2010–11 Saudi Pro League

The 2010–11 Saudi Professional League (known as the Zain Professional League for sponsorship reasons) was the 35th season of the Saudi Professional League, the top Saudi professional league for association football clubs, since its establishment in 1976. The season began on 14 August 2010, and ended on 20 May 2011.^[4] Al-Hilal were the defending champions.^[5] The league was contested by the 12 teams from the 2009–10 season as well as Al-Faisaly and Al-Taawoun, who joined as the promoted clubs from the Saudi First Division. No teams were relegated the previous season following the decision to increase the number of teams from 12 to 14.^[6]

Saudi Pro League

Season	2010–2011
Dates	14 August 2010 – 20 May 2011
Champions	Al-Hilal (13th title)
Relegated	Al-Wehda Al-Hazem
Champions League	Al-Hilal Al-Ahli Al-Ittihad Al-Ettifaq
Matches played	182
Goals scored	534 (2.93 per match)
Top goalscorer	Nasser Al-Shamrani (17 goals)
Biggest home win	Al-Wehda 8–1 Al-Hazem (24 February 2011)
Biggest away win	Najran 1–5 Al-Wehda (22 April 2011)
Highest scoring	Al-Wehda 8–1 Al-Hazem (24 February 2011)
Longest winning run	7 games[1] Al-Ittihad
Longest unbeaten run	26 games[1] Al-Hilal
Longest winless run	14 games[1] Al-Hazem
Longest losing run	14 games[1] Al-Hazem
Highest attendance	21,174[2] Al-Ettifaq 2–3 Al-Hilal (1 April 2011)
Lowest attendance	6[3] (spectator ban) Al-Hazem 1–4 Al-Ettifaq (21 April 2011)
Average attendance	4,204
← 2009–10 2011–12 →

On 29 April, defending champions Al-Hilal won their thirteenth League title with two games to spare after a 1–0 home win over Al-Raed.^[7] Al-Hilal ended the season without a single defeat – the first team ever to do so in a 26-game league season and the second team overall (the first was Al-Ettifaq in 1983, during an 18-game league season).

Al-Hazem were the first team to be relegated following a 2–0 away defeat to Al-Taawoun.^[8] Al-Wehda became the second and final team to be relegated following the decision to dock 3 points from them.^[9]

Overview

Changes

The Saudi FF announced that the number of teams in the league would be increased from 12 to 14.^[6]

Qualification and Prize money

The League champions, runners-up and third place as well as the winner of the King Cup of Champions qualified for the 2012 AFC Champions League.

The top six teams, and the Crown Prince Cup winners and runners-up qualified for King Cup of Champions.

Prize money:

• First place: 2.5 million SAR
• Second place: 1.5 million SAR
• Third place: 1 million SAR

Teams

Fourteen teams competed in the league – the twelve teams from the previous season and the two teams promoted from the First Division. No teams were relegated the previous season following the decision to increase the number of teams from 12 to 14.^[6] The promoted teams were Al-Faisaly (returning after an absence of three years) and Al-Taawoun (returning after an absence of thirteen years).

Stadiums and locations

Al-Ahli
Al-Ittihad

Al-Ettifaq

Al-Faisaly

Al-Fateh

Al-Hazem

Al-Hilal
Al-Nassr
Al-Shabab

Al-Qadisiyah

Al-Raed
Al-Taawoun

Al-Wehda

Najran

Locations of teams in the 2010–11 Saudi Professional League

Club	Location	Stadium
Al-Ahli	Jeddah	Prince Abdullah Al-Faisal Stadium
Al-Ettifaq	Dammam	Prince Mohamed bin Fahd Stadium
Al-Faisaly	Harmah	Prince Salman Bin Abdulaziz Sport City Stadium
Al-Fateh	Al-Hasa	Prince Abdullah bin Jalawi Stadium
Al-Hazem	Ar Rass	Al-Hazem Club Stadium
Al-Hilal	Riyadh	King Fahd International Stadium Prince Faisal bin Fahd Stadium
Al-Ittihad	Jeddah	Prince Abdullah Al-Faisal Stadium
Al-Nassr	Riyadh	King Fahd International Stadium Prince Faisal bin Fahd Stadium
Al-Qadsiah	Khobar	Prince Saud bin Jalawi Stadium
Al-Raed	Buraidah	King Abdullah Sport City Stadium
Al-Shabab	Riyadh	King Fahd International Stadium Prince Faisal bin Fahd Stadium
Al-Taawoun	Buraidah	King Abdullah Sport City Stadium
Al-Wehda	Mecca	King Abdul Aziz Stadium
Najran	Najran	Al Akhdoud Club Stadium

