2014–15 Saudi Professional League

Professional League

Season	2014–2015
Champions	Al-Nassr (7th title)
Relegated	Al-Shoalah, Al-Orobah
Champions League	Al-Nassr Al-Ahli Al-Hilal Al-Ittihad
Matches played	182
Goals scored	528 (2.9 per match)
Top goalscorer	Omar Al Soma (22 goals)
Biggest home win	Al-Ahli 6–1 Hajer (16 August 2014)
Biggest away win	Al-Faisaly 1–5 Al Nassr (26 April 2015)
Highest scoring	Hajer 4–4 Al-Shabab (19 February 2015)
Longest winning run	8 games Al-Ahli
Longest unbeaten run	26 games Al-Ahli
Longest losing run	7 games Al-Oruba
Highest attendance	60,134[1] Al-Ittihad – Al-Hilal (1 December 2014)
Lowest attendance	45[2] Najran – Hajer (18 May 2015)
Average attendance	9,191[3]
← 2013–14 2015–16 →

The 2014–15 Saudi Professional League (officially known as the Abdul Latif Jameel League, because of its sponsorship) was the 39th season of Saudi Professional League since its establishment in 1976.

Al-Nassr were the defending champions for this season, having won the previous 2013–14 season and 6th title in total.^[4] The season was featured 14 teams, 12 from the 2013–14 campaign and two new teams promoted from the 2013–14 First Division, champions Hajer and Al-Khaleej who replace relegated Al-Ettifaq and Al-Nahda.

The title was won by Al-Nassr on May 10, 2015 after defeating rivals Al-Hilal 1-0 in the Riyadh derby. Al-Ahli became the only team in Saudi football history to lose the league and not lose any preceding matches (26), with 9 draws. Furthermore, they defeated champions Al-Nassr home (2-1) and away (4-3), and were still not crowned, the last time they won the league was in the 1983–84 season.

Teams

Hajer were back in the top flight bouncing straight back after relegation in the 2012–13 campaign. Al-Khaleej also were back for the first time in seven years, last competing in the 2006–07 Saudi Premier League season.

Stadiums and locations

Jeddah

Al-Hasa

Riyadh

Buraydah

Al-Kharj

Najran

Harmah

Sakakah

Saihat

Locations of teams in the 2014–15 Saudi Professional League

Club	Location	Stadium	Capacity	Coach
Al-Ahli	Jeddah	King Abdullah Sports City Stadium	62,241	Christian Gross
Al-Faisaly	Harmah	King Salman Sport City Stadium	7,000	Toni Conceição
Al-Fateh	Al-Hasa	Prince Abdullah bin Jalawi Stadium	27,550	Nacif Beyaoui
Al-Hilal	Riyadh	King Fahd Stadium	62,685	Giorgos Donis
Al-Ittihad	Jeddah	King Abdullah Sports City Stadium	62,241	Victor Pițurcă
Al-Khaleej	Saihat	Prince Saud bin Jalawi Stadium	20,100	Jalal Qaderi
Al Nassr	Riyadh	King Fahd Stadium	62,685	Jorge da Silva
Al-Oruba	Sakakah	Al-Oruba Club Stadium	5,000	Laurent Banide
Al Raed	Buraydah	King Abdullah Sport City Stadium	25,000	Marc Brys
Al-Shabab	Riyadh	King Fahd Stadium	62,685	Jaime Pacheco
Al-Shoalah	Al Kharj	Al-Shoalah Club Stadium	8,000	Eusebiu Tudor
Al Taawon	Buraydah	King Abdullah Sport City Stadium	25,000	José Manuel Gomes
Hajer	Al-Hasa	Prince Abdullah bin Jalawi Stadium	27,550	Nebojša Jovović
Najran	Najran	Al Akhdoud Club Stadium	2,800	Fouad Bouali

Kit manufacturer and sponsors

Club	Kit manufacturer	Sponsors
Al-Ahli	Umbro	Qatar Airways
Al-Faisaly	Macron	ALDREES
Al-Fateh
Al-Hilal	Nike	Mobily
Al-Ittihad	Erreà
Al-Khaleej	Uhlsport	Hyundai Motor Company
Al Nassr	Made by club	Mobily
Al-Oruba
Al Raed
Al-Shabab	Adidas
Al-Shoalah
Al Taawon
Hajer	Erreà	Al-Ajmi Company
Najran	Made by club

Foreign players

Restricting the number of foreign players strictly to four per team, including a slot for a player from AFC countries and a marquee player. A team could use four foreign players on the field during each game including at least one player from the AFC country.

