The Roshn Saudi League (RSL) is the top professional football league in Saudi Arabia—and a key player in the country’s development goals. As part of Vision 2030, Saudi Arabia aims to diversify its economy and enhance its international profile through sport.
This study by Bain & Company and Twenty First Group offers a scorecard on the RSL’s performance over the last two seasons (2023–24 and 2024–25). Our teams used objective market data and analytical modeling to evaluate four critical growth areas: sporting performance, squad value creation, youth development, and fan engagement.
Written in collaboration with
Written in collaboration with
League highlights
The RSL has experienced impressive growth in the last two years. Squad value increased by more than 50% during the 2023–24 season and a healthy 35% in 2024–25. Saudi nationals have a significant presence on the pitch, earning 44% of playing time on average across the last two seasons. Digital fan engagement has also increased: Social media followers grew 5% last season, following a surge of more than 50% in 2023–24.
Top-performing clubs
The study also ranked RSL teams:
- Al-Ittihad was the top team in sporting performance, while Al-Hilal led in squad quality. Al-Hilal’s starting squad was the strongest “on paper” in terms of quality and depth, but that didn’t consistently translate to wins on the pitch.
- Al-Qadsiah led the RSL in value creation; It increased squad market value by 67% and achieved 94% squad efficiency. Al-Fateh experienced the highest organic growth (3%) by developing its existing roster.
- Al-Fateh and Al-Qadsiah tied for commitment to youth development. Their youth players saw nearly double the league average playing time (21% of minutes vs. 12%).
- Al-Wehda, Al-Khaleej, and Al-Raed led in national development, with Saudi nationals on these rosters playing about 50% of game minutes.
- Al-Nassr had the strongest digital fan engagement, with around 54 million social media followers and the highest Google Trends score.
- Al-Ittihad attracted the largest crowds, with an average stadium attendance of about 35,000 per game. The league-wide average was around 8,400 attendees per game.
Building a powerhouse league
The RSL has the potential to grow into a globally competitive league—but it will require sustained investment and strategic focus on key development areas. For example:
Growth is not uniform across clubs, with some improving faster than others. This threatens to polarize the league when the RSL needs to rise as one.
Teams have made costly acquisitions to build strength, resulting in significant mismatches between quality and wages. The average quality-to-wage gap was 52% in 2024–25, up from 49% the prior season.
Youth development is also lagging. In the RSL, U23 players accounted for only 12% of play in 2024–25 and 7% in 2023–24. By contrast, U23 talent typically plays 16%–26% of minutes in top leagues.
Attendance is also low. Stadium utilization averages 34%, which is less than half the rate of Tier 1 European leagues.
Despite these challenges, the RSL is a valuable national commodity with enormous growth potential. Continued efforts to professionalize smaller clubs, enhance value, and engage fans can become power plays—unlocking both economic value and national pride.
Twenty First Group is a global sports intelligence agency, supporting leaders in the sport sector for over a decade. We partner with forward-thinking clients to drive sporting success and ignite fan passion. By combining strategy, data science, software engineering, and design, we deliver cutting-edge solutions that keep our clients ahead of the game. At the heart of our approach is the Intelligence Engine—a suite of advanced machine learning tools that ingests, models, and learns from vast quantities of data across multiple sources. Built and continually refined by our best-in-class data scientists and engineers, it powers insights that transform decision-making. We deliver value by improving on-field performance, optimising competition formats, maximizing investment returns, and connecting brands with fans through compelling, data-driven stories. We’re trusted by some of the biggest names in global sport, including 16 of the current 20 Premier League clubs, and we’ve worked with leading leagues across Europe, North America, and the Middle East.
