{"id":615333,"date":"2026-09-05T13:34:08","date_gmt":"2026-09-05T13:34:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/615333\/"},"modified":"2026-09-05T13:34:08","modified_gmt":"2026-09-05T13:34:08","slug":"richard-hughes-steps-down-as-liverpool-sporting-director","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/615333\/","title":{"rendered":"Richard Hughes steps down as Liverpool sporting director"},"content":{"rendered":"

Liverpool<\/a> sporting director Richard Hughes has stepped down and is set to join Saudi Arabian side Al-Hilal.<\/p>\n

Hughes had only been at the club since June 2024, after moving from a similar position at Bournemouth<\/a>, and his exit had been expected with his contract set to expire in June 2027.<\/p>\n

In the summer he oversaw transfer spending of about \u00a3200m, including the signing of Bradley Barcola from Paris St-Germain.<\/p>\n

“I’ll always follow and support the club with great affection, and I wish everyone involved nothing but success for this season and beyond,” said Hughes in a statement released by Liverpool<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Hughes, 47, arrived at Anfield after the departure of long-time manager Jurgen Klopp and was instrumental in the appointment of his successor, Arne Slot, who led Liverpool<\/a> to a 20th Premier League title in his first season as manager.<\/p>\n

Hughes oversaw the \u00a3125m record signing of Alexander Isak last summer and the \u00a3116m arrival of Florian Wirtz.<\/p>\n

But Slot was unable to match his initial success and Liverpool<\/a> finished fifth last season, prompting the Dutch manager’s departure and his replacement by Andoni Iraola, whom Hughes worked with at Bournemouth<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mike Gordon, president of the Fenway Sports Group which owns Liverpool<\/a>, said: “We respect Richard’s life choices and wish him and his family well in their next venture.”<\/p>\n

Al-Hilal spent almost \u00a3180m signing Premier League players in the summer transfer window.<\/p>\n

The 21-time Saudi champions signed Brazil winger Gabriel Martinelli<\/a> from Arsenal<\/a> for \u00a360m and England striker Ollie Watkins<\/a> from Aston Villa<\/a> in a \u00a351m deal.<\/p>\n

Al-Hilal, who are managed by former Inter Milan boss Simone Inzaghi, also secured the services of Netherlands midfielder Cyrenscio Summerville<\/a> from West Ham for \u00a360m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Liverpool sporting director Richard Hughes has stepped down and is set to join Saudi Arabian side Al-Hilal. Hughes…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":615334,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-615333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=615333"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615333\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/615334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=615333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=615333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=615333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}