Saudi football has been declining for the past decade, I mean from 1994 until now. Yes we did win the AC 1996 but that was only for the team spirit rather than an organized work. I will try to put all the reasons and the answers for all the 4 W’s and H inquired for any problem to be solved and all the “what if” scenarios. In the early 80’s, Saudi Arabian Football Federation (SAFF) flood the league with money as a yearly aid in addition to building many club facilities. Meaning, those teams are owned by the SAFF and are supposed to be non profit organization since the clubs got a yearly aid and have had almost nothing for the TV broadcasting and the fans tickets. The clubs where able to recruit foreigner players as professionals until that was banned sometime before 1984. The teams where almost well off with that solid yearly amount of money given to them by SAFF. SAFF never did increase the amount nor did they approve Saudi teams joining the privet sector. In the early 90’s, Saudi has just got off the gulf war and surprisingly increased the amount of yearly aid but the raise was not much considering that they approved turning the Saudi league to a professional league hungry for money. It was then that they should have let the teams join the privet sector. It is funny that all clubs administrative section are not professionals and just do that on their own spare time. Saudi lived football glory for some time but not for long. It was clear to any football fan that the Saudi National team was declining gradually. The Saudi National Team got humiliated in 1998 by France who happened to win the WC that year and not to mention all the other humiliations by Germany and Brazil . It was then (1998) when I realized definitely that we must privatize our clubs. Not only privatize it, but also work out the regulations for the clubs’ best. The country has multi billions kind of investors and one of the biggest markets in the region with high consumer price index. Investors won’t pay if there is no reward and the executive branch of our government can not run everything like it used to be in a big country like Saudi. Unless SAFF auctions the national clubs to investors, I assure you more humiliation in the next WC if we do qualify.
The problems of Saudi football...... Where do you want me to start? Obviously the biggest mistake was nationalising the clubs in the late 70s. It tore the clubs from the communities that found them and sustained them, and turned them into impersonal and far away public institutions. Almost all of the clubs outside of Jeddah (which seems to have missed the worst), are located in the middle of nowhere. Look at Riyadh. when I lived there, the closest club to me was a 45 minute drive! 3ereja! , Wadi Laban! What were they thinking? Also, with a few notable exceptions, nationalisation alienated the fans from contributing to club affairs. They no longer have a say. I feel really sorry for Nassr fans, for instance. They've looked on helplessly while their club was turned into a private fiefdom. Another big contributor is the media. TV is VERY biased towards Hilal, and to a lesser extent the other clubs of the big 4. The press isn't much better, all of them only care about the big 4 club they're aligned to. The other clubs, among whom are clubs who have great history and big fanbase, are totally sidelined. It's got to the ridiculous level that you'll see this in the report for the day's games: A whole page for the team they're aligned to, a paragraph for another big 4 club, and then the rest 1 sentence! They don't even go to the expence of telling you who scored!
It is understandable that the Zae'em gets more media attention or is their favourite subject. But we all know that this is better than this . So you are saying their is no hope for clubs like Al Nassr,and what is the differences between ittihad and a club like Al Nassr,other than quality of players and number of trophies and location. and how much does the club listen to the fans? In Al Ain the fans support both in monetary terms and morale support to the players only when the club is being run properly and are winning matches is this the same case with ittihad.
Thats it,that is what sets ittihad from the rest. But why haven't itti built a new stadium,Prince Abdullah Al Faisal Stadium looks a bit outdated for a big 4 team.
I don't want to talk about the dead, but everyone who follows Saudi football knows that Nassrawis had been trying to shake him of the presidency chair for quite a while. They had absolutely no say in how the club was run, nor could they force him to resign. Compare that to Ittihad, where people like A7mad Mas3oud and 6al3at Lami where forced to resign despite the success during their reign. More broadly, the team is funded managed and controlled by it's grassroot supporters. The main backers of Ittihad over the years are mostly from the traditional Ittihadi families, as are the board members and honourary members. A7mad Mas3oud is a former player. The fans genuinely have a say (although Mansour alBellowi is doing his best to undermine that). The fans feel like they're a part of the team, rather than bystanders who just cheer. that's why they always came in large numbers even when Ittihad was in the doldrums (not that long ago). Back in those dark days when Ittihad finished in the bottom half of the table, the attendence averaged as high if not higher than today.
Ittihad is backed by a big capital for a mission to meet a cretin target. Saudi football needs more than just one or two teams to perform well on a national level. We are banned by economic nature from exporting players to the world. That parameter leads to resting the responsibility of developing our players on our own shoulders. Meaning that those players have to strongly compete on a national level. We also need quality foreigner players desperately.
I think he means, that unlike other developing football nations, our players are under no financial pressure to play abroad They can earn good money domestically
Exactly, Good Saudi players get domestic offers averaging between 10 to 15 Million S riyals (about 3-4.5 Million dollars) and that is almost 10 times what any European team would pay for them.