Personnel

Club	Coach	Nationality	City	Stadium	Capacity	2009–10 season	Notes
Al-Ahli	Aleksandar Ilić		Jeddah	Prince Abdullah Al-Faisal Stadium	24,000	6th
Al-Ettifaq	Youssef Zouaoui		Dammam	Prince Mohamed bin Fahd Stadium	30,000	9th
Al-Faisaly	Zlatko Dalić		Harmah	Prince Salman Bin Abdulaziz Sport City Stadium	10,000		First Division champions
Al-Fateh	Fathi Al-Jabal		Al-Hasa	Prince Abdullah bin Jalawi Stadium	20,000	8th
Al-Hazem	Goran Miscevic		Ar Rass	Al-Hazem Club Stadium	11,000	7th
Al-Hilal	Gabriel Calderon		Riyadh	King Fahd Stadium	69,000	1st	Qualified to the 2011 AFC Champions League
Al-Ittihad	Dimitri Davidović		Jeddah	Prince Abdullah Al-Faisal Stadium	24,000	2nd	Qualified to the 2011 AFC Champions League
Al-Nassr	Dragan Skočić		Riyadh	King Fahd Stadium	69,000	3rd	Qualified to the 2011 AFC Champions League
Al-Qadisiyah	Dimitar Dimitrov		Khobar	Prince Saud bin Jalawi Stadium	10,000	10th
Al-Raed	Eurico Gomes		Buraidah	King Abdullah Sport City Stadium	25,000	11th
Al-Shabab	Enzo Trossero		Riyadh	King Fahd Stadium	69,000	4th	Qualified to the 2011 AFC Champions League
Al-Taawoun	Florin Motroc		Buraidah	King Abdullah Sport City Stadium	25,000		First Division runners-up
Al-Wehda	Lotfi Benzarti		Mecca	King Abdul Aziz Stadium	28,550	5th
Najran	José Rachão		Najran	Al Akhdoud Club Stadium	10,000	12th

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position in table	Incoming manager	Date of appointment
Al-Faisaly	Hadi Ben Mokhtar	End of contract	9 May 2010	Pre-season	Zlatko Dalić	19 May 2010[10]
Al-Taawoun	Grigore Sichitiu	End of contract	9 May 2010		Gheorghe Mulțescu	2 July 2010[11]
Al-Nassr	Jorge da Silva	End of contract	18 May 2010		Walter Zenga	18 May 2010[12]
Al-Hazem	Lula Pereira	End of contract	30 May 2010		Lutfi Rhim	10 July 2010[13]
Al-Ittihad	Enzo Trossero	End of contract	30 May 2010		Manuel José	2 June 2010[14]
Al-Raed	Edison Mario Souza	End of contract	30 May 2010		Lucho Nizzo	15 July 2010[15]
Al-Shabab	Edgar Parreira	End of contract	30 May 2010		Jorge Fossati	12 July 2010[16]
Al-Wehda	Eurico Gomes	End of contract	30 May 2010		Jean-Christian Lang	24 June 2010[17]
Al-Ahli	Sergio Farias	Signed by Al Wasl	1 July 2010[18]		Trond Sollied	1 July 2010[19]
Al-Ahli	Trond Sollied	Sacked	28 August 2010[20]	8th	Khaled Badra (caretaker)	28 August 2010[20]
Al-Ahli	Khaled Badra (caretaker)	End of caretaker period	10 September 2010[21]	10th	Milovan Rajevac	10 September 2010[21]
Al-Hilal	Eric Gerets	Signed by Morocco	25 October 2010[22]	2nd	Reinhard Stumpf (caretaker)	25 October 2010[23]
Najran	Mourad Okbi	Resigned	30 October 2010[24]	10th	José Rachão	30 October 2010[24]
Al-Hazem	Lutfi Rhim	Sacked	31 October 2010[25]	14th	Fathi Al-Heric (caretaker)	31 October 2010[25]
Al-Hilal	Reinhard Stumpf (caretaker)	End of caretaker period	5 November 2010	1st	Gabriel Calderón	5 November 2010[26]
Al-Raed	Lucho Nizzo	Sacked	7 November 2010[27]	7th	Eurico Gomes	7 November 2010[27]
Al-Hazem	Fathi Al-Heric (caretaker)	End of caretaker period	13 November 2010[28]	14th	Goran Miscevic	13 November 2010[28]
Al-Taawoun	Gheorghe Mulțescu	Sacked	16 December 2010[29]	11th	Florin Motroc	22 December 2010[30]
Al-Wehda	Jean-Christian Lang		23 December 2010[31]	9th	Mokhtar Mokhtar	25 December 2010[32]
Al-Ittihad	Manuel José	Resigned	24 December 2010[33]	2nd	Toni	28 December 2010[34]
Al-Shabab	Jorge Fossati		24 December 2010[35]	5th	Enzo Trossero	27 December 2010[36]
Al-Nassr	Walter Zenga	Sacked	27 December 2010[37]	3rd	Dragan Skočić	11 January 2011[38]
Al-Ahli	Milovan Rajevac	Resigned	20 February 2011[39]	7th	Aleksandar Ilić	24 February 2011[40]
Al-Ettifaq	Marin Ion	Sacked	23 March 2011[41]	4th	Youssef Zouaoui	23 March 2011[41]
Al-Wehda	Mokhtar Mokhtar		8 May 2011[42]	11th	Lotfi Benzarti	8 May 2011[42]
Al-Ittihad	Toni		11 May 2011[43]	2nd	Dimitri Davidovic	13 May 2011[44]

