Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
The statement of Al Hilal’s president put the Saudi Arabian Federation in trouble.
Al Hilal club chairman Prince Nawaf bin Saad has sparked controversy over the competence of foreign referees who officiate Roshan Saudi Arabian Professional League matches following yesterday’s 2-1 win over Al Khalij.
Al-Hilal managed to close the points gap with leaders Al-Nasr to just two points with three rounds left in the league, but the club’s president expressed his displeasure with the level of foreign referees.
He revealed that in some of Al Hilal’s matches, “Sunni referees” were brought in to officiate the team’s matches in the Roshan League, despite paying millions of riyals, he said.
“Al Hilal”-“Al Khaleij” match was held under the supervision of Latvian referee Andris Trimanis.
Also read: Zamalek receive shock news ahead of Capital Union clash
In this context, journalist Walid Al-Faraj opened a discussion on this issue and referred to the Egyptian Premier League summit that took place recently between Al-Ahly and Zamalek and served a team of referees from Germany, confirming the words of the president of Al-Hilal.
Egyptian arbitration expert Samir Othman said on the Action with Walid program that the Egyptian Football Association brought in a German staff of 6 referees for just $45,000, which surprised Al-Faraj and Arabian arbitration expert Mohamed Fouda.
“In the Roshan League, to invite a team of foreign referees is paid 120 or 130 thousand dollars… Some teams pay about 10 million riyals a year to bring foreign referees for their matches.”
Read also: Video.. Walid Al-Faraj after the Gulf surprise.
Mohamed Fuda intervened in the conversation, asking: “We don’t know how foreign rulers come to the sister country (Egypt) with only 45 thousand dollars, and we pay (many times more). Is it the fault of the negotiation?”
He concluded by stressing the need for Saudi football officials to take this huge discrepancy into account, especially as some of the referees arrested are not among Europe’s elite.
