Al-Ittihad Club (Jeddah)

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,Fahad Badkook, 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

¹The tournament was held on February 25, 1933.

Season	Div.	Pos.	Pl.	W	D	L	GS	GA	GD	P	Domestic cups			AFC		Other Competitions!		Top scorer		Manager
1998–99	SPL	1	22	15	3	4	45	32	+13	48	CPC		PFC	ACWC,	ASC	GCC				Dimitri
1999–2000	SPL	1	22	16	3	3	69	23	+46	51	CPC							Hamzah Idris	33	Oscar
2000–01	SPL	1	22	11	5	6	35	23	+12	38	CPC					EC		—	—	Ardiles
2001–02	SPL	2	22	15	4	3	59	25	+34	49	CPC							—	—	Oscar
2002–03	SPL	1	22	15	4	3	53	24	+29	49	CPC		PFC			SSC	EC	Cleberson	8	Oscar, Khalid Al Koroni
2003–04	SPL	2	22	17	5	0	57	15	+42	56	CPC			ACL				Mohammed Noor	8	Tomislav Ivić, Talajić, Luka Peruzović
2004–05	SPL	3	22	11	5	6	53	37	+16	38	CPC			ACL		ARCL		Sérgio Ricardo Messias Neves	13	Iordănescu
2005–06	SPL	3	22	11	9	2	47	28	+19	42	CPC			ACL	Quarter-finals			Mohamed Kallon	12	Metsu
2006–07	SPL	1	22	15	3	4	52	25	+27	48	CPC		PFC					Alhassane Keita	21	Dimitri
2007–08	SPL	2	22	14	6	2	40	16	+24	48	CC			ACL	Group Stage			Magno Alves	14	Calderón
2008–09	SPL	1	22	17	4	1	57	21	+36	55	CC		PFC	ACL				Hicham Aboucherouane	17	Calderón
2009–10	ZPL	2	22	14	3	5	46	30	+16	45	CC			ACL	Group Stage			Abdelmalek Ziaya	15	Calderón, Enzo Héctor
2010–11	ZPL	2	26	13	12	1	49	23	+20	51	CC			ACL	Semi-finals			Naif Hazazi	18	Manuel José, Toni, Dimitri
2011–12	ZPL	5	26	10	7	9	49	35	+14	37	CPC			ACL	Semi-finals			Hazazi	20	Kek, Raul Caneda
2012–13	ZPL	7	26	8	9	9	36	36	0	33	CC							Fahad Al-Muwallad	9	Raul Caneda, Beñat
2013–14	ALJ	6	26	8	8	10	45	46	−1	32	CC			ACL	Quarter-finals			Mukhtar Fallatah	31	Beñat, Amro Anwar, Juan Verzeri, Khalid Al Koroni
2014–15	ALJ	4	26	16	4	6	44	33	+11	52	CC							Marquinho	13	Khalid Al Koroni, Victor Pițurcă
2015–16	ALJ	3	26	15	4	7	54	37	+17	49	CC		CPC	ACL	Group Stage			Gelmin Rivas	24	László Bölöni, Amro Anwar, Victor Pițurcă
2016–17	ALJ	4	26	17	4	5	57	37	+20	52 (-3)	CPC							Kahraba	19	José Luis Sierra
2017–18	SPL	9	26	8	9	9	34	41	-7	33	CC							Ahmed Akaïchi	10	José Luis Sierra
2018–19	MBS	10	30	9	7	14	44	45	-1	34	CC							Fahad Al-Muwallad	11	Ramón Díaz, | Slaven Bilić, José Luis Sierra,

• AFC Champions League: 13 appearances

Rankings are calculated by the AFC.[6]

Last update: December 1, 2017

Ranking			Club	Association	Coefficient
44	15	+29			Persepolis	Iran	10.902	0	21	0	26	57.902
25	16	+9	Gamba Osaka	Japan	13.527	0	29	5	10	57.527
14	17	-3	Shandong Luneng Taishan	China	13.409	8	10	25.5	0	56.909
11	18	-7	Pohang Steelers	South Korea	18	27	0	11	0	56
19	19	—	Al-Ittihad	Saudi Arabia	13.48	23	0	15	0	51.48
22	20	+2	Al Sadd	Qatar	8.868	18	19.5	2	2	50.368

Source: Global Football Ranks