Saudi Pro League

Saudi Professional League

File:Saudi Professional League Logo.png
Founded	1976 (1976)
Country	Saudi Arabia
Confederation	AFC
Number of teams	14 (from 2010–11)
Level on pyramid	1
Relegation to	First Division
Domestic cup(s)	King Cup Saudi Super Cup Crown Prince Cup
International cup(s)	AFC Champions League UAFA Club Cup GCC Champions League
Current champions	Al-Ahli (3rd title) (2015–16)
Most championships	Al-Hilal (13 titles)
TV partners	MBC Pro Sports
Website	http://www.spl.com.sa
Current: 2016–17 season

The Saudi Professional League (Template:Lang-ar), officially known as Jameel League named after Abdul Latif Jameel Group for sponsorship reasons, is the top division of Association football league in Saudi Arabia.

The first season of the competition was held in 1976–77, in which it was won by Al-Hilal. Also Al-Hilal are the most successful team with 13 titles, while Al-Ahli are the current title-holder (2015–16), which is the third title in total.

History

Up until the late seventies, football in Saudi Arabia was organized on a regional basis, with the only nationwide tournament being the King's Cup. In 1976 it was deemed that local football, and transportation links, have improved sufficiently to organize a national league. Hence the Saudi League was launched with 16 clubs participating, and only 8 of them surviving in the next season. This decision was made in order to decide who relegates to the first division, and who rightfully stays on the premier league.

In 1981 it was decided to increase the number of clubs and add a second division. The league competition for the 1981–82, known as the ranking league, featured 18 clubs with the top eight qualifying for the first division and the bottom ten to the new second division. The number of first division clubs was later increased to 12 in the 1984–85 season.

In 1990 it was decided to revamp local competitions and to introduce professional football. A new league championship was formed called "The Custodian of The Two Holy Mosques League Cup", which was a two-stage championship. The first stage was a regular double round-robin league competition with the top 4 qualifying to the final knockout stage, called the golden square. Clubs were allowed to sign players on a professional basis making the league semi professional.

In 2007 It was decided to split the two stages, with the league reverting to a standard double round-robin competition, and a new domestic competition cup competition formed called "The Custodian of The Two Holy Mosques Champions Cup". This cup will feature the top six finishers in the league plus the winners of the Crown Prince Cup and the Prince Faisal Cup. This format will take effect from the 2007–08 season onwards.

Qualification and prize money

As of 2008 four teams from Saudi Arabia qualify for the AFC Asian Champions League annually. This includes the top three teams of the AJL together with the winner of the King cup. If the winner of the King Cup is also among the Four top AJL teams then the fourth best AJL team will qualifies to the extensions and if the winner of the King Cup is under The Four top ALJ teams then the fourth team will not qualifies and the third team will qualifies to the extension.

Prize money:

• First place: 3,800,000 Saudi Riyals
• Second place: 2,000,000 Saudi Riyals
• Third place: 1,000,000 Saudi Riyals

(Note, all clubs in the Saudi Professional League receive prize money depending on their rank.)

List of teams (2016–17 season)

Al-Ahli
Al-Ittihad

Al-Batin

Al-Ettifaq

Al-Faisaly

Al-Fateh

Al-Hilal
Al-Nassr
Al-Shabab

Al-Khaleej

Al-Qadisiyah

Al-Raed
Al-Taawoun

Al-Wehda

class=notpageimage|

Locations of teams in the 2016–17 Saudi Professional League

Team	Home city	Stadium	Capacity
Al-Ahli	Jeddah	King Abdullah Sports City	62,000
Al-Batin	Hafar al-Batin	Al-Batin Club Stadium	6,000
Al-Ettifaq	Dammam	Prince Mohamed bin Fahd Stadium	21,701
Al-Faisaly	Harmah	King Salman Sport City Stadium (Al Majma'ah)	5,200
Al-Fateh	Al-Hasa	Prince Abdullah bin Jalawi Stadium	19,096
Al-Hilal	Riyadh	King Fahd International Stadium	62,685
Al-Ittihad	Jeddah	King Abdullah Sports City	62,000
Al-Khaleej	Saihat	Prince Saud bin Jalawi Stadium (Khobar)	11,000
Al-Nassr	Riyadh	King Fahd International Stadium	62,685
Al-Qadsiah	Khobar	Prince Saud bin Jalawi Stadium	11,000
Al-Raed	Buraidah	King Abdullah Sport City Stadium	23,600
Al-Shabab	Riyadh	King Fahd International Stadium	62,685
Al-Taawoun	Buraidah	King Abdullah Sport City Stadium	23,600
Al-Wehda	Makkah	King Abdul Aziz Stadium	33,195

Notes

List of champions

No. Season Champion 1 1976–77 Al-Hilal 2 1977–78 Al-Ahli 3 1978–79 Al-Hilal 4 1979–80 Al-Nassr 5 1980–81 Al-Nassr 6 1981–82 Al-Ittihad 7 1982–83 Al-Ettifaq 8 1983–84 Al-Ahli 9 1984–85 Al-Hilal 10 1985–86 Al-Hilal 11 1986–87 Al-Ettifaq 12 1987–88 Al-Hilal 13 1988–89 Al-Nassr 14 1989–90 Al-Hilal 15 1990–91 Al-Shabab 16 1991–92 Al-Shabab 17 1992–93 Al-Shabab 18 1993–94 Al-Nassr 19 1994–95 Al-Nassr 20 1995–96 Al-Hilal

