2011–12 Saudi Pro League

Professional League
Season	2011–2012
Dates	9 September 2011 – 18 April 2012
Champions	Al-Shabab (6th title)
Relegated	Al-Qadisiyah; Al-Ansar
AFC Champions League	Al-Shabab; Al-Ahli; Al-Hilal; Al-Ettifaq
UAFA Club Cup	Al-Fateh; Al-Nassr
GCC Champions League	Al-Faisaly; Najran
Matches played	182
Goals scored	537 (2.95 per match)
Top goalscorer	Victor Simões; Nasser Al-Shamrani; (21 goals each)
Biggest home win	Al-Ittihad 7–0 Hajer; (16 December 2011)
Biggest away win	Al-Qadisiyah 0–8 Al-Ittihad; (2 November 2011)
Highest scoring	Al-Qadisiyah 4–5 Al-Hilal; (20 October 2011)
Longest winning run	9 games; Al-Hilal
Longest unbeaten run	26 games; Al-Shabab
Longest winless run	18 games; Al-Ansar
Longest losing run	17 games; Al-Ansar
Highest attendance	22,996; Al-Hilal 4–0 Al-Ahli; (29 September 2011)
Lowest attendance	28; Al-Qadisiyah 2–2 Al-Faisaly; (30 November 2011)
Average attendance	4,374
	← 2010–11 2012–13 →

The season began on 9 September 2011, and ended on 18 April 2012. Al-Hilal were the defending champions. The league was contested by the 12 teams from the 2010–11 season as well as Al-Ansar and Hajer, who joined as the promoted clubs from the 2010–11 First Division. They replace Al-Hazem and Al-Wehda who were relegated to the 2011–12 First Division.

On 14 April, Al-Shabab won their sixth League title on the final matchday after a 1–1 draw away to runners-up Al-Ahli. Al-Shabab ended the season without a single defeat becoming the second team to ever do so in a 26-game league season and the third team overall.

Al-Ansar were the first team to be relegated following a 1–0 home defeat against Al-Raed on 31 March. Al-Qadisiyah became the second and final team to be relegated following a 3–2 defeat away to Al-Nassr on 13 April.

Teams

Fourteen teams competed in the league – the twelve teams from the previous season and the two teams promoted from the First Division. The promoted teams were Al-Ansar (returning after an absence of six years) and Hajer (returning after an absence of twelve years). They replaced Al-Hazem (ending their six-year top-flight spell) and Al-Wehda (ending their eight-year top-flight spell).

Stadiums and locations

Al-Hilal
Al-Nassr
Al-Shabab

Locations of teams in the 2011–12 Saudi Professional League

Note: Table lists in alphabetical order.

Team	Location	Stadium	Capacity
Al-Ahli	Jeddah	Prince Abdullah Al-Faisal Stadium	25,000
Al-Ansar	Medina	Prince Mohammed bin Abdul Aziz Stadium	24,000
Al-Ettifaq	Dammam	Prince Mohamed bin Fahd Stadium	21,701
Al-Faisaly	Harmah	Prince Salman Sport City Stadium	5,200
Al-Fateh	Al-Hasa	Prince Abdullah bin Jalawi Stadium	19,096
Al-Hilal	Riyadh	King Fahd International Stadium Prince Faisal bin Fahd Stadium	62,685 22,500
Al-Ittihad	Jeddah	Prince Abdullah Al-Faisal Stadium	25,000
Al-Nassr	Riyadh	King Fahd International Stadium Prince Faisal bin Fahd Stadium	62,685 22,500
Al-Qadisiyah	Khobar	Prince Saud bin Jalawi Stadium	11,000
Al-Raed	Buraidah	King Abdullah Sport City Stadium	23,600
Al-Shabab	Riyadh	King Fahd International Stadium Prince Faisal bin Fahd Stadium	62,685 22,500
Al-Taawoun	Buraidah	King Abdullah Sport City Stadium	23,600
Hajer	Al-Hasa	Prince Abdullah bin Jalawi Stadium	19,096
Najran	Najran	Al Akhdoud Club Stadium	3,200

