One year back no one believed that Al-Fateh, regarded as minnows, would touch new heights in Saudi football in a year’s time. Al-Fateh, the winner of Saudi Professional League 2012-13, their first time in the history of the tournament, has proved that the old heavy weights in the Saudi league has lost their lead in the league and new teams are slowly but surely matching up to their level.
I don’t know whether they were deserved winners or not but they made the most of the opportunities they got during the entire season.
All big teams — Al-Hilal, Al-Shabab, Ahli and Al-Ittihad — participated in the Asian Champions League, exhausting the required energy for domestic fixtures and Al-Fateh took advantage of it. Having not to play in international competitions and only 2-3 players selected for national team from Al-Fateh, the team got enough rest in between the breaks and was fresh whenever the league resumed. They don’t have superstar players and a coach but the overall balance they achieved was tremendous. They have showed the other Saudi and Gulf clubs that keeping faith in coach brings pays off.
Unlike other Saudi clubs, which pay big money to rope in big names in their squads, Al-Fateh got what they needed. A good team, a hardworking coach and a tremendous management worked for them. Al-Fateh has thought a lesson to other Saudi clubs that having big names in the squad and changing coaches frequently will not take them to the top level. Saudi football has witnessed a steep fall during the last few years. Having failed to qualify for two consecutive World Cups, winless in Asian Cup and getting eliminated in the Gulf Cup has only added to the woes of the Saudi football.
Frequent changing of coaches, selection of players for the national team only from a few selected clubs are the main reasons for the failures. Al-Fateh have shown the way in which results can be achieved. They retained the coach and the players even after results were not to their likings. Other major key is the politics being played at the management level in many of the football clubs that affects the players. It is high time for the Saudi Football Association and clubs to learn from this small-town club and adopt the best practices. — Khalid Abdullatif, By e-mail
Al-Fateh — scaling new heights