Foreign players

The number of foreign players is restricted to four per team, including a slot for a player from AFC countries.

Players name in bold indicates the player is registered during the mid-season transfer window.

Club	Player 1	Player 2	Player 3	AFC Player	Former Players
Al-Ahli	Marcinho	Victor Simões	Nikola Petković	Amad Al-Hosni	Wánderson
Al-Ettifaq	Sebastián Tagliabúe	Bruno Lazaroni	Mateus	Hassan Mudhafar Al-Gheilani
Al-Faisaly	Migen Memelli	Dario Jertec	Albaye Papa Diop	Wael Ayan
Al-Fateh	Élton Arábia	Doris Fuakumputu	Ramzi Ben Younès	Ahmed Kano
Al-Hazem	Nikica Košutić	Nemanja Obrić	Francis Kasonde		Mohammad Khamees Mohamed Rebeiz
Al-Hilal	Ahmed Ali	Mirel Rădoi	Christian Wilhelmsson	Lee Young-pyo	Thiago Neves
Al-Ittihad	Abdelmalek Ziaya	Nuno Assis	Paulo Jorge	Ahmed Hadid Al-Mukhaini
Al-Nassr	Víctor Figueroa	Jonathan McKain	Ovidiu Petre	Bader Al-Mutawa	Răzvan Cociș
Al-Qadisiyah	Nasigba John-Jumbo	Juan Cominges	Mouin Chaâbani	Abdulla Baba Fatadi	Edorisi Master Ekhosuehi
Al-Raed	Charles	Jaouad Akaddar	Salaheddine Aqqal	Khalifa Ayil Al-Noufali	Hatem Aqel
Al-Shabab	Marcelo Camacho	Marcelo Tavares	Alhassane Keita	Musaed Neda	Song Chong-gug Juan Manuel Olivera
Al-Taawoun	Ertan Demiri	Šakir Redžepi	Dejan Rusič	Shadi Abu Hash'hash	Amir Azmy Bamba Drissa Mensur Kurtiši
Al-Wehda	Issam Erraki	Youssef Kaddioui		Suleiman Al-Salman	Hussain Ali Baba Felipe Campos Abdelkarim Benhania
Najran	Juliano Mineiro	Yves Diba Ilunga	Hamad Ji	Anas Bani Yaseen

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Al-Hilal (C)	26	19	7	0	52	18	+34	64	Qualification for the Champions League group stage
2	Al-Ittihad	26	13	12	1	49	23	+26	51
3	Al-Ettifaq	26	15	3	8	45	30	+15	48	Qualification for the Champions League play-off round
4	Al-Shabab	26	13	7	6	42	30	+12	46
5	Al-Nassr	26	11	10	5	44	34	+10	43
6	Al-Ahli	26	11	4	11	48	41	+7	37	Qualification for the Champions League group stage[a]
7	Al-Faisaly	26	10	5	11	39	47	−8	35
8	Al-Taawoun	26	9	8	9	37	31	+6	32[b]
9	Al-Fateh	26	8	7	11	27	35	−8	31
10	Al-Raed	26	7	9	10	31	40	−9	30
11	Najran	26	8	2	16	33	52	−19	26
12	Al-Qadsiah	26	4	11	11	31	39	−8	23
13	Al-Wehda (R)	26	6	6	14	43	44	−1	21[b]	Relegation to the First Division
14	Al-Hazem (R)	26	1	3	22	13	70	−57	6

