According to Sportbible, clubs in the Saudi Pro League, including Cristiano Ronaldo’s Al Nassr, have been ordered to pay $16 million in unpaid salaries to players over the past 18 months.

This is quite surprising information because everyone knows that Al Nassr is one of the clubs with the largest financial potential in the world, and owing player salaries is an extremely unbelievable case.

The Saudi Pro League side arguably made the biggest move in the league’s history when they signed Cristiano Ronaldo as a free agent earlier this year. The 38-year-old striker signed a lucrative two-and-a-half-year contract worth about 210 million USD.

Ronaldo’s transfer opened a new “trend” when many of Europe’s top stars moved to SPL this summer, mainly because the salary offered was too high. These names include top talents such as Neymar, Karim Benzema, Sadio Mane, Aymeric Laporte, Riyad Mahrez and Roberto Firmino.

However, there is a detailed report from Sportbible recounting the recent history of several Saudi Arabian clubs not paying their players. This has become so common that FIFPRO, the international football federation, has advised players not to join SPL clubs due to these problems in the past.

According to The Athletic, former Nottingham Forest striker Lewis Grabban joined Al-Ahli in 2022 but the two-year contract was terminated within three months when he claimed he was owed $400,000 in wages. Grabban sought legal action and eventually won $700,000. Al-Ahli were temporarily banned from registering any new players for two transfer windows, however, they successfully appealed against this.

The same report also concerns Cristiano Ronaldo’s Al Nassr. They were ordered to pay midfielder Petros $2.5 million in unpaid wages, but the case is still ongoing. The Riyadh-based team also caused controversy when terminating the contract with Abderrazak Hamdallah due to “unprofessional attitude”.