Al-Ittihad Club (Jeddah)

Al-Ittihad FC
Full name Al-Ittihad FC
Nickname(s) The people's club
More than a club
Founded January 4, 1927 (1927-01-04)
Ground King Abdullah Sports City
Capacity 62,000[1]
President Nawaf Al-Mugairen
Head coach Slaven Bilić
League Saudi Professional League
2017–18 Saudi Professional League, 9th
Website Club website

Al-Ittihad Club Saudi Arabia (Arabic: نادي الاتحاد العربي السعودي‎), also simply known as Al-Ittihad, literally meaning The Union, is a Saudi Premier League football club based in Jeddah. Al-Ittihad has won 8 League titles and also holds 48 official championship wins, three of them being Asian championships.

The club was founded on January 4, 1927 before the third Saudi state was declared, making it the oldest club in Saudi Arabia. The most successful period in Al-Ittihad's history was the 1990s and mid 2000s, when the club won numerous honours both domestically and continental. The team won Cup Winners Cup in 1999 and two Champions League titles in 2004 and 2005 and as far as going on to compete in the 2005 FIFA Club World Cup. The club has the distinction of being the only Asian club to have won the AFC Champions League twice in a row.

Al-Ittihad has a record of home average attendance for Asia clubs in domestic league matches with the average of 42,371 on 2014/2015 season and that is for the club's big popularity which is the first in Saudi Arabia And Asia.

The club's most famous Saudi players are Saeed Ghorab, Hamzah Idris, Ahmad Jamil, Al Hasan Al-Yami, Mohammed Noor and with the most famous foreign players being the famous Brazilian international player Bebeto who played for Al-Ittihad from 2001 to 2002 and The Brazilian Attacking Midfielder Tcheco who played for Al-Ittihad from 2003 to 2005 and came back on in 2008 for one season.

In May 2015, Al-Ittihad entered The Guinness Book Of Records, as the first and only Saudi Arabian/Asian club entering it, because the club had won 232 different local and regional championships in games in Mansour Albalawi's reign as a chairman of the club from 2002 to 2008, and for back-to-back wins of the AFC Champions League in 2004 and 2005, as the only Asian team to accomplish it.

History

Foundation

The club was founded after a meeting, on January 4, 1927, of some of the notable football enthusiasts of the city of Jeddah. They met in the offices of the radio broadcasting company and discussed the idea of forming a football club to compete with various traveling teams and be a source of entertainment for inhabitants and an outlet for the city youth to practice organised sport. Everyone agreed that they should go ahead with creating the team that unites them and Ittihad Jeddah was born. The attendees were Hamza Fitaihi, Abdulsamad Najeeb Alsaady, Ismail Zahran, Ali Yamani, Abdulaziz Jameel, Abdulateef Jameel, Abdulateef Linjawi, Othman Banajah, Ahmad Abu Talib, Ali Sultan, Ahmed Almir and Saleh Salamah.

Club name "United"

the name of club which contains from this wisdom, Mazen Mohammed words that created the current club name. Club owners agrees with him to put the club name Al-Ittihad (United or Union, jointly) in Arabic.

Earlier

Ismail Zahran team player who was working as in Radio Office in Jeddah to the possibility of electing the head of the works Mr. Sultan to be a President of the Club, However, Ali Sultan became the first official president of the club. Al-Ittihad did not find at first a strong support, there wasn't an official clubs (communities) such as Al Riyadhi, Because the presence of powerful culture in the city of Jeddah only. the established of Saudi Federation was slowly in the 50s, was established after 29 years from Ittihad foundation year. In their first meeting with Al-Riyadhi, Al-Ittihad make it victory with 3–0 won.

