Abha Club

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Abha Club

Full name	Abha Football Club
Nickname(s)	Za'eem Al-Janoub (The Leaders of the South)
Founded	1966; 55 years ago (1966), as Al-Farouk 1972; 49 years ago (1972), as Al-Wadiea 1999; 22 years ago (1999), as Abha[1]
Ground	Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz Stadium Abha, Saudi Arabia
Capacity	25,000[2]
Chairman	Ahmed Al-Hodithy[3]
Manager	Martin Ševela
League	Pro League
2020–21	Pro League, 13th of 16
Home colours Away colours
Current season

Abha Football Club (Arabic: نادي أبها السعودي) is a professional Saudi Arabian association football club based in Abha that is currently playing in the Saudi Professional League, the highest tier of Saudi football.^[4] Their home stadium is Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz Stadium.

They were first promoted to the top flight in 2005 when they finished as runners up in the First Division. However, they were relegated after just one season. They achieved their second promotion in 2008 when they also finished as runners up. During the 2018–19 season Abha won their first First Division title as well as promotion to the Pro League for the third in the club's history.^[5] Abha have won the Saudi Third Division once, during the 1998–99 season and the Saudi Second Division once, during the 1999–2000 season.

The club play their home games at Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz Stadium (also known as Al-Mahalah) in Abha. They share the stadium with rivals Damac, with whom they contest the Asir derby.^[6]

History[]

The idea of establishing a sports club in Abha started with the personal initiative of Abdullah Al-Muallami in 1947. His reasons for establishing a sports club was so that the youth of Abha had a place to practice and play football. The youth of Abha continued practicing without an official sports club until the year of 1960. Then the idea of establishing a sports club was put in motion. The aim of establishing a sports club wasn't only a sport-related one; it was also aimed to be an educational and sociable club. A meeting was held on this topic, and the attendees agreed to establish a sports club in Abha. However, a problem arose in the meeting which caused a split between the attendees. The cause of the split was the naming of the club. One half wanted the club's name to be Al-Ahli Club in Asir the other half wanted the name to be Ittihad Shabab Asir. An agreement was not reached and eventually, two clubs were established in Abha.^[7] And in the year 1966, the club was officially registered with the GSA under the name of Al-Farouk Sports Club in Abha. The club's first official president was Mohammed bin Ibrahim Al-Nuaami who changed the club's name from Al-Ahli Sports Club to Al-Farouk Sports Club.^[8]

During the same time, Al-Ittihad Sports Club in Abha was formed and the first official president was Aziz bin Mustafa. Under directives from the GSA, Al-Ittihad Sports Club changed their name to Abha Sports Club in 1962.^[9] This was due to a club already named Al-Ittihad Sports Club in Jeddah. And in the year of 1968, Abha Sports Club once again changed their name but this time to Al-Siddiq Sports Club, in commemoration to Abu Bakr, first of the Rashidun Caliphates. In early 1969, the GSA decided to merge both clubs, Al-Farouk and Al-Siddiq, to form one club under the name of Al-Farouk Sports Club. Sheikh Suleiman bin Ahmed Mimish was the first president of the newly merged club.^[10]

In 1972, Al-Farouk Sports Club held a ceremony in honor of Prince Khalid bin Faisal Al Saud on the occasion of his appointment as the governor of Asir. The ceremony was held at the club's headquarters and a number of matters which concern the club were discussed. One of the matters that were discussed was a name change proposed by the Prince to members of the club's board. It was unanimously agreed by members of the board and fans of the club to change the club's name to Al-Wadiea Sports Club. Al-Wadiea achieved promotion to the Saudi First Division for the first time in 1977. They spent two seasons in the First Division before being relegated to the regional leagues. In 1983, the club once again achieved promotion to the First Division and spent two seasons before being relegated at the end of the 1984–85 season. Al-Wadiea were once again promoted in 1994 before being relegated after a season. In 1999, the club changed their name from Al-Wadiea Sports Club to Abha Sports Club.^[11] That same year, the club was promoted to the Second Division under the guidance of Saad Saleh Al-Bishri as manager. A year later the club achieved promotion once again but this time to the First Division with the Algerian, Elias Bou Zaid, as manager. In 2005, Abha were promoted to the Pro League, the top tier of Saudi football, for the first time after finishing second in the 2004–05 season.^[12] The club were relegated after just a season in the top tier. Abha once again reached the Pro League after finishing second in the 2007–08 season. They were relegated after a season following their loss to Al-Raed in the relegation play-offs.^[13] Abha then spent six consecutive seasons in the Saudi First Division before getting relegated to the Second Division for the first time since 2000.^[14] On 4 May 2018, Abha defeated Al-Watani 2–1 on aggregate in the promotion play-offs to earn promotion to the second tier.^[15] On 30 April 2019, Abha were promoted to the top flight for the third time after a 2–2 draw away to Al-Nojoom.^[16] This was their second promotion in two seasons, becoming the sixth Saudi team to achieve this feat. On 11 May 2019, Abha won their first MS League title despite losing to Al-Qaisumah.^[17] The 2019–20 season was Abha's most successful season in the Pro League. They achieved their highest finish in the top flight after finishing ninth. The club also reached the semi-finals of the King Cup for the first time.^[18]

Recent seasons[]

