Al Hilal SFC
Al-Hilal Saudi Football Club commonly known simply as Al-Hilal, is a Saudi Arabian professional multi-sports club based in Riyadh. Its football team competes in the Saudi Pro League. The name "Al-Hilal" is Arabic for "the crescent moon". Founded on 16 October 1957, the club is one of three teams to have participated in every season of the Saudi Pro League since its establishment in 1976.
The idea of establishing the club began when the ranks of the Youth Club witnessed in 1957 a serious division among its leaders, which prompted Mr. Abdul Rahman bin Saeed to resign from the presidency of the Youth Club in that year, and many left with him, including a number of prominent players. The opportunity was ripe for the establishment of a new club at the first-class level to serve Saudi sports, and this was already done when a new club was established on 15 October 1957 in Riyadh. The club's name lasted for only one year before it was changed to its current name on 3 December 1958 by King Saud. He changed the name after he attended a tournament that was contested between the Olympic Club, Al Shabab, Al Riyadh and Al-Kawkab clubs. As soon as the club's establishment, Al-Hilal enjoyed not only grassroots support but also royal attention. After spending their formative years building a squad, the club made their first mark by lifting the King's Cup trophy in 1961. Al-Hilal won the King's Cup again in 1964, with a penalty shootout victory over two-time Asian champions Al Ittihad. The club also won the Crown Prince Cup in 1963–64.
Sustained success (1980–1990)
In the 1980s, the club hired Saudi Arabian players such as the figurehead defender Saleh Al-Nu'eimeh who captained both Al Hilal and the Saudi National Football Team, and promoted the player maker Yousuf Al-Thunayan and the young forward Sami Al-Jaber. The club went on to win four league titles as well as four kings cup titles in ten years, two of those being season double's. Al Hilal were the runners-up in the Asian club Championship twice. They were second after the round-robin in the final round in 1986. They reached the final the following year in 1987, but Yomiuri were crowned the champion automatically as Al Hilal were unable to field a team for the final due to nine of the starting players being chosen for the Saudi team's preparation camp that clashed with the date fixed for the first leg.
Continental dominance (1991–2002)
The 1990s marked a shift in the dominant teams challenging for the title, such as the emergence of Al Shabab as a new contender and force in the league. As well as the resurgence of bitter rivals Al Nassr and Al Ittihad made the league become contested and shared between the four, Al Hilal achieved 23 titles during this period (1995–96, 1997–98, 2001–02). The club continued to churn out talent from its academy with players such as Nawaf Al-Temyat, Mohammed Al-Shalhoub, Abdallah Al-Jamaan, Ahmad Al-Dokhi as well as Zambian defender Elijah Litana. Al Hilal's continental spoil's during this period defined the clubs identity, decadence and standing in the Asian continent for years to come. The first of which came in 1991 when the club won their first Asian title, the Asian Club Championship, beating Iranian club Esteghlal in penalties in the final. In 1997 the Asian Cup Winners Cup and Asian super cup were also obtained. The club won the Asian Club Championship again in 1999–2000, when they scored an equaliser in the 89th minute and won the match against Japanese club Júbilo Iwata in the extra-time, with the final being one of the most exciting and competitive in the competition's history; A super cup was also achieved in the same year. Finally the last of the Asian titles to be secured in this era was the 2002 Cup Winners Cup.
League duopoly (2003–2011)
At the turn of the century the historic rivalry between Al Hilal and Al Ittihad had reached levels never seen before in Saudi football. Historically, since their first meeting, Al Hilal/Al Ittihad matches have always been aggressive and passion filled spectacles that drew huge crowds due to both teams being from the two major Saudi cities of Riyadh and Jeddah. Each team represented different cities, backgrounds and values. Al Hilal is based in Riyadh the capital of Saudi Arabia, in addition to having traditional Najdi values the club is most commonly supported by the upper and middle class and also enjoyed royal attention. While on the other hand, Al-Ittihad is based in the port city of Jeddah and is commonly supported by the lower and middle class as well as non-Saudi natives giving it the nickname "the people's club". Both teams dominated this era of Saudi football history. Al Hilal won the title/s in (2004–05, 2007–08, 2009–10, 2010–11). Al Ittihad's golden generation in this period of time equaled Al Hilal's two AFC Champions League titles, as well as winning the league title/s in (2000–01, 2002–03, 2006–07, 2008–09). This resulted in both teams exchanging winner and runner-up positions almost every season in the league for ten years with the exception of two seasons.
Struggle at the continental stage (2012–2018)
After their back-to-back league titles and generally consistent success in the domestic front, Al Hilal always seemed to come up short in their continental pursuit since their last triumph in the 1999–2000 campaign. Adding to an already aging local core and departing key players, Al Hilal was in a transition period to rebuild the team that was able to challenge domestically and in the Champions league. Al Hilal reached the final of AFC Champions League in 2014, 14 years after their last appearance in the final. This time they faced Western Sydney Wanderers. The Australian club won 1–0 on aggregate. During this period of time Al Hilal was not able to win the league title for five seasons beginning from the 2011–12 to the 2015–16 season, finishing runner up in three of those seasons, and was only able to achieve five cup titles: Crown Prince cup (2011–12, 2012–13, 2015–16), King cup (2015) and a Super cup (2015) Against arch rivals Al-Nasser held at Loftus Road Stadium, in London.
