The intense rivalry between Al Hilal and Al Ittihad will be put to the test once again as the Saudi Arabian powerhouses prepare to face off in the King Salman Cup.
The conclusion of the group stage action of the tournament saw Al Ittihad and Al Hilal record 2-1 victories over Iraq’s Al Shorta and Morocco’s Wydad respectively to book their places in the quarter-finals.
The results also meant the two Saudi sides will lock horns in the knockout round, with Al Ittihad topping Group A with the full nine points, and Al Hilal finishing as Group B runners-up. Their clash in Taif on Saturday not only brings some of the biggest stars in the region face to face, but also carries decades of history, rivalry and tradition with it.
While Saudi Arabia’s two major derbies are those in the capital Riyadh between Al Hilal and Al Nassr and in Jeddah between Al Ahli and Al Ittihad, the game between Al Hilal and Al Ittihad has grown in stature, earning the nickname ‘the Saudi clasico’.
Just like the original clasico between Real Madrid and Barcelona, its Saudi counterpart pits a team from the capital against one from the main coastal metropolis. And this too is a match between two of the most successful clubs in the region.
Al Ittihad are Saudi Arabia’s oldest existing football club, tracing its roots to 1927 - mere months after King Abdulaziz Al Saud declared Jeddah and the western Hejaz region part of the newly unified kingdom. Al Hilal came into existence three decades later, initially under the name ‘Olympic Club’ in Riyadh.
But it wasn’t until the late mid 1960s that the two sides crossed paths.
With a nationwide league still a decade away, the King’s Cup was the most prominent competition bringing together the top teams from around Saudi Arabia.
Al Ittihad and Mecca-based Al Wehda dominated the early years of the competition, with one or both of them appearing in every final between 1957 and 1961. Al Hilal then entered the frame, beating Al Wehda to end the duopoly in 1961. Two years later, they went head-to-head with Al Ittihad in the final, and it was the Jeddah side that emerged triumphant in the first-ever Saudi clasico, winning 3-0 to lift the 1963 King’s Cup.
A year later, Al Hilal took their revenge, beating their new rivals after a penalty shootout in the final to regain the trophy. For decades after that, both sides established themselves as part of the nation’s dominant quartet, with success ebbing and flowing between the pair alongside Al Ahli and Al Nassr.
In the mid-1990s, the rivalry took on a more intense form. This period coincided with the return of foreign players to the league and the introduction of fully professional Saudi players, which allowed the two massively popular clubs to translate their revenues into an ability to recruit the best local talent and cast their net beyond Saudi Arabia to attract players from places like South America, Africa and the rest of the Arab world.
Before the likes of Karim Benzema, N’Golo Kante and Fabinho, Ittihad attracted names like Italy’s Roberto Donadoni, Sierra Leone’s Mohamed Kallon and Mexico’s Jared Borgetti, while Al Hilal’s international heroes of that period included former Manchester United winger Andrei Kanchelskis and Morocco’s Salaheddine Bassir, who was part of Deportivo La Coruna’s historic La Liga winning side of 2001.
If one name embodied that era of success at Ittihad, it was local hero Mohammed Noor - the brilliant midfielder who captained the club for the best part of a decade and lifted the AFC Champions League trophy twice.
At Al Hilal, Sami Al Jaber established himself as arguably the greatest player in the nation’s history, becoming the first Asian player to score in three FIFA World Cups (1994, 1998 and 2006).
Between 1995 and 2011, the two clubs won seven titles each, with only Al Shabab’s two titles breaking their 16-year-long hold of the Saudi league. The competition between them extended to the continental front too, with Al Hilal winning two AFC Champions League (then known as Asian Club Championship) titles in the 1990s, and Ittihad matching them with back-to-back titles in 2004 and 2005.
The year 2009 marked the last time Al Ittihad were on top of their game, when they reached their third Champions League final in five years, losing to Japan’s Gamba Osaka, while winning the league title for the third time in six years. Since then, Al Hilal have dominated, winning two more champions league titles and sweeping seven of the next 13 league titles.
With Al Ittihad now back as league champions and having bolstered their ranks with the signing of Ballon d’Or winner Benzema among others, and Al Hilal now among the top three highest spending clubs in the world, Saturday’s quarter-final in Taif promises to be a new a chapter in an eternal rivalry that has arguably shaped the history of Saudi Arabian football.
