It is our duty to congratulate our brothers in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, as did the international and continental football federations, after completing their historic documentation project. After 14 months of continuous work involving 10 major workshops with clubs, 40 internal team meetings, and more than 50 individual meetings, the Saudi Football History Documentation Project team revealed the final report documenting the period from 1902 to 2025, covering 123 years. This includes the royal eras from King Abdulaziz bin Abdul Rahman Al Saud (may he rest in peace) to the present day. Strong opinions emerged after the announcement of the documentation results; some clubs were upset and criticized the project, while Al Hilal fans remained the happiest.

The project focused on 8 main axes: (Leadership support, stages of Saudi football development, organizing bodies, national teams, clubs and competitions, international influence, social and economic impact, women’s football). Four mechanisms for the project’s work were identified: (data collection from sources, review and verification, data analysis and linking, benchmarking comparisons). The project also set four fundamental principles for dealing with club competitions and identified four organizing bodies throughout Saudi football history: the “Pioneers Period,” which includes entities or individuals who organized competitions before Saudi Arabia joined FIFA.

The documentation revealed that Al-Wehda Club in Mecca was the first to win the league title in 1957, while Al Hilal achieved 21 titles, leading Saudi clubs and continuing to shine as usual. Al-Ittihad came second with 14 titles, followed by Al-Nassr with 10 titles, and Al-Ahli from Jeddah, my favorite club, with 9 titles. This project is the first of its kind in the Arab and continental levels and deserves recognition for the scientific and practical steps taken by our brothers. We hope to see a similar project come to light in our country. God is the ultimate guide.