Their first championship (1933)

The club has achieved a historic first tournament, which was called the cup of Nishan Nazer, counted as an official tournament, The cup have formed a popularity of Al-Ittihad, Because of a challenge between them in the final. Depending on the narrator, the winner can burn the Embassy wood's. the Championship attended by several of the clubs, communities, fought Al-Ittihad where several games to achieve access to the final. with Al-Mukhtalat. The weather was dust, did not complete the first half, the match was stopped about 10 minutes. the referee stopped the game to rest for 8 minutes, the weather was changed for the better with the second half, Al-Mukhtalat squad had led to fail, it was a low attacking level. The most prominent player in the game is Al-Itithad defender Safwan which was sacrificed for his team. the club won the championship by 3–0 against Al-Mukhtalat. The most important characteristic of this tournament is the first sporting event held in the reign of the founder King Abdul-Aziz Al-Saud.

Rivalries

Al-Ittihad has long-standing rivalry with Al-Hilal. From the start of national competitions the clubs were seen as representatives of two rival cities: Riyadh and Jeddah. After the success of Al-Hilal in Asia and won two Champions League in years 1991 and 1999, on the other side, Al Ittihad has won two titles in two years, they produced arguably the biggest shock in Asian club history when they overturned a 3–1 home defeat by Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma, pulling off a 5–0 away win to secure the Asian crown. Al Ittihad is also known as club of the people such as Barcelona or Liverpool. the club has strong support for being the club of the people. While Al-Hilal for its royalty, Al-Hilal has large number of supporters most in the capital city and the eastern region.

Al-Ittihad also has a rivalry with other Jeddah club, their neighbors Al-Ahli. Al-Ittihad and Al-Ahli have a lot of fans who are the most dangerous fans in Saudi Arabia, which Al-Ittihad's lovers consider Al-Ahli's fans a hated-rivals. The duo played their match at Jeddah, which named "Derby Jeddah" or "The Western Derby". The largest victory was for Al-Ittihad when they defeated Al-Ahli 8–2 in 1966.

Present-day

Ittihad's success is not limited only to football, but also in basketball, water polo, table tennis, volleyball, and swimming, amongst others. In total, Ittihad has won 8649 trophies. However, football remains the primary sport.

Ittihad is now based in Sahafa street, Mushrefa district, in east Jeddah, where they have a large sports complex. Senior teams play official games at the municipal sports centre, in the south of the city, while youth teams play at the club.

In December 2006, the club offered what was thought to be the most lucrative deal in Arabian football to Portuguese midfielder Luís Figo. It was said that Luís Figo will join the club on July 1, 2007 after his current contract with Internazionale expires. However, not long after, Figo's current club, Internazionale released report that Figo had yet to sign a contract with Al-Ittihad and will not be joining. Figo has since extended his contract at Inter until the end of the 2007–08 season citing that the terms of the agreement were not kept and thus voided the contract.

In January 2010, the club convened an extraordinary club meeting after losing their 4th game of the 2009–10 season 1–2 to Al-Nasr. A decision was made to sack the head coach Gabriel Calderón and replace him with local coach Hassan Khalifa assisted by former striker Hamzah Idris.[2] On January 27, 2010, the club hired Argentinean coach Enzo Trossero to take over the reins of the team. On Dec 15, 2015 Ittihad FC appointed Victor Piturca as their manager for the second time after a string of bad results by the other coach. He lost his first game in AFC this season against Al-Nasr FC 2-1 on March 13, 2016.[3]

Support and Stadium

Al-Ittihad has built a strong fan-base in Jeddah, across Saudi Arabia and amongst the Arab League and in Asia. The club supporters are renowned for being spirited and for their chants. The wonderful huge stadium opened officially on May 1, 2014 King Abdullah Sports City Stadium is their new home now, there they can express their passion and love, that stadium accommodates above 60,000 (b.s.). Al-Ittihad shares the newly built state of the art King Abdullah Sports City Stadium with local rival Al-Ahli, with their previous home the Prince Abdullah Al Faisal stadium facing massive delays in construction works, having been expected to be fully functional before the new King Abdullah Stadium.

Sponsorship

Official sponsor

In a press conference on January 9, 2006; president of the club Mansour Albalawi announced that Sela Sport Co (which is the sponsor of Saudi National Team) will pay 350 million riyals to sponsor Al-Ittihad for 5 seasons. Al-Ittihad was later on sponsored by the Saudi Telecom Company, however the team has not renewed STC's contract.