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Starring: Amir El-Masry, Pierce Brosnan
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Rating: 4/5
The specs: 2018 Nissan Altima
Price, base / as tested: Dh78,000 / Dh97,650
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Where to donate in the UAE
The Emirates Charity Portal
You can donate to several registered charities through a “donation catalogue”. The use of the donation is quite specific, such as buying a fan for a poor family in Niger for Dh130.
The General Authority of Islamic Affairs & Endowments
The site has an e-donation service accepting debit card, credit card or e-Dirham, an electronic payment tool developed by the Ministry of Finance and First Abu Dhabi Bank.
Al Noor Special Needs Centre
You can donate online or order Smiles n’ Stuff products handcrafted by Al Noor students. The centre publishes a wish list of extras needed, starting at Dh500.
Beit Al Khair Society
Beit Al Khair Society has the motto “From – and to – the UAE,” with donations going towards the neediest in the country. Its website has a list of physical donation sites, but people can also contribute money by SMS, bank transfer and through the hotline 800-22554.
Dar Al Ber Society
Dar Al Ber Society, which has charity projects in 39 countries, accept cash payments, money transfers or SMS donations. Its donation hotline is 800-79.
Dubai Cares
Dubai Cares provides several options for individuals and companies to donate, including online, through banks, at retail outlets, via phone and by purchasing Dubai Cares branded merchandise. It is currently running a campaign called Bookings 2030, which allows people to help change the future of six underprivileged children and young people.
Emirates Airline Foundation
Those who travel on Emirates have undoubtedly seen the little donation envelopes in the seat pockets. But the foundation also accepts donations online and in the form of Skywards Miles. Donated miles are used to sponsor travel for doctors, surgeons, engineers and other professionals volunteering on humanitarian missions around the world.
Emirates Red Crescent
On the Emirates Red Crescent website you can choose between 35 different purposes for your donation, such as providing food for fasters, supporting debtors and contributing to a refugee women fund. It also has a list of bank accounts for each donation type.
Gulf for Good
Gulf for Good raises funds for partner charity projects through challenges, like climbing Kilimanjaro and cycling through Thailand. This year’s projects are in partnership with Street Child Nepal, Larchfield Kids, the Foundation for African Empowerment and SOS Children's Villages. Since 2001, the organisation has raised more than $3.5 million (Dh12.8m) in support of over 50 children’s charities.
Noor Dubai Foundation
Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum launched the Noor Dubai Foundation a decade ago with the aim of eliminating all forms of preventable blindness globally. You can donate Dh50 to support mobile eye camps by texting the word “Noor” to 4565 (Etisalat) or 4849 (du).
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Essentials
The flights
Emirates and Etihad fly direct from the UAE to Geneva from Dh2,845 return, including taxes. The flight takes 6 hours.
The package
Clinique La Prairie offers a variety of programmes. A six-night Master Detox costs from 14,900 Swiss francs (Dh57,655), including all food, accommodation and a set schedule of medical consultations and spa treatments.
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Tamkeen's offering
- Option 1: 70% in year 1, 50% in year 2, 30% in year 3
- Option 2: 50% across three years
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New UK refugee system
- A new “core protection” for refugees moving from permanent to a more basic, temporary protection
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Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
Skoda Superb Specs
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Torque: 320Nm
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Polarised public
31% in UK say BBC is biased to left-wing views
19% in UK say BBC is biased to right-wing views
19% in UK say BBC is not biased at all
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Company Profile
Company name: Yeepeey
Started: Soft launch in November, 2020
Founders: Sagar Chandiramani, Jatin Sharma and Monish Chandiramani
Based: Dubai
Industry: E-grocery
Initial investment: $150,000
Future plan: Raise $1.5m and enter Saudi Arabia next year
ACL Elite (West) - fixtures
Monday, Sept 30
Al Sadd v Esteghlal (8pm)
Persepolis v Pakhtakor (8pm)
Al Wasl v Al Ahli (8pm)
Al Nassr v Al Rayyan (10pm)
Tuesday, Oct 1
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Al Gharafa v Al Ain (10pm)
