The president of both the General Presidency of Youth Welfare and Saudi and Arab football federations, Prince Sultan ibn Fahd, issued the decision to suspend Al-Ittihad soccer player Osama Al-Muwallad for one year. The suspension effectively barred the player from joining his club or the national team in any local and international competition. The Al-Muwallad ban was an offshoot of his bad behavior against Al-Wedad of Morocco during the Arab Champions League match a few days ago when he kicked a TV cameraman.
Hilal on a Roll
Al-Hilal continue to enjoy a rich vein of form and score their eighth win in Saudi soccer league. After seven rounds, the standings basically remained the same with Hilal still first on 18 points and Shabab second on 13. Al-Ahli finally tasted victory against Taie 2-0 and jumped to third position on 13 points. Al-Nasr and Ittihad were absent from the sixth round because of their participation in the Arab Champions League. Nasr have three matches put off and Ittihad five. Ahli opened the seventh round with a disappointing draw against Al-Qadisiya, which resulted in the sacking of the former coach Elia. Ahli nearly lost that match had not Rogerio score the equalizer in the last eight minutes of the match. Ahli managed to recover after four consecutive draws and scored that win against Taie. Hilal scored win No. 8 against Wehda of Makkah 2-1 and finished the seventh round in first place with 18 points. Wehda dropped two places to fifth in the standings. Abha, Hazem and Al-Ansar continued to struggle in the seventh round.
Ahli Handball Team Set Pace
In Handball, Ahli stayed top on 9 points, followed by Al-Nur also on 9 points but with an inferior goal difference. Qadisiya is third on 8 points and Mudar fourth on 7 points. Ahli were surprisingly held to a draw by Al-Jeel 29-29 in a result that drew jeers because Al-Jeel are last in in the standings.
Hilal, Ahli Spikers Lead
Hilal and Ahli continued to top the volleyball standings each with 14 points. Hilal are first and Ahli second because of sets differences. Al-Safa and Al-Nasr are in third and fourth position with 10 points each. Ittifaq are last with 0 points. Hilal won against Ittihad 3-0 in the last match on Friday and Ahli against Ittifaq 3-0. Ahli will play against Ittihad today and Hilal against Al-Safa in Riyadh.
Horse Race Meeting in Riyadh
The Equestrian Club in Riyadh will organize a six-lap horse race today under the patronage of Prince Badr, vice-president of National Guard and vice-president of Equestrian Club. Capping the races at the King Abdulaziz Equetrian Center in Janadriyah is the Prince Mohammad ibn Saud Alkabeer Cup where a top prize of SR120,000 is at stake over a distance of 2,000 meters. Prizes up for grabs in remaining races are: SR36,000/1800m (Prince Saud ibn Nasser ibn Saud ibn Farhan Al Saud); SR44000/2000m (Prince Nasser ibn Saud ibn Farhan Al Saud); SR52000/2400m (Prince Fahd ibn Ibrahim ibn Mishari Al Saud); SR44000/ 2000m (for the Saudi practiced equestrian); SR52000/1400m (Prince Abdullah ibn Saud ibn Abdullah Sunaitan Al Saud). Yesterday, Jeddah Equestrian Club hosted their five-lap third race meeting. The first lap was over 1,600m for imported horses under the age of three years, second lap over 200m for local horses three years and older, lap three over 1,400m for local horses under three years, lap four over 1,400m for all Saudi horses, and the last lap over 1,400m for the Saudi horses three years.
