Football in Saudi Arabia

Football is the most popular sport in Saudi Arabia.[1] Football in Saudi Arabia is governed by Saudi Arabia Football Federation (Arabic: الاتحاد السعودي لكرة القدم‎). It was founded in the year of 1956.[2] It performs the function of administering both the club competitions and the national football team of Saudi Arabia.

Football in Saudi Arabia
King Fahd International Stadium
CountrySaudi Arabia
Governing bodySaudi Arabia Football Federation
National team(s)men's national team
National competitions
Club competitions
International competitions

The founder of Saudi Arabia Football Federation is Prince Abdullah bin Faisal al Saud.

History

National Football team
Uruguay - Saudi Arabia match at the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia

The Saudi Arabia national football team (Arabic: منتخب السعودية لكرة القدم‎), known to its fans as Al-Saqour which means The Falcons. Saudi Arabia is one of the most successful football teams in Asia. Saudi Arabia has won the Asian Championship three times and has qualified for the FIFA World Cup five times (1994, 1998, 2002, 2006, 2018), the first of which was in 1994.

Saudi Arabia has a major rivalry with Iran.

League

The Saudi Professional League is the highest level of competition in the country. In the 1970s, football was organized on a regional basis across Saudi Arabia.[3] Since 2013, the Saudi Pro League has been sponsored by the Abdul Latif Jameel company.

In 1976–77, with the improvement of transportation links as well as local football, the Saudi Professional League was launched on a national basis. 8 clubs participated in the first season of the tournament.

In 1981, a decision was taken by the Saudi Arabia Football Federation to increase the number of clubs, thereby increasing the league to 18 clubs, 8 of which take part in the 1st League, with another 10 competing in the 2nd League. In the 1985–85 season the number of clubs in the 1st League was increased to 12 clubs.

In 1990, a new league championship was also introduced, known as The Custodian of The Two Holy Mosques League Cup. It was a 2-stage competition – round robin and knockout phase. The top 4 teams (knowns as the Golden Square) from the round robin moved to the knock-out phase to compete for the final championship.

In 2007–08 season, The Custodian of The Two Holy Mosques Champions Cup was introduced for the more elite teams to compete for. 8 teams play in that competition which includes top 6 teams of the 1st League plus the winner of the Crown Prince Cup and the winner of the Prince Faisal Cup.

Events Hosted

Italian Super Cup

In June 2018, General Sports Authority of Saudi Arabia announced that it has struck a “multi-year agreement” with Serie A to play Italian Super Cup finals in Saudi Arabia. With the first match between Juventus F.C and AC Milan to be played in January 2019. [4] However, the decision by Serie A to play in Saudi was criticized by Amnesty International, who called on both the clubs to shun the Italian super cup game over assassination of Saudi dissident and columnist Jamal Khashoggi.[5] In November 2019, ahead of the second edition of the Super Cup match to be contested in December 2019 between Lazio and Juventus F.C, beIN media said that it was considering cancelling all of its agreements in Italian soccer, which are valued at $500 million, following its spat with Saudi Arabia over illicit regulation of its copyright protected content via beoutQ. However, Serie A chief Luigi De Siervo said that he “could not fail to honour” the commitment signed in June 2018.[6] In December 2019, days before the match, fiancée of the murdered journalist Hatice Cengiz said that it was "distressing that a country presumed to be involved in a murder that has still not been solved is offered the gift of Italians playing football on its soil".[7]

Spanish Super Cup

In November 2019, Spain’s public broadcaster RTVE informed that it was not bidding for the rights to Spanish Super Cup in Saudi Arabia. The broadcasting service said that its decision was made in lieu of the consistent human rights abuses in the nation, which especially targeted women’s rights in the area of sport.[8] In January 2020, Saudi Arabia got its first opportunity to host the Spanish Super Cup. Under its new four team format, the 36th edition of the cup was to be held at the King Abdullah Sports City Stadium between 8-12 January. However, on 7 January 2020, it was revealed that only nine per cent of the available tickets were sold, where Valencia sold only 26 tickets and Atletico Madrid sold some 50 tickets.[9] On 8 January 2020, it was reported that the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) sold the tournament on an agreement with Saudi Arabia for three years, where the country paid 120 million euros to earn the hosting rights for the 2019-2020 Spanish Super Cup. RFEF claimed that it would put back the amount into the women's game and lower leagues.[10]

National Team
Main article: Saudi Arabia national football team

National Ranking

As of 28 November 2019, Saudi Arabia was placed 67 on the FIFA World Ranking.

Achievements

League of Saudi Arabia

There are three professional football league levels of Saudi Arabia:

List of Champions of the previous seasons
No. Season Champion
11976–77Al-Hilal
21977–78Al-Ahli
31978–79Al-Hilal
41979–80Al-Nassr
51980–81Al-Nassr
61981–82Al-Ittihad
71982–83Al-Ettifaq
81983–84Al-Ahli
91984–85Al-Hilal
101985–86Al-Hilal
111986–87Al-Ettifaq
121987–88Al-Hilal
131988–89Al-Nassr
141989–90Al-Hilal
151990–91Al-Shabab
161991–92Al-Shabab
171992–93Al-Shabab
181993–94Al-Nassr
191994–95Al-Nassr
201995–96Al-Hilal
211996–97Al-Ittihad
221997–98Al-Hilal
231998–99Al-Ittihad
241999–2000Al-Ittihad
252000–01Al-Ittihad
262001–02Al-Hilal
272002–03Al-Ittihad
282003–04Al-Shabab
292004–05Al-Hilal
302005–06Al-Shabab
312006–07Al-Ittihad
322007–08Al-Hilal
332008–09Al-Ittihad
342009–10Al-Hilal
352010–11Al-Hilal
362011–12Al-Shabab
372012–13Al-Fateh
382013–14Al-Nassr
392014–15Al-Nassr
402015–16Al-Ahli
412016–17Al-Hilal
422017–18Al-Hilal
432018–19Al-Nassr


