World Cup 2018: Saudi Arabian referee due to officiate in Russia banned for life for match-fixing attempt

Fahad Al Mirdasi admitted to trying to fix Saturday's King's Cup final

Fahad Al Mirdasi has been given a lifetime ban from refereeing after admitting to attempted match-fixing (Getty)

Saudi Arabia has banned referee Fahad Al Mirdasi from football for life for a match-fixing attempt, weeks before he was due to fly to Russia to officiate at the 2018 World Cup, the country's football federation [SAFF] said in a statement late on Tuesday.

Al Mirdasi had confessed to offering to fix Saturday's King's Cup final on behalf of the Al Ittihad club, the SAFF said. It added that it had requested Fifa hand him a lifetime global ban as well as removing him from the World Cup list.

The 32-year-old referee made the approach to Al Ittihad chief Hamad Al-Senaie, who immediately handed over the WhatsApp messages to SAFF officials who in turn alerted the relevant government authorities, SAFF said.

Al Mirdasi was taken into police custody where he confessed to soliciting the corrupt payment, the statement from the SAFF Ethics Committee added.

Al Ittihad played Al Faisaly in the King's Cup final at Jeddah's King Abdullah Sports City on Saturday, winning in extra-time in a game refereed by former Premier League official Mark Clattenburg.

Clattenburg, who was appointed Head of Refereeing at the SAFF last year, stepped in to replace Al Mirdasi on the eve of the game.

Al Mirdasi has been on the Fifa referees' list since 2011 and officiated at last year's Confederations Cup in Russia.

Reuters