Return to continental dominance and worldwide appearances (2019–present)
The 2018–19 season saw drastic changes to the league with an increase in the number of clubs from 14 to 16, as well as the increase of foreign players to 8. This season saw the arrival of Bafetimbi Gomis, Andre Carrillo and Sebastian Giovinco managed by Jorge Jesus. The season started very well winning the first nine matches of the league, but when a new president was appointed Jorge Jesus was sacked on 30 January with no specified reason even though he had won 20 matches, was leading the league by 9 points and had won the 2018 Super Cup. Things started to go downhill from there, by the end of the season Al Hilal ended up as runner-up in the league by one point to Al-Nassr and runner-up in the 2018–19 Arab Club Champions Cup, lost out to Al-Taawoun in the semi-final of the 2019 King Cup. Mohammed bin Faisal resigned as president on the 1st of May before the season ended.
In 2022, Al Hilal Football Club introduced a major redesign of their logo, signaling a shift from their previous emblem to a more modern and simplified design. The old crest was characterized by a detailed and intricate 3D effect, featuring a gradient ball encased within a crescent moon. This emblem also included the full text of the club's name, "Al Hilal," and the year of its founding, adding layers of historical context and a classic aesthetic to the crest. The previous design was more detailed and included the founding year while the new logo adopts a more streamlined and contemporary approach. The redesigned logo is limited to a blue and white color scheme, which helps in creating a cleaner and more distinctive visual identity. Central to the new design are three vertical blue stripes that run parallel to each other. These stripes are interspersed with crescent moons, which are a nod to the club's historical symbol. The new logo uses negative space between the stripes. This design choice creates a white 'H,' representing 'Hilal,' the Arabic word for 'crescent' and the name of the club. Additionally, the negative space also forms a subtle 'S,' which stands for 'Saudi,' linking the emblem to the country of the club's origin.
"The merging of the two letters in both languages in the logo is to symbolize the form of a grand and solid shield suitable for all sports, and bearing the values and principals of Al-Hilal", Al-Hilal club said officially in August 2022.
Al Hilal currently plays their home games at Kingdom Arena, a modern, multi-purpose stadium located in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Inaugurated in 2024, Designed with a seating capacity of approximately 28,000 spectators, Kingdom Arena hosts a variety of events including football matches, concerts, and entertainment shows.
The club has a long-standing rivalry with their neighbors Al Nassr, which is called Riyadh's Derby. They have met 179 times, Al Hilal has won 72 times, lost 61 times, and 45 games have ended in a draw. The biggest win is for Al Hilal when they defeated Al Nassr 5–1 in Saudi Professional League 2016–2017. The rivalry with Al Nassr is more intense between them than the rivalry with Al Ittihad. As an example, when Al Hilal reached the 2014 AFC Champions League Final, in 2nd leg Al Nassr fans awaited Western Sydney Wanderers arrival at the airport to spur them on against Al Hilal and tried to sabotage Al Hilal's ticket plan. Al Hilal has a rivalry with Al-Ittihad. From the start of national competition the clubs were seen as representatives of the two biggest cities in Saudi Arabia: Riyadh and Jeddah. While Al Hilal have won four Asian Club Championship in years 1991, 1999–2000, 2019 and 2021, Al-Ittihad has won AFC Champions League two times in a row, in 2004 and 2005. Al Hilal won the Saudi El Clasico 62 times, Al-Ittihad won it 50 times, and two sides have drawn 35 times. As of 2023, the biggest win was when Al Hilal defeated Al Ittihad 5–0 in 2009–10.
Television match broadcasting rights
Al Hilal receives a certain amount from the Saudi Arabia Football Federation as the federation sells the complete matches' right in one package and all the clubs in the Saudi Professional League share the revenue equally. The Saudi league broadcasting rights currently were sold to Saudi Broadcasting Authority's SBC Channel, as well as Shahid streaming service. Also SSC sports (Saudi sports company) has broadcasting rights
Other income sources
The club's president and other board members secure any extra income required to run the club from merchandising of the club's kit and other products as well as establishing an investment company owned by the club to increase the club's revenue. Sponsorships have been instrumental to the club's finances due to the numerous lucrative deals signed by the club, as the club's huge popularity and appeal locally, regionally and continentally generates a huge number of supporters and admirers, especially on social media; the club has over 15m followers across all social media accounts.
In 2009, the club opened a new camp in Riyadh. It contains 25 rooms, meeting rooms, smart room for lectures, library, eating room, living rooms, a big salon and a medical clinic. It also has entertainment corners for video games, table tennis, billiards, table football and many others. There are two training fields for the senior team.
Current squad
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
U21 squad
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
Out on loan
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
Imagem: محمد امین انصاری · BY · Openverse
Management
This is a list of Al Hilal SFC presidents and chairmen from their foundation in 1957.
