While some of Liverpool's squad will be boarding planes next month to compete in the World Cup in Qatar, it wouldn't be the first time that an adventure in the Middle East during the season has impacted the plans of a Reds manager.
As sovereign wealth has become more prevalent in European football in recent years, most recently with the high profile and somewhat controversial sale of Newcastle United to the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund, more than four decades ago the region was attempting to make strides in the game.
Wanting to grow the game in the region, the Saudi Arabian Football Federation had reached out to top European sides in order to test their own national side, as well as to bring the game at the elite club level to the Middle East.
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Coventry City, Arsenal and Benfica had all made trips out to face the Saudi national side in 1978, with Tottenham Hotspur also visiting after Liverpool had made their own trip.
Bob Paisley's Reds, who had won the European Cup and the European Super Cup the season before, as well as finishing as runners-up in both the First Division and League Cup, were one of the biggest draws in world football at the time, and with the Saudis wanting to aid the growth of not only their national team on the pitch but also the interest in the game in the region, Liverpool were seen as the dream ticket to help achieve that goal.
Long before major broadcast deals across multiple territories delivered billions of pounds worth of revenue for clubs, the Middle East was a region where live football wasn't so prevalent.
In the baking hot Jeddah sunshine at the National Stadium on Monday, October 2, 1978 - 44 years ago - a crowd of 20,000 turned out to see the national side take on a star-studded Liverpool side that included the likes of Alan Hansen, Graeme Souness and Kenny Dalglish. In the previous three games against European opposition, the Saudi national side had triumphed in each one.
The stadium was at half capacity for the game, one of the major factors being that it was being televised for the very first time to all countries across the Middle East region, something that was claimed to have adversely impacted attendance.
Some quick thinking from Dalglish handed Liverpool the lead early in the first half before the home side levelled matters late in the second half.
The year before the Reds had sent a team to the United Arab Emirates for a friendly with Al-Nasr. The game was arranged as part of the grand opening of the Al Maktoum Stadium, the home of Al-Nasr.
Quoted in the ECHO following the game in Jeddah, Paisley said: "It was walking football. The heat was terrific - hotter than it was when we played in Dubai - and the humidity very high."
Following the Monday night game the Reds were back in action in England five days later as they thumped Norwich City 4-1 at Carrow Road, showing no ill affects of their long trip away.
Just hours after landing in the UK, Paisley was in the stands at Sealand Road, Chester, to watch Norwich in action against the Third Division side in the League Cup.
Liverpool vs Saudi Arabia: Clemence, Neal, A Kennedy, Thompson, R Kennedy, Hansen, Dalglish, Case, Heighway, McDermott, Souness. Substitutes : Johnson, Jones.
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