Club	Player 1	Player 2	Player 3	AFC Player
Al-Ahli	Bruno César	Osvaldo	Mohamed Abdel-Shafy	Omar Al Soma
Al-Faisaly	André Ndame Ndame	Macoumba Kandji	Ashraf Nu'man	Khalil Bani Attiah
Al-Fateh	Elias Luiz	Élton	Doris Fuakumputu	Hussain Ali Baba
Al-Hilal	Thiago Neves	Digão	Georgios Samaras	Kwak Tae-Hwi
Al-Ittihad	Marquinho	Łukasz Szukała	Lucian Sânmărtean	Saif Salman
Al-Khaleej	Aminou Bouba	Habib Meite	Ibrahim Al-Zawahreh	Hamza Al-Dardour
Al-Nassr	Armando Wila	Adrian Mierzejewski	Fabián Estoyanoff	Mohamed Husain
Al-Oruba	Moussa Narry	Isaac Obang Owsai	Khodor Salame	Musaed Neda
Al-Raed	Alexis Mondomo	Amjad Radhi	Hassan Tair	Anas Bani Yaseen
Al-Shabab	Rafinha	Mohamed Awal	John Antwi	Tareq Khattab
Al-Shoalah	Sadat Bukari	Bojan Božović	Lassana Fané	Orestes Júnior
Al-Taawon	Paul Alo'o	Shadi Abu Hash'hash	David Ochieng	Jehad Al-Hussain
Hajer	Jildemar	Dario Jertec	Đorđe Đikanović	Alaa' Al-Shaqran
Najran	Farid Cheklam	Jandson	Winful Cobbinah	Mussab Al-Laham

Managerial Changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Incoming manager
Al Hilal	Sami Al-Jaber	Mutual consent[5]	Laurențiu Reghecampf
Al Ittihad	Khalid Al Koroni	Sacked[6]	Amr Anwar
Al Ittihad	Amr Anwar	Temporary mandate over	Victor Pițurcă
Najran	Denis Lavagne	Resigned	Marc Brys
Al Nassr	Raúl Caneda	Resigned	Jorge da Silva
Hajer	Nacif Beyaoui	Resigned to join Al Fateh	Nebojša Jovović
Al Fateh	Juan Maqueda	Sacked	Nacif Beyaoui
Najran	Marc Brys	Resigned to join Al Raed	Fouad Bouali
Al Raed	Vlatko Kostov	Sacked	Marc Brys
Al Shabab	José Morais	Sacked	Reinhard Stumpf
Al Tawoon	Tawfiq Rawabeh	Sacked	José Manuel Gomes
Al Shabab	Reinhard Stumpf	Sacked	Jaime Pacheco
Al Hilal	Laurențiu Reghecampf	Sacked[7]	Ciprian Panait
Al Hilal	Ciprian Panait	Temp mandate over	Giorgos Donis
Al-Faisaly	Stéphane Demol	Sacked	Toni Conceição[8]

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Al-Nassr (C)	26	20	4	2	62	20	+42	64	Qualification to the AFC Champions League group stage
2	Al-Ahli	26	17	9	0	59	22	+37	60
3	Al-Hilal	26	16	6	4	46	17	+29	54
4	Al-Ittihad	26	16	4	6	44	33	+11	52	Qualification to the AFC Champions League qualifying play-off^1
5	Al-Shabab	26	11	7	8	37	31	+6	40
6	Al-Fateh	26	9	6	11	35	43	−8	33	Qualification to the GCC Champions League group stage
7	Al-Faisaly	26	8	6	12	31	42	−11	30
8	Al-Khaleej	26	7	8	11	35	43	−8	29
9	Al-Taawon	26	7	7	12	42	46	−4	28
10	Hajer	26	8	4	14	29	56	−27	28
11	Al-Raed	26	7	5	14	33	45	−12	26
12	Najran	26	7	3	16	28	41	−13	24
13	Al-Shoalah (R)	26	5	6	15	26	48	−22	21	Relegation to 2015–16 First Division
14	Al-Orobah (R)	26	4	5	17	21	43	−22	17

Source: FIFA.com (English)
Rules for classification: 1st points; 2nd head-to-head points; 3rd head-to-head goal difference; 4th goal difference; 5th number of goals scored;
¹Al-Ittihad secured qualification for the 2016 AFC Champions League due to Al-Hilal winning the 2015 King Cup.
(C) = Champion; (R) = Relegated; (P) = Promoted; (E) = Eliminated; (O) = Play-off winner; (A) = Advances to a further round.
Only applicable when the season is not finished:
(Q) = Qualified to the phase of tournament indicated; (TQ) = Qualified to tournament, but not yet to the particular phase indicated; (RQ) = Qualified to the relegation tournament indicated; (DQ) = Disqualified from tournament.