No. Season Champion 21 1996–97 Al-Ittihad 22 1997–98 Al-Hilal 23 1998–99 Al-Ittihad 24 1999–2000 Al-Ittihad 25 2000–01 Al-Ittihad 26 2001–02 Al-Hilal 27 2002–03 Al-Ittihad 28 2003–04 Al-Shabab 29 2004–05 Al-Hilal 30 2005–06 Al-Shabab 31 2006–07 Al-Ittihad 32 2007–08 Al-Hilal 33 2008–09 Al-Ittihad 34 2009–10 Al-Hilal 35 2010–11 Al-Hilal 36 2011–12 Al-Shabab 37 2012–13 Al-Fateh 38 2013–14 Al-Nassr 39 2014–15 Al-Nassr 40 2015–16 Al-Ahli

Performance by club

Most successful clubs

#	Club	Winners	Runners-up	Winning Years
1	Al-Hilal	13	13	1976–77, 1978–79, 1984–85, 1985–86, 1987–88, 1989–90, 1995–96, 1997–98, 2001–02, 2004–05, 2007–08, 2009–10, 2010–11
2	Al-Ittihad	8	7	1981–82, 1996–97, 1998–99, 1999–2000, 2000–01, 2002–03, 2006–07, 2008–09
3	Al-Nassr	7	5	1979–80, 1980–81, 1988–89, 1993–94, 1994–95, 2013–14, 2014–15
4	Al-Shabab	6	5	1990–91, 1991–92, 1992–93, 2003–04, 2005–06, 2011–12
5	Al-Ahli	3	7	1977–78, 1983–84, 2015–16
6	Al-Ettifaq	2	2	1982–83, 1986–87
7	Al-Fateh	1	0	2012–13

Total titles won by town or city

Town or city	Number of titles	Clubs
Riyadh	26	Al-Hilal (13), Al-Nassr (7), Al-Shabab (6)
Jeddah	11	Al-Ittihad (8), Al-Ahli (3)
Dammam	2	Al-Ettifaq (2)
Al-Hasa	1	Al-Fateh (1)

Topscorers

Season		Top Scorers	Club	Goals
1976–77		Nasser Eid	Al-Qadisiya	12
1977–78		Motamad Khojali	Al-Ahli	14
1978–79		Majed Abdullah	Al-Nassr	18
1979–80		Majed Abdullah	Al-Nassr	17
1980–81		Majed Abdullah	Al-Nassr	21
1981–82		Khalid Al-Ma'ajil	Al-Shabab	22
1982–83		Majed Abdullah	Al-Nassr	14
1983–84		Hussam Abu Dawood	Al-Ahli	14
1984–85		Hathal Dosari	Al-Hilal	15
1985–86		Majed Abdullah	Al-Nassr	15
1986–87		Mohammad Suwaidi	Al-Ittihad	17
1987–88		Khalid Al-Ma'ajil	Al-Shabab	12
1988–89		Majed Abdullah	Al-Nassr	19
1989–90		Sami Al-Jaber	Al-Hilal	16
1990–91		Fahad Al-Mehallel	Al-Shabab	20
1991–92		Saeed Al-Owairan	Al-Shabab	16
1992–93		Sami Al-Jaber	Al-Hilal	18
1993–94		Moussa Ndao	Al-Hilal	15
1994–95		Fahd Al-Hamdan	Al-Riyadh	15
1995–96		Ohene Kennedy	Al-Nassr	14
1996–97		Ahmed Bahja	Al-Ittihad	21
1997–98		Sulaiman Al-Hadaithy	Al-Najma	15
1998–99		Obeid Al-Dosari	Al-Wahda	20
1999–2000		Hamzah Idris	Al-Ittihad	33
2000–01		Paulo Da Silva	Al-Ettifaq	13
2001–02		Dane Valle	Al-Riyadh	10
2002–03		Carlos Tenorio	Al-Nassr	15
2003–04		Godwin Attram Kandia Traoré	Al-Shabab Al-Hilal	15
2004–05		Mohammed Manga	Al-Shabab	15
2005–06		Essa Al-Mehyani	Al-Wahda	16
2006–07		Godwin Attram	Al-Shabab	13
2007–08		Nasser Al-Shamrani	Al-Shabab	18
2008–09		Nasser Al-Shamrani Hicham Aboucherouane	Al-Shabab Al-Ittihad	12
2009–10		Mohammad Al-Shalhoub	Al-Hilal	12
2010–11		Nasser Al-Shamrani	Al-Shabab	17
2011–12		Nasser Al-Shamrani Victor Simões	Al-Shabab Al-Ahli	21
2012–13		Sebastián Tagliabué	Al-Shabab	19
2013–14		Nasser Al-Shamrani	Al-Hilal	21
2014–15		Omar Al Soma	Al-Ahli	22
2015–16		Omar Al Soma	Al-Ahli	27

See also

• Saudi Arabian Football Federation
• King Cup
• Saudi Super Cup

External links

• Saudi Pro League Statistics
• Saudi Professional League Commission Template:Ar icon
• Abdul Latif jameel League Template:Ar icon
• Saudi Arabia Football Federation at FIFA.com
• Saudi Arabia - List of Champions at RSSSF.com