Liverpool's Sporting Director Change: Hughes Exits for Al-Hilal

Liverpool are back in the market for a sporting director. Again.

Richard Hughes has stepped down from the role, leaving the club searching for a fourth figure to lead their recruitment and football strategy in as many years, a churn that underlines just how much upheaval has followed the departure of Michael Edwards in 2022.

Hughes heads for Al-Hilal after brief Anfield stint

Hughes’s exit has been on the cards for months. The 47-year-old is expected to take up a similar position at Saudi Pro League side Al-Hilal and informed Liverpool early this year that he intended to move on, shortly after his close ally Edwards left his post as chief executive of football for Fenway Sports Group (FSG), the club’s owner.

With Liverpool already deep into planning for a pivotal summer, the club chose continuity over disruption. Hughes stayed in place through the transfer window, overseeing work on key targets, including the headline-grabbing £123m deal for Bradley Barcola.

He also built a strong early rapport with new head coach Andoni Iraola, a relationship Liverpool were reluctant to disturb mid-window. The agreement was simple: Hughes would remain until the market closed, then walk away.

Liverpool are adamant there was no crossover. The club say Al-Hilal made no approach for Hughes to begin work this summer and that they are satisfied he operated solely on Liverpool’s behalf throughout the window.

FSG begin another reset

The hunt for Hughes’s successor has already started. FSG president Mike Gordon, who has resumed day-to-day oversight of the club following Edwards’s move away from the sporting director role, is leading the process.

Whoever comes in will become the fourth sporting director since Edwards first stepped aside in 2022, following the short tenures of Julian Ward, Jörg Schmadtke and now Hughes. For a club that once prided itself on stability and long-term planning in the recruitment department, it is a striking turnover.

Yet Liverpool insist this is not a structural crisis. The wider football operation, they stress, remains in place.

Ward, no longer sporting director but still inside the FSG framework, continues as technical director. Pedro Marques stays on as director of football development at FSG. Assistant sporting director David Woodfine, chief scout Barry Hunter and the senior leadership team at the training centre also remain in their posts.

The machinery is still there. The question now is who FSG trust to sit at the controls – and how long the next sporting director will be given to shape Liverpool’s next era.