Al-Shabab’s new home points the way forward for Saudi football stadiums

There has been so much change within Saudi football in the past 12 months that it can be hard to keep up with the developments that are helping shape a new era for football in the country and the wider region.

Whether it is the plethora of global mega stars arriving in the Kingdom, both on the pitch and in the dugouts, through to ambitions to bring the World Cup to Saudi Arabia in just over a decade’s time, each has been part of the seismic shift that has garnered worldwide attention.

Quietly, however, one change has begun to take shape that could change the very face of the Saudi Pro League, the first example of which we saw in the Al-Sahafa district of Riyadh late last month.

For as fast as Saudi football has grown up in the past 12 months, one area that has consistently been flagged as an area for improvement, including by Cristiano Ronaldo himself, is infrastructure development.

“The league is very good,” Ronaldo said at the end of his first season.

“But I think we have many, many opportunities to still grow. The league is competitive. We have very good teams, very good Arab players, but they need to improve a little bit more the infrastructure.”

While there are exceptions to the rule, the vast majority of stadiums used in the SPL are relics of the past, designed for a different time and a different purpose. For as good as the atmosphere generated by Saudi fans can be, when there is a giant athletics track in the way, the energy of the crowd easily gets lost in the void.

Coupled with aging training facilities around the country, it was readily apparent to all that a major infrastructure overhaul was needed to bring Saudi Arabia in line with modern standards.

But all that is now changing, and Al-Shabab were