If we were to examine a neighboring country like Egypt, we would find that major companies like Al-Moqawleen, Al-Mahala, Anby, Al-Karoom and many other names that I can’t keep track of own excellent football clubs.
We would also find that all of these companies own sports grounds. For instance, there is a team for coast guards, there is a huge stadium, which is owned by the military college and is the venue for international competitions and tournaments.
On the other hand, if we were to examine our country, we wouldn’t find anything similar. Even the biggest and richest company in the world, Saudi Aramco, does not have something like this. I do not actually know if Aramco has a sports ground or not, but I am sure it doesn’t have a football team.
What can be said about Saudi Aramco can be said about the rest of the companies such as SABIC, Savola, the Saudi Electricity Company, Saudi Arabian Airlines and the banking companies. These companies make profits worth millions of riyals, something that is indicative of the fact that they are more than capable of constructing sports stadiums just as much as they are capable of employing trainers and coaches.
It is essential that these companies develop sports activities and facilities for its employees and their families just like major companies in the advanced world, especially in light of the fact that our children can’t access proper places where they can make use of their free time. They do not adopt a hobby or sport that has a sense of competition except racing on highways and camping in the desert.
Having no sports facilities for young males and females to help them use their free time is a problem indeed. It becomes even more problematic because schools do not provide both male and female students with any physical activities. I have written many times that a country that does not believe in practicing sports, does not have sufficient awareness of the value of sport and the importance for human health. Such a country doesn’t believe in the saying, “A healthy brain lives in a healthy body.”
Because we do not have any sports facilities or stadiums, there are only 1,000 amateur football players in the Kingdom. Professional footballers who may potentially gain training in clubs like Ittihad, Ahli, Hilal or Shabab are just a few. Whereas in a small country with limited financial resources such as Ukraine, there is a greater pool of football players — 100,000 at that. So is it strange that a distinguished player like Shevchenko would end up being worth SR450 million? It is only natural for the Ukrainian team to beat Saudi Arabia by four goals.
Our way to international professional football really starts by first developing a huge stadium and hundreds of sports facilities and football fields.
