Saudi Professional League

Country	Saudi Arabia
Confederation	AFC
Founded	1976
Number of teams	14
Levels on pyramid	1
Relegation to	Saudi First Division
Domestic cup(s)	Saudi Champions Cup Saudi Crown Prince Cup
International cup(s)	Asian Champions League
Current champions	Al-Fateh (2012–13)
Most championships	Al-Hilal (13 titles)
TV partners	Al Riyadiah, Line Sport
Website	www.spl.com.sa
2012–13 season

The Saudi Professional League, officially known as (Arabic: دوري المحترفين السعودي‎), is the main football competition in Saudi Arabia. The first competition was held in the year of 1976–77. Al-Fateh is the current title-holder (2012–13).

The league also known for sponsorship reasons as Zain Saudi League, named after the sponsor Zain telecom.

History

Up until the late seventies, football in Saudi Arabia was organised 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 organise a national league. Hence the Saudi League was launched with 8 clubs participating.

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

The top four teams in the league qualify to the AFC Asian Champions League group stage. The top six qualify to Champions Cup.

Prize money:

• First place: 2.5 million Saudi Riyals
• Second place: 1.5 million Saudi Riyals
• Third place: 1 million Saudi Riyals

List of teams (2012–13 season)

Club Position in 2011/2012 Al-Ahli, Jeddah 2nd Al-Ettifaq, Dammam 4th Al-Faisaly, Harmah 8th Al Fateh, Al-Hasa 6th Al-Hilal, Riyadh 3rd Al-Ittihad, Jeddah 5th Al-Nasr, Riyadh 7th Al-Raed, Buraydah 10th Al-Shabab, Riyadh 1st Al-Shoalah, Al-Kharj 1st in the Saudi First Division Al Taawon, Buraydah 12th Al-Wahda, Mecca 2nd in the Saudi First Division Hajer Club, Al-Hasa 11th Najran SC, Najran 9th

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-Nasr 5 1980–81 Al-Nasr 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-Nasr 14 1989–90 Al-Hilal 15 1990–91 Al-Shabab 16 1991–92 Al-Shabab 17 1992–93 Al-Shabab

No. Season Champion 18 1993–94 Al-Nasr 19 1994–95 Al-Nasr 20 1995–96 Al-Hilal 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

No. Season Champion 35 2010–11 Al-Hilal 36 2011–12 Al-Shabab 37 2012–13 Al-Fateh

Performance by club

Most successful clubs

No.	Club	Winners	Runners-up	Winning Years
1	Al-Hilal	13	11	1977, 1979, 1985, 1986, 1988, 1990, 1996, 1998, 2002, 2005, 2008, 2010, 2011
2	Al-Ittihad	8	7	1982, 1997, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2007, 2009
3	Al-Shabab	6	5	1991, 1992, 1993, 2004, 2006, 2012
4	Al-Nassr	5	5	1980, 1981, 1989, 1994, 1995
5	Al-Ahli	2	6	1978, 1984
6	Al-Ettifaq	2	2	1983, 1987
7	Al-Fateh	1	0	2013

Total titles won by town or city

Town or city	Number of titles	Clubs
Riyadh	24	Al-Hilal (13), Al-Shabab (6), Al-Nasr (5)
Jeddah	10	Al-Ittihad (8), Al-Ahli (2)
Dammam	2	Al-Ettifaq (2)
Al-Hasa	1	Al-Fateh (1)

All-time Professional League table

The All-time Zain League table is an overall record of all the match results, points, and goals of every team that has played in Professional League since its rebranding at the start of the 2008–09 season. This is due to the fact that there are no comprehensive statistics that exist for the league between 1977 up until the 2007-08 season. The table is accurate as of the end of the 2011–12 season.

Pos	Team1	Seasons	Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	F	A	GD	1	2	3	Points	Best2
1	Al-Hilal	4	96	70	20	6	207	67	+140	2	1	1	230	1
2	Al-Ittihad Jeddah	4	96	54	26	16	201	109	+92	1	2	–	188	1
3	Al-Shabab	4	96	53	26	17	165	98	+67	1	–	–	185	1
4	Al-Ahli	4	96	48	23	25	169	112	+57	–	1	1	167	2
5	Al-Nassr	4	96	43	26	27	145	116	+29	–	–	1	155	3
6	Al-Ettifaq	4	96	40	26	30	133	106	+27	–	–	1	146	3
7	Al Raed	4	96	24	21	51	106	157	–51	–	–	–	93	10
8	Najran SC	4	96	25	18	53	111	189	–78	–	–	–	93	9
9	Al-Fateh	3	74	24	20	30	90	114	–24	–	–	–	92	6
10	Al-Wahda	3	70	20	18	32	110	110	0	–	–	–	77	5
11	Al-Faisaly	2	52	17	14	21	75	88	–13	–	–	–	65	8
12	Al-Qadasiya	3	74	13	22	39	105	131	–26	–	–	–	61	10
13	Al Hazm	3	70	13	16	41	67	139	–72	–	–	–	55	7
14	Al-Taawon	2	52	13	15	24	65	83	–18	–	–	–	54	7
15	Hajer Club	1	26	6	7	13	23	45	–22	–	–	–	25	11
16	Abha	1	22	4	7	11	19	40	–21	–	–	–	19	11
17	Al-Watani	1	22	2	6	14	22	48	–26	–	–	–	12	12
18	Al-Ansar	1	26	3	1	22	19	60	–41	–	–	–	10	14
19	Al-Shoalah	–	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	–	–	–	0	–

¹ Clubs In Bold its the Current 2012–13 Season Clubs.
² Also the Best Positions calculated since the 2008–09 Professional League.

	Winning the Professional League
	2nd Place
	Never won a Professional League title

Topscorers

Year		Best scorers	Team	Goals
1976–77		Nasser Eid	Al-Qadisiya	12
1977–78		Mattamd Khojali	Al-Ahli	14
1978–79		Majed Abdullah	Al-Nassr	13
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	Al-Shabab	15
2004–05		Sergio Ricardo	Al-Ittihad	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

See also

• Saudi Arabia Football Federation
• 2010–11 Saudi Professional League

External links

• Saudi Arabia Football Federation at FIFA.com Arabic - English Site
• Saudi Arabia Professional League on Super.com Arabic Site
• Saudi Professional League Commission Arabic Site
• Saudi League Statistics Arabic - English Site