JEDDAH, 2 March 2007 — The 18th Gulf Championship, which took place in the UAE and ended with the UAE winning the trophy by beating Oman in the final 1-0, also ended with Saudi teams failing to sign star Gulf players for Saudi clubs.

In spite of the fact that many star players were participating in the competition, representatives of Saudi teams were unable to sign Gulf players. The issue of whether teams should hire regional Gulf players over international ones remains controversial.

Prince Faisal ibn Abdul Rahman, president of Al-Nasr club, praised the performance of Gulf players describing them as perfect, although he added that there are both good and bad Gulf players.

Speaking about hiring Gulf players, he said, “It is up to the local Saudi clubs and what their needs are,” said the prince, adding, “Ismaeel Matar for example is the UAE national team’s start player. He also plays for the UAE’s Al-Wehda club. It is impossible that Al-Wahda would hand him over to a Saudi club because Al-Wahda is involved in various international and local competitions and are in need of his services. There are some good Gulf players but they lack professional experience.”

Ahmad Al-Marzooki, president of the Ahli Club, speaking to the Saudi-based sports paper Arriyadiyah, said, “Football in the Gulf isn’t any different from Saudi football. If we want to benefit from Gulf players and improve Saudi football then it would not benefit if we just brought an international player. The level of football on the gulf level and the international level is different.”

Al-Marzooki added that Gulf players are not of professional caliber and believes they need time to develop a good professional knowledge about professional football so that the Saudi league could benefit from their services.

“These days we see Gulf countries hiring the services of professional players from outside the gulf to play in local leagues, especially in Qatar and the UAE. This will reflect positively on the local league and the players and will help professionalize football there,” he said.

“Gulf football federations are paying large amounts of money to bring international players with experience to play in their countries to develop football. Why do you think they would do anything to bring a regional player from local countries?” he added.

Al-Marzooki believes that the best solution lies in sending scouts to Gulf countries to look for players. He added that if other countries did this then that would stop the hiring of bad international players, something which the Saudi league seems to be suffering from.

Ahmad Eid, member of the Saudi football federation, said that money is very important when it comes to bringing good professional players to the Saudi league. He said, “I think that the Saudi player is the best type of player when compared to other gulf countries. We are in need of more experienced players and those we won’t find in the Saudi league. I believe it is unfair to bring players from the gulf countries in order to improve the Saudi league.”

He added that Saudi clubs couldn’t afford to bring high professional players because they are expensive.

“All the players that we have are of medium quality. A very good professional player could cost millions of riyals. The budget available in most Saudi clubs are much more less than that. We don’t have a player in the Saudi League with a monthly salary of more than one million dollars. In international football, a professional player’s salary could reach over $2 million in three months. I think it is about time that we reviewed the financial calculations in order to get more good players.”

He added that it would be great to see a player like Ismaeel Matar play in the Saudi League and that Matar has good knowledge of professional football. Eid also believes that Matar would soon join a major league such as the Italian and Spanish leagues. “Gulf players in general should get on the right track and improve their performance and get the experience needed from playing internationally,” he added.

Khaled Al-Mujel, manager of the Shabab club, said, “With all due respect to Gulf players, I don’t see any Gulf player that is better than the Saudi league players. Saudi clubs can’t sign contracts with gulf players who aren’t really going to be able to add any additional value to the Saudi league.”

He added that foreign professional players that come to the Saudi league are supposed to add value and benefit to Saudi football. “In most cases they don’t. I believe that the standard of Saudi football is higher than the standard found in gulf football. There is no gulf player that we can bring to the Saudi league that would benefit Saudi football.” Al-Mujel, however, believes that Matar was the best player in the 18th Gulf Championship.

“We followed many players at the 18th Gulf Championship. We saw the Omani striker Emad Al-Housani, who had played before for a Riyadh club. He didn’t perform well in Riyadh but played excellently in the Gulf Championship. As for Matar, I don’t think there is a Saudi club who would sign him up for the team because he will end up asking for too much money.”

Abdullah Al-Bargan, administrator at Hilal club, said that he does not prefer to sign contracts with gulf players because their perform similar to Saudi players. “I’m not exaggerating when I say that the Saudi player is better than the Gulf player. I think we should keep to Saudi players only,” he said.