Man United icon Gary Neville makes Premier League plea amid Saudi investment

Manchester United legend Gary Neville has urged the Premier League to look into Saudi Arabia's heavy investment in its players during the summer transfer window.

Several Chelsea players as well as Wolves' Ruben Neves appear to be closing in on moves to the Gulf state. This follows Cristiano Ronaldo's move to Al-Nassr in the Saudi Pro League in January with Karim Benzema recently joining champions Al-Ittihad.

Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) - owners of Newcastle United - bought 75 per cent of four of its country's biggest clubs earlier this month; Al-Ittihad, Al-Ahli, Al-Nassr and Al-Hilal.

A statement from the PIF's official Twitter account said that the clubs "have been transformed into companies, each of which is owned by PIF and non-profit foundations for each club."

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It added: "The transfer of the four clubs will unleash various commercial opportunities, including investment, partnership and sponsorships across numerous sports."

This came a few weeks prior to golf's PGA Tour announcing a merger with the PIF-backed LIV Golf, ending a two-year bitter rivalry.

Neville has now demanded that the Premier League take a closer look at Saudi's investment attempts in Premier League players. Taking to Instagram, he wrote: “Any chance the Premier League can look into this Saudi trading like NOW!!!!

“Get a regulator in ASAP that’s agile enough to stop these things at source! If it doesn’t look right, it’s probably not right! Independence is required ASAP. The governance of our game is a mess.”

Meanwhile, the Daily Mail claims that Saudi Arabia’s PIF heavily invest in Clearlake Capital, which bought 60 per cent of Chelsea last year. The