Football in Saudi Arabia

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.

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.

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]

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]

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

• 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games Round 16
• 1984 AFC Asian Cup – Champion
• 1986 FIFA world cup qualifiers - first round
• 1988 AFC Asian Cup – Champion
• 1992 AFC Asian Cup – Runner-up
• 1992 FIFA Confederations Cup – Silver Medal
• 1994 FIFA World Cup – Round of 16
• 12th Arabian Gulf Cup in UAE – Champion
• 1996 AFC Asian Cup – Champion
• 1997 FIFA Confederations Cup – Group stage
• 1998 FIFA World Cup – Group Stage
• 1999 FIFA Confederations Cup – 4th place
• 2000 AFC Asian Cup – Runner-up
• 15th Arabian Gulf Cup in Riyadh – Champion
• 2002 FIFA World Cup – Group Stage
• 16th Arabian Gulf Cup in Kuwait – Champion
• 2004 AFC Asian Cup – Group Stage
• 2006 FIFA World Cup – Group Stage
• 2007 AFC Asian Cup – Runner-up
• 19th Arabian Gulf Cup in Oman – Runner-up
• 20th Arabian Gulf Cup in Yemen – Runner-up
• 2011 AFC Asian Cup – Group Stage
• 2015 AFC Asian Cup – Group Stage
• 2018 FIFA World Cup – Group Stage
• 2019 AFC Asian Cup – Round of 16
• 24th Arabian Gulf Cup in Qatar – Runner-up