Personnel and kits

Team	Manager	Captain	Kit manufacturer	Shirt sponsor
Al-Ahli	Karel Jarolím	Mohammad Massad	Adidas	STC
Al-Ansar	Jalal Qaderi	Abdoh Besisi	Adidas
Al-Ettifaq	Branko Ivanković	Sayaf Al-Bishi	Hattrick
Al-Faisaly	Zlatko Dalić	Omar Abdulaziz	Hattrick
Al-Fateh	Fathi Al-Jabal	Jaber Hagawi	Lotto	Fuchsia¹
Al-Hilal	Ivan Hašek	Salman Al-Faraj	Adidas	Mobily
Al-Ittihad	Raúl Caneda	Mohammed Noor	Nike	STC
Al-Nassr	Francisco Maturana	Hussein Abdulghani	Nike	STC
Al-Qadisiyah	Mariano Barreto	Ali Al-Shehri	Hattrick
Al-Raed	Ammar Souayah	Mohammed Al-Khojali	Hattrick	Al-Remeikhany
Al-Shabab	Michel Preud'homme	Ahmed Otaif	Adidas	STC
Al-Taawoun	Khalid Kamal	Ahmed Al-Harbi	Jako
Hajer	Ednaldo Patricio	Khaled Al-Rejaib	Hattrick	Al-Ghadeer
Najran	Gjoko Hadžievski	Jehad Al-Hussain	Hattrick

¹ On the back of the strip.

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position in table	Incoming manager	Date of appointment
Al-Ansar	Jameel Qassem	End of contract	18 May 2011	Pre-season	Blaž Slišković	30 May 2011
Al-Nassr	Dragan Skočić	Sacked	26 May 2011		Eurico Gomes (caretaker)	26 May 2011
Al-Qadsiah	Dimitar Dimitrov	End of contract	1 June 2011		Mariano Barreto	12 June 2011
Hajer	Zuhair Al-Louati		1 June 2011		Ednaldo Patricio	27 June 2011
Najran	José Rachão		1 June 2011		Gjoko Hadžievski	1 July 2011
Al-Shabab	Enzo Trossero		12 June 2011		Michel Preud'homme	14 June 2011
Al-Hilal	Gabriel Calderon	Sacked	18 June 2011		Thomas Doll	20 July 2011
Al-Ahli	Aleksandar Ilić	End of contract	30 June 2011		Karel Jarolím	5 August 2011
Al-Ettifaq	Youssef Zouaoui	End of contract	30 June 2011		Branko Ivanković	22 July 2011
Al-Nassr	Eurico Gomes (caretaker)	End of caretaker period	30 June 2011		Gustavo Costas	18 July 2011
Al-Raed	Eurico Gomes	Sacked	17 October 2011	13th	Hafez Al-Hoarbi (caretaker)	17 October 2011
Al-Ansar	Blaž Slišković	Sacked	26 October 2011	14th	Ayoub Ghulam (caretaker)	26 October 2011
Al-Raed	Hafez Al-Hoarbi (caretaker)	End of caretaker period	28 October 2011	13th	Ammar Souayah	28 October 2011
Al-Ansar	Ayoub Ghulam (caretaker)	End of caretaker period	10 November 2011	14th	Jalal Qaderi	10 November 2011
Al-Ittihad	Dimitri Davidovic	Sacked	28 November 2011	5th	Abdullah Ghurab (caretaker)	28 November 2011
Al-Nassr	Gustavo Costas	Sacked	30 November 2011	6th	Ali Komaikh (caretaker)	30 November 2011
Al-Nassr	Ali Komaikh (caretaker)	End of caretaker period	4 December 2011	6th	Francisco Maturana	4 December 2011
Al-Ittihad	Abdullah Ghurab (caretaker)	End of caretaker period	16 December 2011	6th	Matjaž Kek	16 December 2011
Al-Taawoun	Florin Motroc	Resigned	29 December 2011	13th	Srećko Juričić	30 December 2011
Al-Taawoun	Srećko Juričić	Sacked	20 January 2012	12th	Grigore Sichitiu	20 January 2012
Al-Hilal	Thomas Doll		22 January 2012	4th	Ivan Hašek	22 January 2012
Al-Ittihad	Matjaž Kek		8 February 2012	6th	Abdullah Ghurab (caretaker)	8 February 2012
Al-Ittihad	Abdullah Ghurab (caretaker)	End of caretaker period	27 February 2012	7th	Raúl Caneda	27 February 2012
Al-Taawoun	Grigore Sichitiu	Sacked	2 April 2012	12th	Khalid Kamal (caretaker)	2 April 2012

Foreign players

The number of foreign players is restricted to four per team, including a slot for a player from AFC countries.

Players name in bold indicates the player is registered during the mid-season transfer window.

