Leading Saudi clubs have strengthened the role of the sporting director within their administrative structures, seeking to build systems responsible for technical planning, recruitment, scouting and talent development rather than limiting investment to signing players. The appointment of Scot Richard Hughes as Al Hilal’s sporting director on 6 September 2026 was the latest step in this direction.
Al Hilal appoints Richard Hughes as sporting director
Al Hilal said Hughes’s appointment aims to develop the club’s sporting structure, technical operations, recruitment and scouting activities. The Scottish official joined the club after a spell at Liverpool, where he became sporting director in June 2024 after arriving from Bournemouth, before leaving the English club in September 2026.
During his time at Liverpool, Hughes oversaw the football and recruitment departments and helped select Dutchman Arne Slot to succeed Jürgen Klopp after the end of the 2023-2024 season. Liverpool won the English Premier League title in Slot’s first season, 2024-2025.
During Hughes’s tenure, Liverpool spent about £670 million, equivalent to about $850 million, on transfers including Florian Wirtz, Alexander Isak and Hugo Ekitike. His new role at Al Hilal, however, extends to building the mechanisms that determine the club’s choices of players and coaches and its sporting direction. Al Hilal is not the only club to adopt this model.
Sporting directors at Al Nassr, Al Ittihad and Al Qadsiah
Portuguese national Simao Coutinho has been Al Nassr’s sporting director since July 2025, while Frenchman Frank Carbo took up the role at Al Ittihad in early June 2026, replacing Spaniard Ramon Planes, who moved into the role of sporting adviser to the club.
At Al Qadsiah, Spaniard Carlos Anton was promoted to sporting director and had his contract extended until 2028. Anton said he had developed a long-term strategy covering recruitment, training, performance, sports medicine, analysis, data and the academy, in addition to completing more than 50 player transfers.
Al Shabab appointed Belgian Olivier Renard as sporting director in July 2026, while Greek national Kyriakos Dwerkeris has held the position at NEOM since 14 July 2024, as part of a project built on international expertise, data and talent development. Al Ahli, meanwhile, ended the tenure of Portuguese national Rui Pedro Bras by mutual consent in September 2026. He had taken up the role in October 2025.
The Saudi club assigned Osama Hawsawi, assistant sporting director since September 2025, to take temporary charge until a new director is appointed. The 18 clubs competing in the Saudi Roshn League do not operate under the same administrative model, and not all of them have an independent sporting director.
The expanding role of the sporting director in the Roshn League
The number of such appointments at leading clubs, however, points to growing reliance on the role in a competition whose 2026-2027 season comprises 34 rounds and 306 matches. The sporting director typically links the board with the coach and the scouting and academy departments, and helps identify team needs, manage contracts, build a scouting network and plan the squad’s long-term development.
The role also preserves technical continuity when coaches change by maintaining player-selection criteria, target markets and approaches to developing youth teams. This administrative shift coincides with changes in the ownership of Saudi clubs.
Saudi club ownership supports rapid institutional transformation
In 2023, the Public Investment Fund acquired 75% of Al Hilal, Al Nassr, Al Ahli and Al Ittihad, as part of a project to reshape the sports industry and increase the clubs’ commercial and investment value.
The expanded role of sporting directors follows a period in which clubs focused on signing prominent names, including Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema, Neymar, Sadio Mane and Riyad Mahrez. The new approach places the management of these investments within a system encompassing coach selection, data analysis and the development of academies and talent.
The Saudi Pro League announced that all 18 clubs competing in the 2026-2027 season had obtained domestic and Asian licenses after meeting sporting, administrative, financial and legal criteria, as well as infrastructure requirements. This adds institutional obligations to the clubs’ work as they develop their sporting structures.