Performance by Club

No. Club Winners Winning Years
1Al-Hilal
15
1977, 1979, 1985, 1986, 1988, 1990, 1996, 1998, 2002, 2005, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2017, 2018
2Al-Ittihad
8
1982, 1997, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2007, 2009
3Al-Nassr
8
1980, 1981, 1989, 1994, 1995, 2014, 2015 , 2019
4Al-Shabab
6
1991, 1992, 1993, 2004, 2006, 2012
5Al-Ahli
3
1978, 1984, 2016
6Al-Ettifaq
2
1983, 1987
7Al-Fateh
1
2013

Achievements

Saudi Stadiums

  • King Fahd International Stadium – Final round of each competition was held in that stadium. It is the home of Al-Hilal
  • Prince Abdullah al-Faisal Stadium, Jeddah – It was also known as Youth Welfare stadium in Jeddah.

Best Player of Asia Award

  • In 1984 , 1985 ,1986 – Majed Abdullah – Al Nassr club
  • In 1994 – Saeed Al-Owairan – Al Shabab Club
  • In 2000 – Nawaf Al-Temyat – Al Hilal Club
  • In 2005 – Hamad Al Montashiri – Al Ittihad Club
  • In 2007 – Yasser Al Qahatani – Al Hilal Club
  • In 2015 − Nasser Al Shamrani – Al Hilal Club

League system

The Saudi Arabia association football league system is organized in a pyramidal shape similar to football league systems in many other countries around the world. The leagues are bound by the principle of promotion and relegation

Women's football

Main article: Women's football in Saudi Arabia

Women's football is played in Saudi Arabia, but only in the affluent areas, as the country's very restrictive laws (especially those concerning women) inhibit the practice of the sport.[11][12] In February 2020, Saudi Arabia decided to launch a football league for women.[13]

Saudi Arabia Football Privatization

The government of Saudi Arabia in November 2016 approved plans to turn state-owned sports clubs into private companies.[14]. This is part of the economic reforms to reduce Saudi reliance on oil exports and ease financial burdens on the government [15].

The Saudi National Football Team has won the Asian Championship three times and has qualified for the FIFA World Cup four times. The Saudi Football League has been ranked 27th in 2015 by the International Federation of Football [16].

Football sport is one of the most popular with over 4 billion followers in the world [17]

People Excellence

References

  1. "James Dorsey: Soccer Emerges as Focal Point of Dissent in Saudi Arabia". Huffingtonpost.com. 2013-05-20. Retrieved 2014-01-18.
  2. "FIFA.com - Saudi Arabia on FIFA.com". fifa.com. Retrieved 24 July 2011.
  3. Jones, Rory (2013-05-01). "Saudi Arabia Seeks to Upgrade Domestic Professional Soccer - WSJ.com". Online.wsj.com. Retrieved 2014-01-18.
  4. "THE ITALIAN SUPER CUP WILL BE PLAYED IN SAUDI ARABIA". legaseriea. Retrieved 6 June 2018.
  5. "Amnesty calls on AC Milan and Juventus to shelve Saudi match". The Local. Retrieved 27 October 2018.
  6. "beIN to Review Serie A Partnership Over Supercoppa Match in Saudi". Mirror Herald. Retrieved 4 December 2019.
  7. "Italian Super Cup in Saudi Arabia: "sorry" for the widow of Khashoggi". Teller Report. Retrieved 17 December 2019.
  8. "RTVE confirms it won't bid for Saudi-hosted Spanish Super Cup". Digital TV Europe. Retrieved 18 November 2019.
  9. "Spanish fans push back against Super Cup in Saudi Arabia". The Ticketing Business. Retrieved 7 January 2020.
  10. "Controversy lingers as Saudi Arabia gets set to welcome Spanish Super Cup". The Phuket News. Retrieved 8 January 2020.
  11. Templin, Jacob (2012-08-07). "Video: The Secret Life of a Saudi Women's Soccer Team | World | TIME.com". World.time.com. Retrieved 2012-09-20.
  12. Wagner, Rob L. "Women's soccer making headway in Saudi Ara... JPost – Middle East". Jpost.com. Retrieved 2012-09-20.
  13. "Saudi Arabia launches a soccer league for women". CNN. 27 February 2020.
  14. "Privatization of sports clubs welcomed to bring quality shift in Saudi sports". 23 November 2016. Retrieved 21 September 2018.
  15. El-Erian, Mohamed A. (16 May 2016). "Saudi Arabia's attempt to reduce reliance on oil has the world rapt". the Guardian. Retrieved 21 September 2018.
  16. "THE STRONGEST LEAGUE IN THE WORLD 2015 - IFFHS". 7 January 2016. Retrieved 21 September 2018.
  17. "25 World's Most Popular Sports (Ranked by 13 factors)". Retrieved 21 September 2018.
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