JEDDAH, 1 June 2007 – The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah approved the new system for the football season, which was recommended by the Youth Welfare president prince Sultan ibn Fahd. The mechanism of the new system includes changing the name of the league to ‘The Saudi Football League for Premier Teams’ instead of the Saudi Football League competition.
As per the directive, such competition should carry the name of the country as it is known all over the world, and that a new competition called ‘Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Champions Cup’ be established. Also, the Crown Prince Cup will be organized the same way with 16 teams, 12 of which are from the Major League and two each from the first division and second division.
Eight teams will participate in ‘The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Champions Cup’ including the champion of Crown Prince Cup and the champion of Prince Faisal ibn Fahd Cup, six teams from ‘The Saudi Football league for Premier Teams’. If one team wins both competitions mentioned, then the second-placed teams of the Crown Prince Cup and Prince Faisal ibn Fahd Cup will be chosen plus the seventh and eighth in the ‘The Saudi Football league for Premier Teams’ team standings. The winner of ‘The Custodian of the two holy mosques Champions Cup’ will receive SR4 million, second place SR2.5 million, third place SR1.5 million and fourth place SR1 million. This will make this competition the richest in the Middle East. The winner of Crown Prince Cup will receive SR3 million and second place SR1 million. The winner of the competition will participate in ‘The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Champions Cup’ and Arab Champions League competition.
The winner of ‘The Saudi Football league for Premier Teams’ will receive SR2.5 million, second place SR1.5 million and third place SR1 million. The winner will participate in AFC Champions League.
In prince Faisal ibn Fahd Cup, only players under the age of 23 will participate plus five players over 23. The first place winner will get SR1 million and the second place SR500,000. In addition the winner will participate in ‘Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Champions Cup’ and GCC competitions.
