SPORTS

Saudi Arabia is a beautiful, ancient land rich in heritage with a number of exciting sports, both ancient and modern, such as camel racing, horse racing and football. Hundreds of facilities have been established throughout the Kingdom so that all Saudis can exercise regularly or enjoy popular spectator sports. At every level of the Saudi educational system – from kindergarten through university – there is an emphasis on the importance of sports. The Kingdom has many different types of sports facilities, ranging from major sports complexes to neighborhood facilities and clubs. The sports complexes (called Sports Cities) are located in large population centers with stadiums seating between 10,000 and 60,000 people. There is also additional indoor stadium seating, both indoor and outdoor courts, swimming pools, playgrounds, conference halls, and sports medicine clinics just to name a few.

There are neighborhood sports facilities that were built in order for younger Saudis to be able to play sports such as basketball and volleyball. There are also parks and playgrounds for other indoor facilities to host various other activities. The local sports clubs offer a range of facilities for different sports, with soccer fields, indoor and outdoor courts, swimming pools, playgrounds and recreational areas. These are located in all of the cities and towns and used for youth camps to host local events throughout the year. The most popular modern sport in Saudi Arabia is Soccer. The Saudi Arabia national football team, known by its fans as “al-Sogour” which means "The Falcons" or “al-Akhdar” which means "The Green") is the national team of Saudi Arabia and is controlled by the Saudi Arabia Football Federation. They are considered one of Asia's most successful national teams. Saudi Arabia has won the Asian Cup three times (1984, 1988, and 1996) and qualified for the World Cup four consecutive times ever since debuting at the 1994 tournament. There are the traditional sports that include camel racing, horse racing, hunting with hounds and falconry as well as some of the more modern sports that have gained a following among Saudis, including volleyball, gymnastics, swimming, basketball and golf.