Al Nassr Banned: Saudi club Al Nassr have been handed a ban by FIFA. As per the rules, they will not be able to register any new players. Reportedly, FIFA have imposed the ban because of their inability to pay Leicester City their due add-ons for the transfer of the player, Ahmed Musa. Al Nassr started a change in the landscape’s football after they brought on Cristiano Ronaldo at the start of the year. Several top-level players are still linked with the team and they could be left unregistered following their move.
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Al Nassr brought on the Nigerian forward, Ahmed Musa from Leicester City in 2018. He stayed at the club for 2 years. Then he left as a free agent to join the Nigerian club Kano Pillars. Musa appeared in 60 games for the club. He scored 11 times in those games and provided 14 assists. Apparently, the contract that was drawn during Musa’s transfer from Leicester City to Al Nassr included add-ons. The triggering of the add-ons depended upon the player’s performance.
As they were triggered, the add-ons amounted to £390,000 which Al Nassr owed to Leicester City. However, they failed to pay them and the English club brought the matter to FIFA’s attention. FIFA originally released a ruling back in October, 2021 that confirmed that Al Nassr failed to pay Leicester City. It also warned the Saudi club that if they do not pay the Foxes within a certain amount of time, they will be punished with a transfer registration ban of 3 consecutive transfer windows.
Reportedly, Al Nassr have not complied with the ruling and still have not paid the Foxes. Hence, a registration ban for the next three consecutive transfer windows has now been imposed upon them. This applies to both international and domestic transfers. Hence, now they will not be able to register any new stars arriving from Europe or outside. FIFA have also warned Al Nassr that if they fail to pay Leicester City by the end of the ban, then the matter would be brought to the FIFA Disciplinary Committee’s attention.
A FIFA spokeperson commented on the matter saying, “Al-Nassr is currently prevented from registering new players — this due to outstanding debts. Relevant bans will be lifted immediately upon the settlement of the debts being confirmed by the creditors concerned.”
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Al Nassr responded on the issue saying that the matter arose before PIF or the Public Investment Fund took control of the club. They have since said that the new controlling authority will look into the matter. They promised that there will be no repetition of the occurrence and will soon pay Leicester City so that the band would soon be lifted. Al Nassr will need to act on the matter as following the arrival of Cristiano Ronaldo, other Saudi clubs have caught up.
Top-level players from Europe, like Ronaldo’s former teammate Karim Benzema, Chelsea stars N’Golo Kante, Kalidou Koulibaly, Edouard Mendy, and more have joined several Saudi clubs. Even Steven Gerrard has joined the Saudi side Al Ettifaq as their head coach. Al Nassr are also trying to strengthen their team further. Hakim Ziyech from Chelsea and the Italy player Domenico Berardi are rumoured to be on their way to Al Nassr. However, even if the transfers are completed, they still won’t be registered. Hence, Al Nassr will need to pay Leicester as soon as possible to resume their transfer work smoothly.
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