Gary Neville has urged the Premier League to put an "instant embargo" on transfers to Saudi Arabia.
Neville's plea comes after N'Golo Kante made a lucrative switch to Al-Ittihad, who have also signed Karim Benzema from Real Madrid. Al-Ittihad are one of four clubs in the Saudi Pro League that have been taken over by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF), which also owns Newcastle United.
PIF are also one of the big investors in private equity firm Clearlake Capital, who are Chelsea's majority owners, and Kante is not the only player set to leave Stamford Bridge for Saudi Arabia this summer. Kalidou Koulibaly, Edouard Mendy and Hakim Ziyech are all understood to be on the verge of moves, which will go some way to helping the Blues - who have spent over £500million in the past 12 months - steer clear of Financial Fair Play issues.
Wolves are similarly selling club captain Ruben Neves to Al Hilal in a £47million deal, which will go some way to easing FFP worries at Molineux.
"The Premier League should put an instant embargo on transfers to Saudi Arabia to ensure the integrity of the game isn't being damaged," Neville told BBC Sport. "Checks should be made on the appropriateness of the transactions.
"If it comes through that process, obviously transfers could open up again. But I do believe, at this moment in time, transfers should be halted until you look into the ownership structure at Chelsea and whether there are beneficial transfer dealings that are improper."
Neville also made a similar plea on Instagram while renewing calls for an independent regulator. He wrote: "Any chance the Premier League can look into this Saudi trading like NOW!!!! Get a regulator in ASAP that's agile enough to stop these things at source! If it doesn't look right, it's probably not right! Independence is required ASAP. The governance of our game is a mess."
UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin, however, has played down concerns about the Saudi Pro League's new spending power amid concerns its limitless budget could threaten the top European leagues.
Ceferin compared the current spending spree to the Chinese Super League's splurge, which eventually fizzled out. "I think that it's mainly a mistake for Saudi Arabian football," he told Dutch broadcaster NOS. "Why is that a problem for them? Because they should invest in academies, they should bring coaches, and they should develop their own players.
"The system of buying the players that almost ended their career is not the system that develops football. It was a similar mistake in China when they all brought players who are at the end of their career. It's not only about money. Tell me one player who is top, top age and who starts his career and went to play in Saudi Arabia?
"Players want to win top competitions. And the top competition is in Europe. At the end of their career, some players go somewhere to earn some money."