Period Kit manufacturer Shirt sponsor
1999–03 Umbro Multiple
2003–05 Lotto Lingo
2006–07 Hattrick STC
2007–08 Nike
2008–10 Lotto
2010–12 Nike
2012–13 One
2013–2014 One None
2014–2015 Errea
2015–2016 Adidas Bupa Arabia / Mobil 1
2016–2017 Joma[4] Bridgestone / Unionaire / Almosafer / Mobil 1
2017–2018 Bridgestone / Unionaire / Mobil 1
2018– Bridgestone / Unionaire / Mobil 1

Club statistics

Club honours

1The tournament was held on February 25, 1933.

Records & statistics

Other records

SeasonDiv.Pos.Pl.WDLGSGAGDPDomestic cupsAFCOther CompetitionsTop scorerManager
1998–99 SPL12215344532+1348 CPC PFC ACWC, ASC GCC     Belgium Dimitri
1999–2000 SPL12216336923+4651 CPC  Saudi Arabia Hamzah Idris  33 Brazil Oscar
2000–01 SPL12211563523+1238 CPC EC  —  — Argentina Ardiles
2001–02 SPL22215435925+3449 CPC  —  — Brazil Oscar
2002–03 SPL12215435324+2949 CPC PFC SSC EC  Brazil Cleberson  8 Brazil Oscar, Saudi Arabia Khalid Al Koroni
2003–04 SPL22217505715+4256 CPC ACL  Saudi Arabia Mohammed Noor  8 Croatia Tomislav Ivić, Croatia Talajić, Croatia Luka Peruzović
2004–05 SPL32211565337+1638 CPC ACL ARCL  Brazil Sérgio Ricardo Messias Neves  13 Romania Iordănescu
2005–06 SPL32211924728+1942 CPC ACL Quarter-finals  Sierra Leone Mohamed Kallon  12 France Metsu
2006–07 SPL12215345225+2748 CPC PFC  Guinea Alhassane Keita  21 Belgium Dimitri
2007–08 SPL22214624016+2448 CC ACL Group Stage Brazil Magno Alves 14 Argentina Calderón
2008–09 SPL12217415721+3655 CC PFC ACL Morocco Hicham Aboucherouane 17 Argentina Calderón
2009–10 ZPL22214354630+1645 CC ACL Group Stage Algeria Abdelmalek Ziaya 15 Argentina Calderón, Argentina Enzo Héctor
2010–11 ZPL226131214923+2051 CC ACL Semi-finals   Saudi Arabia Naif Hazazi 18 Portugal Manuel José, Portugal Toni Oliveira, Belgium Dimitri
2011–12 ZPL52610794935+1437 CPC ACL Semi-finals   Saudi Arabia Hazazi 20 Slovenia Kek, Spain Raul Caneda
2012–13 ZPL7268993636033 CC   Saudi Arabia Fahad Al-Muwallad   9 Spain Raul Caneda, Spain Beñat
2013–14 ALJ62688104546−132 CC ACL Quarter-finals  Saudi Arabia Mukhtar Fallatah  31 Spain Beñat, Egypt Amro Anwar, Uruguay Juan Verzeri, Saudi Arabia Khalid Al Koroni
2014–15 ALJ42616464433+1152 CC  Brazil Marquinho  13 Saudi Arabia Khalid Al Koroni, Romania Victor Pițurcă
2015–16 ALJ32615475437+1749 CC CPC ACL Group Stage  Venezuela Gelmin Rivas  24 Romania László Bölöni, Egypt Amro Anwar, Romania Victor Pițurcă
2016–17 ALJ42617455737+2052 (-3) CPC  Egypt Kahraba  19 Chile José Luis Sierra
2017–18 SPL9268993441-733 CC  Tunisia Ahmed Akaïchi  10 Chile José Luis Sierra


