Explaining the Saudi Pro League Foreign Players Rule

The Saudi Pro League are now focusing on bringing in young players by allowing only 10 foreign players, with two born after 2003. The squad limit has been reduced to 25 from 30 to increase competitiveness and prevent clubs from hoarding talent. Al-Ahli's attempts to sign Toney and Osimhen have been hampered by the league's squad restrictions.

They need to offload a player to ensure they complete the double swoop. Transfer deadline day has arrived and clubs across Europe are looking to finalise deals to get their squads in shape for the rest of the season. In the last couple of years, the Saudi Pro League (SPL) has spent heavily in the transfer market.



Last year, clubs in the SPL signed 97 players, focusing on attracting big-name players such as Neymar and Fabinho. There has been a marked change in approach ahead of the 2024/25 campaign, though. The league are now emphasising the importance of growing homegrown talent and buying overseas players with a lower average age to boost the quality of the competition in the long-term.

This has resulted in key rule changes, especially in relation to squad registration. These new rules are currently having a huge effect on the proposed transfers of Ivan Toney and Victor Osimhen. Al-Ahli are keen on signing both players but are unable to do so due to the current makeup of their first-team squad.

Here is an explanation of the league's registration rules for foreign players for the 2024/25 campaign. The SPL has made a big impact in the previous two seasons but things have been surprisingly quiet in 2024 on the transfer front. Saudi Pro League Squad Registration Rules In January 2024, the SPL announced significant changes to the league's squad registration rules.

Clubs are now allowed to register 10 players not from Saudi Arabia, which is an increase from eight, which was the limit in 2023. Eight of these 10 must be born after 2003, though, which is a specific ploy by the Saudi Arabia Football Federation to attract younger players with high potential. Another significant change is that clubs are now only allowed to have a squad of 25.

Last season, they were given an allowance of 30 players. The reduction in squad size was put in place to improve the competitiveness of the league and increase the quality of squads. As well as this, the federation was keen on stopping teams from hoarding lots of players on big wages who are not necessarily going to be playing regularly.

Brentford striker Ivan Toney has agreed to make the move to Al-Ahli Toney and Osimhen Deals in Doubt On Friday, 30th August, Sky Sports News reported that Al-Ahli had agreed deals for both Toney and Osimhen for £40m and £67.3m, respectively. The main issue with this double deal, though, is that signing both would mean that the Saudi club wouldn't be able to fulfil the league's squad registration quotas.

Kaveh Solhekol has reported that Al-Ahli need to free up a slot in their squad to register both players, otherwise they will go over the limit of 10 for foreign players. The Saudi club have seven foreign players above the age of 21, including Riyad Mahrez, Bobby Firmino, and Franck Kessie. If they signed Toney and Osimhen, they would have nine non-Saudi players, which is not compliant with the league's rules.

GIVEMESPORT's Ben Jacobs confirmed this in reply to Solhekol's post. Whether Al-Ahli can offload players to ensure they complete the double swoop of Toney and Osimhen, but it is already shaping up to be one of the standout stories of deadline day this year. Brentford striker Ivan Toney looks set to join Al Ahli amid reports of a deal being agreed with the Saudi club.

Information gathered from Transfermarkt and X.com..