Club	Player 1	Player 2	Player 3	AFC Player	Former Players
Al-Ahli	Marcelo Camacho	Victor Simões	Jairo Palomino	Amad Al-Hosni
Al-Ansar	Sadick Adams	Diakite Lamine	Radhouane Ben Ouanès	Mohammad Istanbuli	Tatá Mohammad Muneer Nenad Injac Despot Višković
Al-Ettifaq	Sebastián Tagliabúe	Bruno Lazaroni	Carlos	Hassan Mudhafar	Lee Won-young
Al-Faisaly	Leon Benko	Dario Jertec	Amer Deeb	Wael Ayan	Asim Šehić Pero Pejić
Al-Fateh	Élton	Doris Fuakumputu	Kemekho Cissokho	Shadi Abu Hash'hash
Al-Hilal	Youssef El-Arabi	Adil Hermach	Christian Wilhelmsson	Yoo Byung-soo	Achille Emaná
Al-Ittihad	Fabrice Ondama	Hosny Abd Rabo	Faouzi Abdelghani	Abdullah Omar	Abdelmalek Ziaya Wendel Fahad Al Enezi Paulo Jorge
Al-Nassr	Hadj Bouguèche	Vinícius Reche	Wagner	Kim Byung-suk	Antar Yahia Juan Ignacio Mercier Juan Pablo Pino
Al-Qadisiyah	Saïd Bouchouk	Zoran Baldovaliev	Uche Agba	Abdulwahab Al-Safi	Hadj Bouguèche William Tiero
Al-Raed	Leandrinho	Yves Diba Ilunga	Issam Erraki	Abdul Salam Al-Mukhaini	Reinaldo
Al-Shabab	Fernando Menegazzo	Marcelo Tavares	Wendel	Server Djeparov	Ibrahim Yattara
Al-Taawoun	Migen Memelli	Vianney Mabidé	Salaheddine Aqqal	Yaseen Al-Bakhit	Šakir Redžepi Abdelrazaq Al-Hussain
Hajer	Rico	Moustapha Moctar	Hazem Jawdat	Abdelatif Bahdari	Rafael Barbosa Franklin Ayodele
Najran	Reda Benhadj	Ramzi Bourakba	Farid Cheklam	Jehad Al-Hussain	Dušan Đokić Zoran Baldovaliev

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Al-Shabab (C)	26	19	7	0	50	16	+34	64	Qualification for the AFC Champions League group stage
2	Al-Ahli	26	19	5	2	60	22	+38	62
3	Al-Hilal	26	18	6	2	58	22	+36	60
4	Al-Ettifaq	26	13	8	5	41	26	+15	47
5	Al-Ittihad	26	10	7	9	49	35	+14	37
6	Al-Fateh	26	10	7	9	37	41	−4	37	Qualification for the UAFA Club Cup
7	Al-Nassr	26	10	5	11	40	37	+3	35	Qualification for the UAFA Club Cup
8	Al-Faisaly	26	7	9	10	36	41	−5	30	Qualification for the GCC Champions League
9	Najran	26	7	9	10	34	49	−15	30	Qualification for the GCC Champions League
10	Al-Raed	26	8	4	14	28	39	−11	28
11	Hajer	26	6	7	13	23	45	−22	25
12	Al-Taawoun	26	4	7	15	28	52	−24	19
13	Al-Qadisiyah (R)	26	4	6	16	34	52	−18	18	Relegation to the First Division
14	Al-Ansar (R)	26	3	1	22	19	60	−41	10	Relegation to the First Division

Source: SLstat
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Total goal difference; 3) Total goals scored; 4) Head-to-head points; 5) Head-to-head goal difference; 6) Play-off (only for deciding champion, relegation and AFC competitions participation).
(C) Champions; (R) Relegated
Notes:

Pos	Team	Total	High	Low	Average	Change
1	Al-Ahli	143,486	17,200	4,110	11,037	+46.7%^†
2	Al-Hilal	97,112	22,996	352	7,470	−14.5%^†
3	Al-Raed	92,903	22,523	1,831	7,146	+4.0%^†
4	Al-Ittihad	91,318	16,195	2,620	7,024	−6.9%^†
5	Al-Taawoun	90,672	19,658	2,058	6,975	+4.2%^†
6	Al-Ansar	56,669	18,400	33	4,359	n/a^† †
7	Al-Nassr	53,748	17,945	588	4,134	−35.1%^†
8	Al-Ettifaq	52,653	18,016	203	4,050	−7.8%^†
9	Al-Shabab	35,248	8,123	725	2,711	+56.8%^†
10	Al-Qadisiyah	19,026	6,711	28	1,464	−28.2%^†
11	Al-Fateh	18,584	4,672	164	1,430	−31.5%^†
12	Hajer	17,921	4,225	247	1,379	n/a^† †
13	Al-Faisaly	15,657	3,223	395	1,204	−8.9%^†
14	Najran	11,161	2,330	271	859	−17.7%^†
	League total	796,158	22,996	28	4,374	+4.0%^†