Div. = Division; SPL = Saudi Premier League; ZPL = Zain Professional League; Pos. = Position; Pl = Match played; W = Win; D = Draw; L = Lost
GS = Goal Scored; GA = Goal Against; GD = Goal difference P = Points
CC = Champions Cup; CPC = Crown Prince Cup; PFC = Prince Faisal Cup
ARCL = Arab Champions League; ARWC = Arab Cup Winners' Cup; ACL = AFC Champions League; GCC = Gulf Club Champions Cup; EC = Egypt Super Cup; SSC = Saudi Super Cup
Colors: Gold = winner; Silver = runner-up; Bronze = third,Semi-final .

League records

Performance in AFC competitions

2000–01 Quarter-finals
2001–02 Second Round
2002–03 Did Not Qualify
2004 Champions
2005 Champions
2006 Quarter-finals
2007 Did Not Qualify
2008 Group Stage
2009 Runner-up
2010 Group Stage
2011 Semi-finals
2012 Semi-finals
2013 Did Not Qualify
2014 Quarter-finals
2015 Did Not Qualify
2016 Group stage
2017 Did Not Meet Qualification
2018 Did Not Meet Qualification

Top scorers in AFC competitions

Ranking Nationality Name Years Goals
1 Saudi ArabiaMohammed Noor1996–1318
2 Saudi ArabiaNaif Hazazi2006–1314
3 Saudi ArabiaHamzah Idris1997–079
4 AlgeriaAbdelmalek Ziaya2009–117
5 Saudi ArabiaMarzouk Al-Otaibi2000–077
6 Saudi ArabiaOsama Al-Muwallad2000–6
7 Sierra LeoneMohammed Kallon2005–066
8 MoroccoAhmed Bahja1996–996
9 MoroccoHicham Aboucherouane2008–105

AFC club rankings

Rankings are calculated by the AFC.[6]

Last update: December 1, 2017

Ranking Club Association Coefficient
4415+29 +29PersepolisIran Iran 10.902 0 21 0 26 57.902
2516+9 +9Gamba OsakaJapan Japan 13.527 0 29 5 10 57.527
1417-3 -3Shandong Luneng TaishanChina China 13.409 8 10 25.5 0 56.909
1118-7 -7Pohang SteelersSouth Korea South Korea 18 27 0 11 0 56
19190 —Al-IttihadSaudi Arabia Saudi Arabia 13.48 23 0 15 0 51.48
2220+2 +2Al SaddQatar Qatar 8.868 18 19.5 2 2 50.368

Source: Global Football Ranks |}

Asian Record

Current squad

First team squad

As of Saudi Premier League:

No Position Player Nation
1 Goalkeeper Rakan Al-Najar  Saudi Arabia
3 Defender Tareq Abdullah  Saudi Arabia
4 Defender Abdullah Al-Shammari  Saudi Arabia
5 Defender Matthew Jurman  Australia
6 Midfielder Khaled Al-Sumairi  Saudi Arabia
8 Midfielder Fahad Al-Muwallad  Saudi Arabia
9 Forward Romarinho  Brazil
10 Midfielder Carlos Villanueva  Chile
11 Defender Hassan Muath  Saudi Arabia
12 Goalkeeper Assaf Al-Qarni  Saudi Arabia
13 Defender Ahmed Assiri (Vice-captain)  Saudi Arabia
14 Defender Ziyad Al-Sahafi  Saudi Arabia
15 Midfielder Jamal Bajandouh  Saudi Arabia
16 Defender Mohammed Qassem  Saudi Arabia
20 Midfielder Karim El Ahmadi  Morocco
21 Defender Mohammed Reeman  Saudi Arabia
22 Goalkeeper Fawaz Al-Qarni  Saudi Arabia
24 Defender Ammar Al-Daheem  Saudi Arabia
25 Midfielder Ali Al-Zaqaan (on loan from Al-Fateh)  Saudi Arabia
26 Forward Abdulaziz Al-Aryani  Saudi Arabia
27 Midfielder Jonas  Brazil
29 Midfielder Valdívia (on loan from Internacional)  Saudi Arabia
30 Defender Awn Al-Saloli  Saudi Arabia
31 Defender Mansour Al-Harbi  Saudi Arabia
32 Defender Omar Al-Muziel  Saudi Arabia
36 Defender Thiago Carleto  Brazil
38 Midfielder Ammar Al-Najar  Saudi Arabia
44 Goalkeeper Ameen Bokhari  Saudi Arabia
45 Forward Aleksandar Pešić  Serbia
49 Forward Abdulrahman Al-Ghamdi  Saudi Arabia
78 Midfielder Jaber Mustafa  Saudi Arabia