Results

Home \ Away^[1]

AHI

FSL

FAT

HIL

ITT

KHJ

NAS

ORO

RAE

SHB

SHL

TWN

HJR

NAJ

Al-Ahli

1–1

5–0

1–1

1–1

2–1

2–1

2–0

1–0

0–0

3–0

2–2

6–1

2–1

Al-Faisaly

1–4

4–2

2–2

0–3

1–2

1–5

2–0

1–0

1–3

0–0

2–2

2–0

0–1

Al-Fateh

0–1

1–2

1–2

2–2

2–0

1–1

1–0

3–2

0–2

0–0

2–0

3–1

2–1

Al-Hilal

0–0

3–0

3–0

3–0

3–0

0–1

4–1

3–1

0–1

2–1

3–1

5–1

2–1

Al-Ittihad

1–1

2–1

1–0

0–0

2–1

1–3

2–1

3–1

0–1

3–2

4–3

0–1

2–1

Al-Khaleej

1–1

4–2

2–2

0–1

0–1

0–1

2–0

3–0

1–0

1–1

0–3

2–2

0–1

Al-Nassr

3–4

0–0

4–2

1–0

2–1

4–1

2–1

2–2

0–0

5–0

2–1

3–0

4–1

Al-Orobah

1–3

1–1

1–2

1–0

0–1

2–2

0–2

2–1

0–0

2–0

4–3

2–3

0–1

Al-Raed

2–4

2–1

2–3

1–1

0–1

1–2

1–2

2–1

3–1

1–0

0–0

2–1

3–2

Al-Shabab

2–3

2–1

2–2

0–1

3–4

2–0

0–3

3–0

0–0

2–1

1–2

2–0

2–1

Al-Shoalah

0–2

2–1

1–0

1–3

1–3

1–1

1–2

0–0

2–2

1–2

4–3

3–1

2–1

Al-Taawoun

1–4

0–1

1–2

0–1

4–3

4–4

0–1

1–1

3–1

1–1

3–0

3–1

0–0

Hajer

0–3

0–2

2–1

1–1

0–1

1–1

0–4

1–0

2–1

4–4

2–1

2–0

0–3

Najran

1–1

0–1

1–1

0–2

1–2

1–4

0–4

2–0

1–2

2–1

3–1

0–1

1–2

Updated to games played on 18 May 2015.
Source: ALJLeague.com (English)
1 ^{^} The home team is listed in the left-hand column.
Colours: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Clubs season-progress

W	Win
D	Draw
L	Lose

Team \ Round	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26
Al-Hilal	W	W	D	W	W	W	L	D	W	W	L	D	D	W	L	D	W	W	W	W	W	W	W	D	L	W
Al-Shoalah	L	D	L	L	L	L	L	W	L	D	W	L	D	L	D	L	L	L	L	W	D	W	L	L	D	W
Al-Nassr	W	W	W	W	W	W	L	W	W	W	D	W	W	W	D	W	D	W	W	L	W	W	W	W	W	D
Al-Orobah	L	W	W	L	D	L	L	D	L	D	D	L	L	D	W	L	L	L	L	L	L	L	W	L	L	L
Al-Shabab	W	W	W	W	D	W	W	W	D	L	D	W	L	L	D	D	W	L	L	L	W	L	D	W	L	D
Al-Faisaly	L	W	W	W	D	D	W	L	D	D	L	D	D	L	L	W	W	W	W	L	L	L	L	L	L	L
Al-Taawon	L	L	D	D	L	D	W	L	W	W	L	L	W	D	W	W	W	L	L	L	L	L	D	L	D	D
Al-Fateh	L	L	L	L	W	L	W	L	D	W	L	L	W	D	D	L	D	W	L	W	D	W	D	L	W	W
Al-Ahli	W	D	D	W	D	W	W	W	W	D	W	W	D	W	D	D	W	W	W	W	W	W	W	W	D	D
Hajer	L	W	L	L	W	D	W	L	W	L	L	W	D	L	L	D	L	L	D	W	W	L	L	W	L	L
Najran	L	D	D	L	L	L	L	W	W	L	W	W	L	L	L	L	L	L	W	W	L	L	D	L	W	L
Al-Khaleej	L	D	L	L	L	D	L	D	D	W	L	W	L	W	D	L	D	L	D	L	W	L	W	W	W	D
Al-Ittihad	W	W	W	W	W	W	W	L	L	D	L	L	D	D	W	W	W	W	W	W	L	W	L	W	W	D
Al-Raed	L	L	L	D	L	L	L	L	D	L	L	W	W	W	D	W	L	W	L	L	L	W	L	D	D	W

Last updated: 18 May 2015
Source: ALJ Stats

Season statistics

Top scorers

Position	Player	Club	Goals
1	Omar Al Soma	Al-Ahli	22
2	Mohammad Al-Sahlawi	Al-Nassr	21
3	Paul Alo'o	Al Taawon	16
4	Naif Hazazi	Al-Shabab	14
5	Nasser Al-Shamrani	Al-Hilal	13
6	Jandson	Najran	12