Award	Winner	Club
Player of the Season	Taisir Al-Jassim Nasser Al-Shamrani Amad Al-Hosni	Al-Ahli Al-Shabab Al-Ahli
Young Player of the Season	Yasser Al-Fahmi Abdulellah Al-Nassar Ayman Fadel	Al-Ahli Al-Nassr Al-Ittihad
Goldent Boot	Victor Simões Nasser Al-Shamrani	Al-Ahli Al-Shabab

2011–12 Saudi Pro League

Teams

Stadiums and locations

Personnel and kits

Managerial changes

Foreign players

League table

Results

Season statistics

Scoring

Top scorers

Hat-tricks

Clean sheets

Discipline

Player

Club

Attendances

By team

Awards

Arriyadiyah Awards for Sports Excellence

Al-Riyadiya Awards

References

External links

Tags:

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Home \ Away	AHL	ANS	ETT	FSY	FAT	HIL	ITT	NSR	QAD	RAE	SHB	TWN	HJR	NAJ
Al-Ahli		5–1	0–0	2–0	3–3	1–0	0–1	2–0	2–1	1–0	1–1	4–2	4–3	4–0
Al-Ansar	0–1		0–2	2–1	2–1	0–2	1–3	0–2	0–3	0–1	0–2	2–1	0–2	1–2
Al-Ettifaq	0–4	1–1		1–2	1–0	2–2	1–0	2–0	3–2	1–1	0–0	5–1	0–0	3–3
Al-Faisaly	0–1	2–1	1–4		1–0	0–2	0–1	1–1	2–2	2–1	1–3	1–1	2–2	4–1
Al-Fateh	2–2	3–0	2–1	2–1		0–5	3–2	0–1	1–6	0–0	0–1	0–0	1–0	2–2
Al-Hilal	4–0	6–1	3–3	2–1	3–2		1–1	1–0	3–0	2–0	0–2	1–1	3–1	2–1
Al-Ittihad	1–3	3–2	0–1	4–2	1–2	0–2		1–1	1–0	1–1	0–2	5–3	7–0	2–2
Al-Nassr	1–3	4–1	1–3	1–1	1–2	0–3	1–3		3–2	1–0	1–2	5–0	0–0	3–2
Al-Qadisiyah	0–3	2–1	0–1	2–2	1–2	4–5	0–8	2–1		0–1	1–2	1–1	1–1	0–2
Al-Raed	1–5	3–2	1–2	1–4	1–2	1–1	2–0	1–4	1–0		1–2	2–0	1–2	0–1
Al-Shabab	1–1	3–0	1–0	1–1	1–0	0–0	2–2	2–2	1–0	3–2		1–0	6–1	4–0
Al-Taawoun	0–2	2–0	1–0	1–2	3–3	0–1	2–1	1–2	2–2	0–2	1–2		2–1	1–4
Hajer	0–2	1–0	0–1	1–1	2–4	1–2	0–0	0–3	1–0	0–2	0–1	2–1		1–0
Najran	0–4	2–1	0–3	1–1	0–0	0–2	1–1	2–1	2–2	3–1	1–4	1–1	1–1

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Victor Simões	Al-Ahli	21
1	Nasser Al-Shamrani	Al-Shabab	21
3	Amad Al Hosni	Al-Ahli	15
3	Mohammad Al-Sahlawi	Al-Nassr	15
5	Bader Al-Kharashi	Al-Faisaly	12
	Hadj Bouguèche	Al-Qadsiah / Al-Nassr
	Youssef El-Arabi	Al-Hilal
8	Yousef Al-Salem	Al-Ettifaq	11
9	Doris Fuakumputu	Al-Fateh	10
10	Taisir Al-Jassim	Al-Ahli	9
	Jehad Al-Hussain	Najran
	Wendel Geraldo	Al-Ittihad / Al-Shabab
	Hamdan Al-Hamdan	Al-Fateh
	Sebastián Tagliabué	Al-Ettifaq

Rank	Player	Club	Clean sheets
1	Yasser Al-Mosailem	Al-Ahli	13
1	Waleed Abdullah	Al-Shabab	13
3	Fayz Al-Sabiay	Al-Ettifaq	11
4	Khalid Sharahili	Al-Hilal	7
5	Hassan Al-Otaibi	Al-Hilal	6
6	Mohammed Al-Khojali	Al-Raed	5
6	Mohammad Sharifi	Al-Fateh	5
8	Ali Al-Mazidi	Al-Ittihad	4
	Abdullah Al-Enezi	Al-Nassr
	Mustafa Malayekah	Hajer