Ronaldo directs the world's compass for historic change in Saudi football

Portuguese international Cristiano Ronaldo has put a microscope on the historic change of the Saudi football experience.

Ronaldo, captain of the Saudi Al-Nasr team, confirmed in the press conference before his country's meeting today, Thursday, against Liechtenstein in the qualifiers for the European Championship (Euro 2024), scheduled in Germany, that the next six years will make the Saudi league the fourth or fifth strongest league in the world, stressing that it is a highly competitive league.

The journey of changing Saudi football actually began in 2021, with the announcement of the country's transformation strategy, which included seven key pillars for the future of Saudi football, in the sectors of competition, talent development, women's football, workforce, governance, global impact and technology transformation.

Saudi football overlooked the scene of institutional change in 1976, when the Football Association at the time, led by the late Prince Faisal bin Fahd, contracted with the famous Englishman Jimmy Hill to revolutionize the division of football competitions, discover stars and create generations.

Saudi Arabia reaped the rewards of its planning after leading the Asian continent for the first time in 1984, when it was crowned the Asian Cup of Nations title in Singapore, a year that saw the country's first world Olympic appearance when the national team promoted to the Los Angeles Olympics.

The Saudi presence continued continentally, when the Kingdom maintained the leadership of the yellow continent, by winning the Asian Cup title in 1988 in the Qatari capital, Doha, and the Saudi national team was crowned the same title in 1996 in the United Arab Emirates.

The Saudi presence worked globally, when the junior team won the World Cup title in 1989 in Scotland, and Saudi football history wrote the first page of global glory for the first team when it qualified for the first time for the 1994 World Cup in the United States of America.

The Saudi national team achieved great results in its World Cup debut, as it overcame its group that includes the Netherlands, Belgium and Morocco, to qualify for the round of 16 before ending its distinguished journey with a 1-3 loss to its Swedish counterpart.
The global appearance of the Saudi national team was repeated 5 times in 1998, 2002, 2006, 2018 and 2022, and in the last edition in Qatar it achieved a historic 2/1 victory over Argentina.

The Saudi Football Federation, headed by Yasser Al Misehal, a member of the Council of the International and Continental Federation of the game and a man who won the confidence of the General Assembly of FIFA and the Asian Confederation twice in a row by appointing him as a member of the Disciplinary and Ethics Committee before being elected an executive member of the two councils, created a different path from previous federations.

Al Misehal relied on the application of the latest findings of football development in the world, benefiting from international cadres and studies that suit the reality of the Saudi football atmosphere, as football is the first game in the country, and in harmony with the great support and general plans of the Saudi vision led by the Saudi Crown Prince, Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman in all aspects of Saudi life. In parallel with the path of the sports vision led by the Minister of Sports Prince Abdulaziz bin Turki Al-Faisal.

The Saudi football vision is focused on building a stable atmosphere and creating expansive spaces for competitions with a long-term view towards establishing institutional professional rules for the game in conjunction with raising the value of competitions and clubs, which jumped the Saudi league to be the most watched in the Asian continent due to the size of the competition and stars such as Portuguese Cristiano Ronaldo, Brazilian Talisca, Argentine Ever Banega, Nigerian Odion Ighalo, Cameroonian Vincent Abu Bakr, Brazilian Romarinho, Cameroonian Leander Taumba and Moroccan Abdul Razzaq Hamdallah.

The Saudi Professional League comes in eighth place at the level of the world leagues in terms of representing its players in the 2022 World Cup, and the announcement of the extension of the contract with French coach Hervé Renard to lead the Saudi national team until 2027, comes within a series of measures aimed at enhancing technical stability after the national team topped its group in the Asian qualifiers, which included Japan, China, Australia, Oman and Vietnam. On the way to the 2022 World Cup.

FIFA President Gianni Infantinho said during his visit to the Saudi House ahead of the recent AFC General Assembly meeting in Bahrain, that Saudi Arabia is amazingly advanced athletically.
The Saudi Minister of Sports, Prince Abdulaziz bin Turki, confirmed at the launch of the transformation strategy that they are facing a new stage, saying, "We look forward to a bright and promising future with many achievements for Saudi football, because it is the first popular game in the world."

"Therefore, we stand in front of a new phase that enhances the potential of teams and teams to achieve greater successes in the future," bin Turki added.

In turn, Yasser Al Misehal explained on the same occasion that the main goal of the Saudi Arabian Football Federation is to create a national team that will be one of the top 20 teams in the world by 2034.

"The young champions who are now studying in the sixth grade of primary school are the ones who will represent the Saudi national team in the 2034 World Cup according to a pre-prepared plan for that, in addition to increasing the number of competitions at the regional level to 50 competitions during 2025, with the opening of regional offices of the Football Association in at least 13 regions," Al Misehal added.

Saudi football won the confidence of FIFA with the official announcement of Riyadh's hosting of the Club World Cup in 2023, and it was unanimously voted to host the 2027 Asian Cup and the 2026 AFC Women's Asian Cup, which represents an embodiment of the power of expansion and continental and global influence.

During the past few years, Saudi football has reaped important continental achievements, as it qualified for the 2022 World Cup, the U-23 team won the 2020 Asian Cup hosted by Thailand, and qualified for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics after an absence of 24 years, and the youth team won the Arab Championship title for two consecutive editions 2020 and 2022, and the Olympic team won the West Asian Championship 2022.

Last April, it was approved to increase the number of Saudi Professional League clubs (Roshn League) to 18 teams starting from the 2023-2024 season, in addition to increasing the number of third division clubs to 40 clubs divided into 4 groups starting from the aforementioned season.

The same month witnessed the approval of increasing the number of non-Saudi players in the Roshn Professional League to 8 professionals for the next sports season, while the Saudi Arabian Football Federation launched last year the reserve league, which was held this season with the participation of 7 Roshn Professional League clubs, namely Al-Shabab, Al-Ittifaq, Abha, Al-Fateh, Al-Faiha, Al-Tai and Al-Wahda.

The approval of the Saudi Reserve League aims to increase the actual playing minutes of the players, help increase the playing minutes of substitute players in highly competitive matches and the participation of young players in stronger matches and also in the gradual return of injured players.