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Football
Al Hilal has agreed to Scottish Richard Hughes's demanding condition, bringing him closer to the role of sporting director at the club.
Al Hilal's management has accepted a challenging condition set by Scottish Richard Hughes, moving him closer to the position of sporting director at the club.
According to the Saudi sports newspaper Arriyadiyah, Al Hilal has allowed several of Hughes’s assistants, currently part of Liverpool’s sporting director team, to arrive in Riyadh early. They will begin working directly on summer transfer negotiations and oversee them until Hughes officially joins in September, a condition the club initially rejected at the start of negotiations.
Sources indicate that Hughes is expected to arrive in Riyadh around June 14 or 15 to meet with club officials. During this meeting, he will present detailed plans for managing the upcoming phase and will start implementing them on the ground through his assistant team before returning in September to assume full responsibilities at the club’s headquarters in Riyadh.
Arriyadiyah reported that Simon Francis, the current sporting director of Bournemouth, will be among the key figures accompanying Hughes to Riyadh. Francis will lead several important files in direct coordination with Hughes, including the technical staff and deciding the future of Italian coach Simone Inzaghi with the team.
The report confirmed that Hughes and his team were the top choice for Al Hilal’s management from the outset of the search for a new sporting director. Although several other candidates were considered during the process, the administration ultimately decided to proceed with the Scottish director and his group.
Richard Hughes has extensive administrative experience, having started as sporting director at Bournemouth in 2016. He later moved to Liverpool in 2024 to take over the same role, succeeding German Jörg Schmadtke.