Season		Pos.	Pl.	W	D	L	GS	GA	P	King Cup	Crown Prince Cup	Federation Cup	Notes
2001–02	2D	5th	18	8	4	6	27	25	28	–	Round of 16	Group stage
2002–03	2D	5th	22	9	8	5	38	34	35	–	Round of 16	Group stage
2003–04	2D	6th	22	7	7	8	34	27	28	–	3rd qualifying round	Winners
2004–05	2D	2nd	26	13	8	5	54	31	47	–	1st qualifying round	Semi-finals	Promoted
2005–06	1D	11th	22	3	4	15	24	57	13	–	Round of 16	Semi-finals	Relegated
2006–07	2D	10th	26	8	7	11	35	46	31	–	2nd qualifying round	Quarter-finals
2007–08	2D	2nd	26	13	6	7	47	37	45	–	2nd qualifying round	Semi-finals	Promoted
2008–09	1D	11th	22	4	7	11	19	40	19	–	Round of 16	Group stage	Relegated
2009–10	2D	4th	26	12	5	9	39	36	41	–	2nd qualifying round	Quarter-finals
2010–11	2D	4th	30	13	12	5	59	43	51	–	3rd qualifying round	–
2011–12	2D	4th	30	14	7	9	36	28	49	–	1st qualifying round	–
2012–13	2D	8th	30	11	8	11	41	45	41	–	Play-off round	–
2013–14	2D	10th	30	9	12	9	41	40	39	Round of 16	Round of 32	–
2014–15	2D	15th	30	5	10	15	36	56	25	Round of 16	Round of 32	–	Relegated
2015–16	3D	7th	18	4	8	6	19	24	20	Round of 32	–	–
2016–17	3D	7th	18	4	8	6	14	15	20	1st qualifying round	–	–
2017–18	3D	4th	18	7	6	5	20	22	27	1st qualifying round	–	–	Promoted
2018–19	2D	1st	38	19	12	7	52	38	69	Round of 16	–	–	Promoted
2019–20	1D	9th	30	11	5	14	41	52	38	Semi-finals	–	–
2020–21	1D	13th	30	10	6	14	42	50	36	Round of 16	–	–

Honours[]

Saudi First Division

• Winners (1): 2018–19
• Runners-up (2): 2004–05, 2007–08

Saudi Second Division

• Winners (2): 1993–94, 1999–2000
• Runners-up (2): 1981–82, 1982–83

Saudi Third Division

• Winners (1): 1998–1999

Prince Faisal bin Fahd Cup for Division 1 and 2 Teams

• Winners (1): 2003–04

Current squad[]

As of 7 February 2021:^[19][20]

No Position Player Nation 1 GK Abdullah Al-Shammeri  Saudi Arabia 5 DF Dani Suárez  Spain 6 DF Karam Barnawi  Saudi Arabia 7 FW Saleh Al-Amri  Saudi Arabia 8 MF Uroš Matić  Serbia 9 FW Mitchell te Vrede  Suriname 10 MF Saad Bguir  Tunisia 11 MF Jehad Al-Zowayed  Saudi Arabia 12 GK Abdelali Mhamdi  Morocco 13 DF Mohammed Al-Kunaydiri  Saudi Arabia 14 MF Fahad Al-Jumayah  Saudi Arabia 15 MF Mutair Al-Zahrani  Saudi Arabia 18 MF Nawaf Al-Sadi  Saudi Arabia 19 DF Amine Atouchi  Morocco 23 MF Abdulrahman Al-Barakah  Saudi Arabia 29 MF Abdullah Al-Qahtani (on loan from Al-Faisaly)  Saudi Arabia 31 DF Sari Amr  Saudi Arabia 33 GK Mansour Jawhar  Saudi Arabia 34 GK Ali Al-Mazyadi  Saudi Arabia 39 DF Saeed Al Hamsal  Saudi Arabia 45 MF Hassan Al-Qayd  Saudi Arabia 70 FW Muath Afaneh  Jordan 77 DF Ahmed Al-Habib  Saudi Arabia 80 MF Tariq Al-Shahrani  Saudi Arabia 89 MF Riyadh Sharahili  Saudi Arabia 90 FW Omar Al-Ruwaili  Saudi Arabia 98 DF Muhannad Al-Qaydhi  Saudi Arabia 99 MF Prestige Mboungou  Congo

Unregistered players[]

No Position Player Nation — MF Abdullah Nasser  Saudi Arabia

Out on loan[]

No Position Player Nation 16 MF Musab Habkor (on loan to Al-Kawkab)  Saudi Arabia

Managerial history[]

Presidential history[]

As of 1 January 2021.^[21]

No	Name	From	To
1	Mohammed Al-Nuaami	1966	1968
2	Ahmed Mottain	1968	1968
3	Suleiman Habtar	1969	1970
4	Aziz bin Mustafa Aziz	1970	1972
5	Suleiman Mimish	1972	1973
6	Dhafer Al-Obaidi	1973	1974
7	Mohammed bin Rashed Salamah	1977	1977
8	Khaled Mohammed Sheikho	1978	1978
9	Mohammed Al-Fawaz	1979	1979
10	Abdulrahman Abo Melha	1981	1984
11	Hani Abu Ghazaleh	1985	1987
12	Saleh Qadeh	1988	1990
13	Mustafa bin Abdullah Aziz	1991	1993
14	Hamad Shabib Al-Dossari	1993	1996
15	Abdulwahab Al Mojathel	1997	2002
16	Hamad Shabib Al-Dossari	2002	2005
17	Abdulwahab Al Mojathel	2005	2006
18	Meshafi Al-Maqrafi	2006	2006
19	Ali Al-Shehri	2006	2006
20	Abdulrahman bin Mohammed Faisal	2006	2008
21	Saad Al-Ahmari	2008	2008
22	Abdulwahab Al Mojathel	2009	2009
23	Saad Al-Ahmari	2010	2013
24	Ahmed Al-Hodithy	2013

External links[]

• Official website
• Abha at SPL

References[]