Saudi Union Targets 60 Million from Foreign Referee Fee Adjustment

The Saudi Football Federation has approved a new mechanism for requests for foreign referees in the upcoming 2025-2026 sports season, which includes raising fees and expanding the range of options available to clubs in the Professional League.

According to the newspaper "Okaz", the Football Federation aims to achieve revenues of up to 60 million riyals if non-Saudi crews manage half of the league matches, through the newly introduced request system.

The new options are classified into three categories, starting with a crew of 4 referees for 300,000 riyals, then a crew of 5 referees for 375,000 riyals, and finally a crew of 6 referees at a cost of 450,000 riyals.

The last category includes the presence of a fourth referee and a Video Assistant Referee (VAR) assistant, which gives clubs greater flexibility in determining the type of crew based on the importance of the match and each club's budget.

The updated regulation also allows two clubs to share the request for one crew and split the cost, with the right to cancel the request up to 7 days before the match date and receive a full refund, while compensating the crew with local referees.