The First Division League (FDL for short), also called the Yelo league for sponsorship reasons, is the second tier of professional

football in Saudi Arabia Football is the most popular sport in Saudi Arabia. Football in Saudi Arabia is governed by the Saudi Arabia Football Federation (SAFF) ( ar, الاتحاد السعودي لكرة القدم). It was founded in 1956. It administers both the clu ...

. The First Division League is ranked below the Saudi Professional League and above the

Saudi Second Division The Saudi Second Division , also known as the Second Division League (SDL), is a football league that is the third tier of the Saudi Arabian football league system. The league consists of 32 teams divided into two groups and was founded in 1996. ...

in the Saudi Arabian football league system. All of the FDL clubs qualify for the

King Cup The King Cup (sometimes spelled King's), officially known as The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques' Cup ( ar, كأس خادم الحرمين الشريفين), is the Saudi Arabian football knockout cup competition, run by the Saudi Arabian Foot ...

, the annual Saudi Cup competition. Al-Hazem are the most recent champions, winning their second title during the

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

season. The number of clubs in the league has changed throughout history, most recently in the 2018–19 season, when the number of clubs increased from 16 to 20. Since the 2019–20 season, three clubs from the First Division are directly promoted to the Pro League; on the other hand, four clubs are directly relegated to the Second Division. Hajer and Al-Wehda hold the record number of championships in the league with four. While Ohod holds the record for number of promotions from the First Division to the Pro League, nine.

Promotion and relegation

The top three teams are promoted to the

Professional League Professional sports, Professional sports leagues are organized in numerous ways. The two most significant types are one that developed in Europe, characterized by a tiered structure using promotion and relegation in order to determine participati ...

directly, while the bottom three teams are relegated to the

Second Division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

List of teams (2020–21 season)

''For details on the MS League 2020–21 season, see

here Here is an adverb that means "in, on, or at this place". It may also refer to: Software * Here Technologies, a mapping company * Here WeGo (formerly Here Maps), a mobile app and map website by Here Television * Here TV (formerly "here!"), a TV ...

.''

:''Note: Table lists in alphabetical order.''

League rules

Since the 2018–19 season the number of foreign players in the league was increased from 3 to 7. Seven substitutes are permitted to be selected, from which three can be used in the duration of the game.

Club performances

Promotions by season

Match between Al-Najma and Al-Riyadh - Saudi First Division

;Note: ¹First Division and

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

were merged in 1981–82.

Performance by club

Top scorers

References

External links

Saudi Arabia Football Federation

Saudi Arabia First Division - Hailoosport.com
(Arabic)
Saudi Arabia First Division - Hailoosport.com
{{AFC second leagues 2 Second level football leagues in Asia Sports leagues established in 1976