Other players under contract

No Position Player Nation
37 Midfielder Ahmed Al-Muntasheri  Saudi Arabia
50 Midfielder Qusai Al-Khaibari  Saudi Arabia
55 Midfielder Saher Al-Soraihi  Saudi Arabia
— Midfielder Yahya Sonbol  Saudi Arabia

Out on loan

No Position Player Nation
2 Defender Abdurahman Al-Rio (on loan to Al-Hazm)  Saudi Arabia
39 Forward Maan Al-Hodhifi (on loan to Al-Ansar)  Saudi Arabia
— Defender Hussain Halawani (on loan to Al-Batin)  Saudi Arabia
— Forward Turki Al-Jadaani (on loan to Al-Ain)  Saudi Arabia

Notable players

Players with senior international caps:

Personnel

Current technical staff

Position Staff
Head coachCroatia Slaven Bilić
Assistant coachCroatia Aljoša Asanović
Assistant coachCroatia Marijo Tot
Assistant coachSaudi Arabia Bandar Ba Sraih
Goalkeeping coachCroatia Tonči Gabrić
Fitness coachCroatia Frano Leko
Data AnalystCroatia Danilo Butorović
ScoutCroatia Dean Računica

Management

Position Staff
Board ChairmanNawaf Al-Megairen
Vice presidentMohyedin bin Saleh Kamel
President advisor for Executive AffairsFeras Al-Turki
Chief executive officerDr. Yasser Nassief
Board MemberAbdullah Kaboha
Director of the Media CenterBandar Yaghmour
Media official speakerFawaz Al-Sharif
Director of Professional AreaMohammed Al-Amari
General Supervisor of FootballSaad Ali Al Shehri
Football club of players affairs officerKhaled Al-Alwani
Football club of technical affairs officerMarwan Mahdi

Presidents

Managerial history

References

  1. ↑ "King Abdullah Sports City". Saudi Pro League Statistics. Retrieved 14 May 2016.
  2. ↑ Saudi League champs Al Ittihad sack Calderon. footballnet.espn.go.com (2010-01-13). Retrieved on 2012-05-28.
  3. ↑ "Al-Ittihad FC live scores, results, fixtures | Soccer, Saudi Arabia". www.flashscore.com. Retrieved 2016-03-16.
  4. ↑ "AL ITTIHAD FC JOINS JOMA SPORT". Retrieved 12 May 2016.
  5. ↑ not official by Saudi FA nor Egyptian FA
  6. ↑ "AFC Club Ranking (2012‐2015)" (PDF). the-afc.com. Asian Football Confederation. Retrieved 14 September 2015.
  7. ↑ "نادي الاتحاد السعودي لكرة القدم - منتدى الاتحاد السعودي - #شبكة_الاتحاد".
  8. ↑ "Mais de 40 anos vivendo futebol" (in Portuguese). luxemburgo.com.br. Retrieved 18 August 2013.
Achievements
Preceded by
Al-Ain
United Arab Emirates		 Champions of Asia
2004		 Succeeded by
Holders
Preceded by
Holders		 Champions of Asia
2005		 Succeeded by
Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors
South Korea
Preceded by
Al Nassr
Saudi Arabia		 Asian Cup Winners' Cup
Runner up: Chunnam Dragons
1999		 Succeeded by
Shimizu S-Pulse
Japan
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