Team-by-team preview of the SPL 2026/27 season

RIYADH: The 2026/27 Saudi Pro League season is upon us. With the league set to kick off on Thursday and more than €222 million ($256 million) spent, we take a look at how each team stands before the new season.

What you need to know:

Defending Champions: Al-Nassr

Ange Postecoglou’s side are looking to win back-to-back titles, a feat they last achieved in 2015.

Newly promoted sides: Abha, Al-Faisaly, Al-Diriyah

The Saudi First Division continues to produce strong sides, with only three of the last 10 relegated sides from the Saudi Pro League going straight back down. This looks like a season where all three promoted sides will stay up.

Continental permutations

The top four teams qualify for the AFC Champions League Elite League Stage, fifth place for the preliminary stage, sixth for the AFC Champions League Two group stage and seventh and eighth for the AGCFF Gulf Club Champions League.

The relegation battlers

These are the sides who survived the drop last season, or have just arrived from the First Division, and cannot afford to be as fortunate again.

Abha had a stellar season in the Saudi First Division, topping the table with 77 points from 34 games. However, while this is not head coach Damir Buric’s first time taking a club to the Saudi Pro League, it will be his first time coaching there. Twenty-two players have left the club, while 15 new signings were made, among them Nabil Fekir. Abha will benefit from the altitude in Saudi Arabia’s south, but with such wholesale squad turnover, cohesion may take time to build — and it might not be a smooth ride.

Al-Fayha have seen the departure of three prominent youngsters — Sabri Dahal, Khaled Al-Rammah and Rakan Kaabi — without the kind of statement signings to