Al Hilal has officially announced, the first football team will not play in the 2025/2026 edition of the Saudi Super Cup.
This decision was made known via an official letter sent to the Saudi Arabian Football Federation (SAFF), in which the club explained the reasons that led to its withdrawal from the tournament.
According to the Club’s official website: “The club explained that the Saudi Super Cup draw, held on June 19, 2025, took place just one day after Al Hilal’s opening match in the group stage of the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup in the United States, against Real Madrid.
“The Saudi representative continued its honorable campaign by advancing to the Round of 16 and then the Quarter-finals, which took place on July 4, 2025.
“After that match, the team had to remain in Orlando for three additional days due to flight constraints, which reduced the players’ annual leave to only 24 days in the event of withdrawal, and to 21 days if the club participated in the Super Cup.
“This violates clause (5.6) of the mandatory contracts included in the annexes of the Professionalism and Player Status Regulations issued by SAFF, which stipulates that players are entitled to a minimum of 28 days of annual leave—a condition already included in all professional player contracts of Al Hilal’s first team.
“The letter also noted that these exceptional circumstances caused the players’ annual leave to overlap with the pre-season preparations of other competing clubs.
“As a result, Al Hilal was forced to delay the start of its own preparations for the upcoming season, which further increased the competitive imbalance among participating clubs.
“Furthermore, the domestic competition schedule issued by SAFF on June 1, 2025, did not mention that the Super Cup would be held in Hong Kong.
“The tournament’s location was only announced on June 13, 2025—at which point Al Hilal’s delegation had already traveled to the U.S., and none of their matches had been played yet.
“The end date of their international participation was also still unknown at that time.”
