Premier League referees may forfeit the chance to officiate in major tournaments if they take the money on offer from Saudi Arabia.
The Saudi Professional League is trying to recruit the best officials available to oversee their glut of highly-paid star players. The Middle Eastern country is desperate to improve the standard of their league and have splashed out to lure the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema, Sadio Mane, N’Golo Kante and Jordan Henderson to play there.
The next step in their plan sees the league trying to up the level of the refereeing by hiring high-profile, experienced officials from the Premier League. The Saudi Pro League is willing to pay referees full-time wages that will dwarf the £120,000 to £300,000 per year that officials can currently earn in England.
But Mark Clattenburg has urged his former colleagues to exercise caution and not jump at the money. Clattenburg gave up his job in the Premier League to become Saudi Arabia's director of refereeing in February 2017, only to discover an unexpected issue with the role, which he took over from Howard Webb.
"My problem with the idea of having full-time referees going there from Europe is that I can’t see referees giving up the chance to referee in the Champions League, Euros or World Cup unless they are at the end of their career,” Clattenburg told The Times.
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"I thought I would be able to still go to the World Cup, taking one of the European places, but FIFA and UEFA insisted I should be viewed as a Saudi referee and I did not want to take the place of anyone from there.”
Clattenburg’s stint in Saudi Arabia lasted two years. Speaking soon after he was openly critical of the standard of officiating in Saudi Arabia.
Michael Oliver is considered the Premier League's top referee (Gustavo Pantano/Getty Images)“It’s one of those things – I had too many jobs,” he told television station Al Arabiya. “When they arrived they was a big fitness problem and were not well trained. I was disappointed in my meetings as they failed in the basic standards and understanding of the law of the game.”
Clattenburg went on to work in China and now works as a refereeing consultant to Greek football. But a talent drain from England to Saudi Arabia is definitely on the cards, despite the possible forfeiting of roles at World Cups, European Championships and the Champions League.
Overseas referees are already able to take charge of one-off matches – a possibility Michael Oliver took advantage of when he was paid £3,000 to officiate a game between Al-Hilal and Ronaldo's Al-Nassr in April. Ex-Premier League referee Keith Hackett is worried.
"Oliver has done a World Cup, and he's in line for the next World Cup too – he's our number one," he told Football Insider. "But I'm concerned. Both Webb and Mark Clattenburg went over to the Middle East on a full-time basis. There is a risk there of the Premier League losing a world-class referee."
A previous version of this article reported that Clattenburg's 'stint stint in Saudi Arabia only ended up lasting 18 months, after being taken off him abruptly in October 2018'. This is incorrect. We have been asked to make clear that in fact, Clattenburg was offered a 24-month contract in Saudi Arabia which was completed in full. He then took up a new role as a referee in China. We are happy to clarify this and apologise for the error.
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