Source: SLstat
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Play-offs (only if needed to decide champion, teams for relegation or teams for international competitions); 3) Goal difference; 4) Goals scored.
(C) Champions; (R) Relegated
Notes:

1. Al-Ahli qualified for the Champions League group stage as 2011 King Cup of Champions winners.
2. Al-Taawoun and Al-Wehda were deducted 3 points for their deliberate delay of the kick-off time in the final round.^[45]

Results

Home \ Away	AHL	ETT	FSY	FAT	HAZ	HIL	ITT	NSR	QAD	RAE	SHB	TWN	WHD	NAJ
Al-Ahli		5–1	3–0	1–2	1–0	1–1	1–3	0–0	2–1	1–2	1–2	1–1	3–2	2–1
Al-Ettifaq	4–3		1–0	2–2	2–1	2–3	2–2	3–0	1–0	2–2	1–0	1–0	3–0	1–0
Al-Faisaly	3–2	1–0		1–2	3–1	2–3	0–2	1–1	2–1	1–3	0–1	2–1	1–0	4–2
Al-Fateh	0–2	1–0	0–1		3–0	1–2	0–0	1–1	1–3	1–1	1–1	1–3	2–1	2–0
Al-Hazem	1–3	1–4	0–3	2–1		0–2	0–3	2–5	2–2	0–0	0–4	0–3	1–1	0–3
Al-Hilal	3–3	1–0	5–1	2–0	3–0		0–0	1–1	0–0	2–1	2–1	1–0	2–1	2–1
Al-Ittihad	2–0	2–1	3–3	2–0	4–0	0–0		5–2	2–2	3–0	2–2	0–1	1–1	2–0
Al-Nassr	2–1	2–1	3–2	4–2	2–1	0–1	2–2		0–0	1–0	0–0	2–2	0–1	6–1
Al-Qadsiah	1–3	0–3	2–2	0–1	1–0	0–2	1–1	1–3		1–1	1–1	4–1	1–1	2–3
Al-Raed	2–3	0–3	0–0	1–2	2–0	0–4	1–2	1–1	1–4		2–2	0–0	3–2	3–2
Al-Shabab	2–1	2–1	4–1	0–0	1–0	0–2	1–1	2–0	3–1	0–2		4–1	4–3	0–1
Al-Taawoun	2–1	0–1	4–1	0–0	2–0	2–2	0–1	2–2	1–1	1–0	4–1		1–2	2–3
Al-Wehda	1–3	0–1	3–3	3–0	8–1	1–3	1–2	1–3	0–0	2–3	1–2	0–0		2–0
Najran	2–1	2–4	0–1	2–1	4–0	0–3	2–2	0–1	2–1	0–0	1–2	0–3	1–5

Updated to match(es) played on 20 May 2011. Source: SLstat.com
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Season statistics

Scoring

Top scorers

Rank	Player	Club	Goals[46]
1	Nasser Al-Shamrani	Al-Shabab	17
2	Victor Simões	Al-Ahli	16
3	Mohammed Al-Rashid	Al-Taawoun / Al-Ittihad	14
	Muhannad Assiri	Al-Wehda
	Yousef Al-Salem	Al-Ettifaq
6	Yves Diba Ilunga	Najran	13
	Migen Memelli	Al-Faisaly
8	Sebastián Tagliabué	Al-Ettifaq	12
	Naif Hazazi	Al-Ittihad
10	Yasser Al-Qahtani	Al-Hilal	11

Hat-tricks

Player	For	Against	Result	Date	Ref
Yasser Al-Qahtani	Al-Hilal	Al-Faisaly	5–1 (H)	25 August 2010	[47]
Naif Hazazi	Al-Ittihad	Al-Hazem	4–0 (H)	29 August 2010	[48]
Nasser Al-Shamrani	Al-Shabab	Al-Faisaly	4–1 (H)	11 November 2010	[49]
Yasser Al-Qahtani	Al-Hilal	Al-Hazem	3–0 (H)	15 December 2010	[50]
Migen Memelli	Al-Faisaly	Al-Ittihad	3–3 (A)	16 December 2010	[51]
Mukhtar Fallatah4	Al-Wehda	Al-Hazem	8–1 (H)	24 February 2011	[52]
Muhannad Assiri	Al-Wehda	Al-Hazem	8–1 (H)	24 February 2011	[52]
Yousef Al-Salem	Al-Ettifaq	Najran	4–2 (A)	25 February 2011	[53]
Alhassane Keita	Al-Shabab	Al-Hazem	4–0 (A)	1 April 2011	[54]
Victor Simões	Al-Ahli	Al-Qadisiyah	3–1 (A)	2 April 2011	[55]
Nasigba John-Jumbo	Al-Qadisiyah	Al-Raed	4–1 (A)	22 April 2011	[56]

