Alert: Saudi Professional League -2016-17

Al Ettifaq won against Al Hilal 2-1 in Riyadh. The 2nd goal of Ettifaq was a superb individual effort by Al Ettifaq's player who scored a wonderful goal by beating 2 to 3 hilal players (including goal keeper). I wonder how this team lost by 4 goals against Al Ahli.

Nasser Al Shamrani had few chances in the game and his touch were also good. But bad luck that he was on the losing side.

 

Ettifaq deserved to win IMO. They played better in the first half and were overall disciplined and neutralized Hilal's threats throughout the game. Hilal's new player Tiago looks promising, Eduardo had a bad game but it's understandable considering the long break and that he missed the league games prior to that.

Ahli will probably win vs. Shabab, it's an important lead but the league race is long, we will see how Hilal recover after that.

 

Shocking.... Shabab beat Ahli 3-2... Sami Al Jaber must be very pleased.

 

I recon that Ittifaq will become this season's champion. They are also one of the big clubs and don't know why this club got relegated in the first place... Yahya Shehri, Yasser Al Shehrani and many other good players were playing in this club before it got relegated. It's a good comeback though... Sitting 2nd top on the table is not bad at all.

 

Nah, but it appears the differences between the board and the manager (as the club's president himself said) were too big to let go, and sacking him was a decision taken before the match vs. Quadisiyah was played.

I'm never a fan of sacking managers this early, especially in this league, but Hilal's current squad is really good (IMO the league's best or at least as good as Ahli's), and many of last season's weaknesses were addressed with decent signings which fit the needs on paper (probably except the GK), however this improvement wasn't translated into on-pitch results and performances, and controversial decisions like keeping the foreign players on the bench or playing them out of their positions like Tiago and Eduardo certainly didn't help his case.

I would've liked to see Gustavo's work until the end of this season, but if he indeed wants to get out of contract by intentionally sabotaging his work (I'm also not a fan of these theories, but the club is suggesting that) then maybe this is the best decision for Hilal, but nobody can know that for sure until we know who's replacing him. There are some reports that Carreno is on the list.

 

Nah.. second comings are rarely as successful as the first stint. But we'll see.

Glad to see the 2 Ittis at the top, although sadly it won't last.

 

Ittihad are leading, but I still think they won't be title contender by the end of the season. Their next match vs. Shabab is very interesting one. BTW Fahad Almowallad is in amazing mood of confidence. I like that.

Hilal played a very good game, something we haven't seen for a while. Salman Alfaraj showed his level from 2 season ago, and at his best he can be critical for both his club and NT so I hope he maintains his form.

Nassr vs. Ahli in the upcoming round. I think it'll be a boring match in which Ahli will win.

 

Too many people are already betting on that.

By the way what are these talks about Somah playing for NT? Is there a real interest by both parties the player and the authorities or is it just rumors?

 

I read some bits of news about him and it appears he did play for Syria in 2012's West Asian Federation Championship in which they won the cup, and celebrated by raising the revolution's flag. The FA decided to not call him again (unless he apologizes?). I'm not 100% sure about the accuracy of this but I recall watching an interview with Omar a while ago and it seems he supported this scenario of events.

 

What's the FIFA ruling for naturalizing a player to play for new national team ?... How KSA is going to go about that ?
If he can be naturalized then it will be great since he is a dangerous forward. It will be 2nd player to be naturalized in Saudi Arabia after legendary Majed Abdullah (who is known to be a Sudanese formerly).

 

If a player played for some country's youth team (-21, -19 etc...) or only friendlies for the senior team and didn't play in any official FIFA match whether it's a tournament or qualifiers, then he can play for another country.

I thought this was the case for Omar Alsomah, but since he played for Syria in Asian competition, in my understanding he can only play for a new country if his case was presented to FIFA that due to the current situation in his country Syria, he can't play for them in the foreseeable future. But as I have heard the FIFA doesn't give a ruling in such cases until 18-24 months form looking into it, by that time Omar will be 30 years old and past the 2018 WC, so I don't think the FA will really push for it.

 

FIFA rules require that the player or one of his parents or grandfather or grandmother born in the area relevant to the Federation of the country who wishes to represent, or be the player has lived in the country at least two years continuously and not represent the senior national team of his country of origin.

The Alsomh has played in the ranks of Al-Ahli for two consecutive seasons, and that he participated with the Syrian national youth. He did not played for Syrian National Team in any Official FIFA tournament.
The WAFF Championship or West Asian Football Federation Championship is not a FIFA official tournament.

In my opinion, he's good to go with Saudi National Team however, It is advised that Saudi FA should take an International (FIFA) Legal's team opinion on his status.

 

If you are sure he didn't play for Syria in any official match then you are right I don't see why he can't play for the Saudi NT other than for reasons for Saudi authorities to not hand him the nationality in first place, and that could still be a problem because the issue of nationalizing the Saudi-born players isn't formalized it (only in first division, not in premier league yet) let alone nationalizing the foreigners. We will see what happens.

 

But don't you have to play 5 years in the country you wish to become a citizen of not two years any more?

 

ٌRight. According to FIFA's rule: 2 years if a player's nationality entitles him to play for more than one country, and 5 years if he wants to acquire a new nationality (like Omar's case). Check page 63 & 64:

http://www.fifa.com/mm/Document/AFFederation/Generic/02/58/14/48/2015FIFAStatutesEN_Neutral.pdf