Last updated: 17 May 2015

Top Assistants

Position	Player	Club	Assists
1	Jehad Al-Hussain	Al-Taawon	9
2	M. Bassas	Al-Ahli	8
	Élton	Al-Fateh
4	Taisir Al-Jassim	Al-Ahli	6
	Marquinho	Al-Ittihad
	Adrian Mierzejewski	Al-Nassr
7	Mohammad Al-Shalhoub	Al-Hilal	5

Last Update: 17 May 2015

Clean Sheets

Position	Player	Club	G.Played	Clean Sheets
1	Abdullah Al-Enezi	Al-Nassr	24	9
	Abdullah Al-Maiouf	Al-Ahli	25
3	Waleed Abdullah	Al-Shabab	17	8
4	Khalid Sharhili	Al-Hilal	10	7
5	Basem Alatalah	Al-Taawon	21	5

Last updated: 17 May 2015
Source: ALJ Stats

Attendances

By round

2014–15 Saudi Pro League Attendance

Round	Total	Games	Avg. Per Game
Round 1	139,173	7	19,882
Round 2	34,802	7	4,972
Round 3	31,136	7	4,448
Round 4	86,586	7	12,369
Round 5	43,471	7	6,210
Round 6	29,017	7	4,151
Round 7	115,246	7	16,464
Round 8	27,127	7	3,875
Round 9	86,696	7	12,385
Round 10	78,823	7	11,260
Round 11	31,342	7	4,477
Round 12	63,776	7	9,111
Round 13	85,384	7	12,198
Round 14	23,436	7	3,348
Round 15	50,236	7	7,177
Round 16	122,641	7	17,520
Round 17	26,215	7	3,745
Round 18	71,086	7	10,155
Round 19	69,109	7	9,873
Round 20	52,536	7	7,505
Round 21	115,986	7	16,569
Round 22	23,998	7	3,428
Round 23	59,097	7	8,442
Round 24	47,950	7	6,850
Round 25	43,619	7	6,231
Round 26	105,164	7	17,527
TOTALS	1,663,652	182	9,191

Top 10 Season Attendances

Attendance	Round	Date	Home	Score	Away	Venue	City	Weekday
60,134	10	1 December 2014	Al-Ittihad	0–0	Al-Hilal	King Abdullah Sports City	Jeddah	Monday
60,010	7	18 October 2014	Al-Ahli	2–1	Al-Nassr	King Abdullah Sports City	Jeddah	Saturday
59,731	16	20 February 2015	Al-Ittihad	3–2	Al-Shoalah	King Abdullah Sports City	Jeddah	Friday
59,174	26	15 May 2015	Al-Nassr	0–0	Al Shabab	King Fahd International Stadium	Riyadh	Friday
59,137	21	4 April 2015	Al-Ittihad	1–3	Al-Nassr	King Abdullah Sports City	Jeddah	Saturday
59,026	13	19 December 2014	Al-Ahli	1–1	Al-Ittihad	King Abdullah Sports City	Jeddah	Friday
58,896	1	13 August 2014	Al-Ittihad	1-0	Al-Fateh	King Abdullah Sports City	Jeddah	Wednesday
58,600	1	16 August 2014	Al-Ahli	6–1	Hajer	King Abdullah Sports City	Jeddah	Saturday
48,763	21	3 April 2015	Al-Ahli	1–0	Al-Raed	King Abdullah Sports City	Jeddah	Friday
47,300	9	31 October 2014	Al-Ittihad	0–1	Hajer	King Abdullah Sports City	Jeddah	Friday

Last updated: 17 May 2015
Source: slstat com

See also

• Saudi King's Cup 2014–15
• Saudi 1st Division League 2014–15
• Saudi Crown Prince Cup 2014–15
• Saudi Super Cup

References

4. http://www.fifa.com/classicfootball/clubs/club=1895079/index.html
5. "Al Hilal appoint Reghecampf". The AFC.com. 27 May 2014. Retrieved 27 May 2014.
6. "Al Ittihad part company with head coach Al Koroni". The AFC.com. 28 August 2014. Retrieved 28 August 2014.
7. "More domestic disappointment for Al Hilal". The AFC.com. 19 February 2015. Retrieved 19 February 2015.
8. http://prosports.mbc.net/ar/championships/abdul-lateef-jameel-league/articles/%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%81%D9%8A%D8%B5%D9%84%D9%8A-%D9%8A%D8%AA%D8%B9%D8%A7%D9%82%D8%AF-%D9%85%D8%B9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A8%D8%B1%D8%AA%D8%BA%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%8A-%D8%A2%D9%88%D9%84%D9%8A%D9%81%D9%8A%D8%B1%D8%A7.html#comment%7Clist