Private clubs and academies compete with Government Clubs in SAFF’s championships

2025-01-21
14:41:06

The Department of Youth, Academies and Regional Training Centers took a number of steps during 2024 to achieve the goals of the Saudi Football Strategy that was launched in September 2021, as one of the last remaining goals in the technical track before launching the new version of the strategy that extends from 2025 to 2029.
During 2024, the technical department completed the contract to establish the Youth Leagues for the age groups 12 and 14 years to be alongside the age groups 11 and 13 years, to achieve age integration before the official participation of the Under-15 Leagues, which are (Premier League - First Division League - Kingdom Clubs Championship for Second Division Clubs), where 478 participants take part in the leagues between a government club, a private academy, a commercial club and a regional training center.
The number of private academies and clubs in 2024 reached 171 memberships issued (133 private academies, 38 private clubs), an increase of 128% over 2023, which contributed to the increase in the number of competitions and players.
Last year, the technical management of the Saudi Football Federation held the first edition of the Regional Teams Championship for the 13-year-old age group, in which 14 regional teams participated, whose players were the product of the Buds League. At the conclusion of the championship, which was won by the Jazan regional team, the under-14 national team was formed, which began its journey in participating in international friendly tournaments in preparation for the age group to enter the age classification that allows them to participate in official events.
The management also held 5 festivals to discover talents in a number of regions of the Kingdom, in addition to 8 football festivals to discover talents in schools in cooperation with the International Federation of Football Association.
In terms of trainers, the administration held 26 training courses for trainers in various technical specializations, benefiting 539 national trainers, contributing to developing their technical capabilities and supporting them to participate with government and private clubs, academies and training centers. The technical administration also launched the unified technical methodology that will be applied through trainers' courses, where a workshop was held for certified lecturers to explain evaluation methods and methods of preparing tests for each course.