Notes

⁴ Player scored 4 goals
(H) – Home team
(A) – Away team

Clean sheets

Rank	Player	Club	Clean sheets[57]
1	Mabrouk Zaid	Al-Ittihad	9
2	Fayz Al-Sabiay	Al-Ettifaq	8
	Hassan Al-Otaibi	Al-Hilal
4	Fahad Al-Thunayan	Al-Taawoun	6
5	Abdullah Al-Enezi	Al-Nassr	5
	Waleed Abdullah	Al-Shabab
7	Awidhah Al-Aamri	Al-Faisaly	4
	Yasser Al-Mosailem	Al-Ahli
	Mohammad Sharifi	Al-Fateh
	Mohammed Al-Khojali	Al-Raed
	Mansoor Al-Najai	Al-Qadisiyah

Discipline

Player

• Most yellow cards: 10^[58]
  • Ahmed Mubarak Kano (Al-Fateh)

• Most red cards: 2^[58]
  • Fuad Al-Mutairi (Al-Hazem)
  • Moïne Chaâbani (Al-Qadisiyah)
  • Juliano Mineiro (Najran)

Club

• Most yellow cards: 71^[59]
  • Al-Ettifaq

• Most red cards: 11^[60]
  • Al-Hazem

Attendances

By team

Pos	Team	Total	High	Low	Average	Change
1	Al-Hilal	113,567	19,212	3,968	8,736	n/a†
2	Al-Ittihad	98,112	15,758	648	7,547	n/a†
3	Al-Ahli	97,770	16,350	1,158	7,521	n/a†
4	Al-Raed	89,306	14,909	2,395	6,870	n/a†
5	Al-Taawoun	87,002	15,160	2,610	6,692	n/a†
6	Al-Nassr	82,830	14,750	1,603	6,372	n/a†
7	Al-Ettifaq	57,138	21,174	628	4,395	n/a†
8	Al-Fateh	27,142	9,281	50	2,088	n/a†
9	Al-Qadisiyah	26,508	9,361	100	2,039	n/a†
10	Al-Wehda	25,628	8,060	110	1,971	n/a†
11	Al-Shabab	22,481	9,366	46	1,729	n/a†
12	Al-Faisaly	17,175	5,022	83	1,321	n/a†
13	Najran	13,569	2,335	368	1,044	n/a†
14	Al-Hazem	6,934	2,413	6	533	n/a†
	League total	765,162	21,174	6	4,204	n/a†

Updated to games played on 20 May 2011
Source: ^[61][62][63]

Awards

Arriyadiyah and Mobily Awards for Sports Excellence

The Arriyadiyah and Mobily Awards for Sports Excellence were awarded at the conclusion of the season for the fifth time since its inception in 2007. The awards were sponsored by Saudi newspaper Arriyadiyah and Saudi telecommunication company Mobily. The awards were presented on 11 September 2011.^[64]

Award	Winner	Club
Player of the Season	Mohammad Al-Shalhoub Yahya Al-Shehri Bader Al-Khamees	Al-Hilal Al-Ettifaq Al-Taawoun
Young Player of the Season	Yasser Al-Shahrani Abdullah Al-Sudairy Meshal Al-Enezi	Al-Qadisiyah Al-Hilal Al-Raed
Goldent Boot	Nasser Al-Shamrani	Al-Shabab

Al-Riyadiya Awards

The Al-Riyadiya Awards were awarded for the second time since its inception last year. The awards were presented on 15 June 2011.^[65]

• Best Goalkeeper: Hassan Al-Otaibi (Al-Hilal)
• Best defender: Osama Hawsawi (Al-Hilal)
• Best Midfielder: Mohammed Noor (Al-Ittihad)
• Best attacker: Nasser Al-Shamrani (Al-Shabab)
• Player of the Year: Hassan Al-Otaibi (Al-Hilal)

See also

• 2010–11 Saudi First Division
• 2011 King Cup of Champions
• 2010–11 Saudi Crown Prince Cup
• 2012 AFC Champions League