr began the influx of football stars to the Saudi Pro League when they signed Cristiano Ronaldo in January, and have signed the Croatian midfielder Marcelo Brozovic from Internazionale this summer.

Any further transfer activity is on hold, however, after Fifa imposed a ban on registering new players. The debts are reportedly related to the signing of the Nigerian attacker Ahmed Musa, who moved to Al-Nassr from Leicester City in 2018.

“The club Al-Nassr is currently prevented from registering new players due to outstanding debts,” a Fifa statement said. “The relevant bans will be lifted immediately upon the settlement of the debts being confirmed by the creditors concerned.” The club have not yet responded to the statement.

In a ruling made in October 2021, Fifa said Al-Nassr still had to pay a sum of €460,000 (£390,000) to Leicester for the signing of Musa. He played 62 games for the Saudi club in all competitions, scoring 14 goals, before leaving in 2020.

Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, which has an estimated net worth of over $600bn (almost £460bn), bought a majority stake in Riyadh-based Al-Nassr as well as three other Saudi clubs in June.