Saudi Arabia club, Al-Nassr have been hit with a FIFA ban preventing them from registering new players. The Saudi Arabian team, which has won the Kingdom’s league title nine times, made headlines when they signed the former Manchester United forward, Cristiano Ronaldo last season. Ronaldo’s high-profile move to the Gulf state has attracted other stars to the region.
Cristiano Ronaldo at a match for Al-Nassr. Source: Getty Al-Nassr have continued their spending spree this summer by acquiring Croatian midfielder Marcelo Brozovic from Inter Milan. There have also been rumours linking Italy international Domenico Berardi and Chelsea’s Hakim Ziyech to the club. It has however come at a cost, as they’ve now been banned from registering new players by FIFA. The Sun reported that the ban stems from the club’s failure to pay Championship side Leicester City add-ons related to the transfer of Nigerian forward Ahmed Musa. Musa joined Leicester immediately after their historic title win in 2016 but struggled to make an impact in England, scoring only five goals in 33 appearances. He was subsequently loaned back to his former club CSKA Moscow before being sold to Al-Nassr for a reported fee of £14 million in 2018.
Ahmed Musa at a match for Super Eagles. Source: Getty During his time at Al-Nassr Musa played 60 games and won the league title but was released as a free agent two years later. FIFA’s ruling states that Al-Nassr failed to pay €460,000 (£390,000) plus interest in performance-related add-ons owed to Leicester City. The initial ruling was issued in October 2021, with Al-Nassr being warned that a transfer registration ban would be imposed if they failed to settle the outstanding amount. It appears the club has not complied with the ruling, resulting in the registration ban being enforced. This ban applies to both domestic and international transfers, meaning Al-Nassr cannot register players from abroad at the moment. FIFA’s original ruling stated the ban would cover three consecutive transfer windows. Al-Nassr have also been warned that the matter would be referred to the FIFA Disciplinary Committee if Leicester City remained unpaid by the end of the ban. Al-Nassr has since indicated that the issue arose before the club’s acquisition by the Public Investment Fund (PIF). They have reassured that such issues will not occur again under the new club structure, and the payment owed to Leicester for Musa’s transfer will be promptly settled to lift the ban.
Cristiano Ronaldo in Al-Nassr jersey. Source: Getty Castro is a former professional footballer, playing for Vitória de Guimarães and Elvas in the Primeira Liga during his career. However, he spent most of his time down in the lower leagues before later becoming a manager in 1998. 61-year-old Luis Castro who will be leading Al-Nassr next season, is best known for his two seasons in Ukraine with Shakhtar Donetsk including home and away wins over Real Madrid in the group stage of the 2020-21 Champions League. He will lead Al-Nassr into a qualifying playoff for the Asian Champions League next month after the team finished runner-up last season in the Saudi Pro League. The champion Al-Ittihad was coached by another Portuguese, Nuno Espírito Santo. Al-Nassr is among four top Saudi clubs effectively nationalized last month by being taken into majority ownership by the sovereign wealth Public Investment Fund. PIF claims to have assets of around $700 billion and is chaired by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. 
