"FIFA" documents more than 120 years of the history of Saudi football and congratulates the Kingdom on the achievement

The International Football Federation (FIFA) announced the achievement of a historic project to document the complete records of Saudi football, in collaboration with the Saudi Football Federation, the Ministry of Sports, the King Abdulaziz Foundation for Research and the Saudi Professional League, with the participation of local and international experts.

FIFA explained that the project, which took more than three years of research work, included reviewing about 500,000 press articles, 800 documents and interviews, and 90 books and references, resulting in the identification of 1,141 international matches for the Saudi national team, and monitoring 3,900 club competitions, in addition to documenting the participation of Saudi referees in more than 3,300 international matches.

The efforts resulted in the issuance of an official report titled "The History of Saudi Football Project," along with the establishment of a specialized research center to be the primary reference for preserving and managing the historical data of the game in the Kingdom.

Official congratulations from FIFA

The International Federation sent a congratulatory message to the Saudi Federation on the achievement of the project, confirming that it "established a scientific and transparent methodology for preserving the legacy of Saudi football and ensuring its transmission to future generations," noting that the documentation covers more than 120 years of the history of the game in the Kingdom.

Achievements of the Saudi national team

The report reviewed the most significant historical milestones of Saudi football, from the first participation in the World Cup in 1994 in the United States, to the historic victory over Argentina in the Qatar 2022 World Cup, in addition to the official recognition of the Kingdom as the host country for the 2034 World Cup.


FIFA also monitored the beginnings of women's football in Saudi Arabia, noting that the women's national team recorded its first participation in the Women's Asian Cup, describing it as the beginning of a "new chapter" in the journey of women's sports in the Kingdom.