How Saudi Pro League attendances compare to Premier League, Championship and English football

The line regurgitated by many of the world-class footballers who switched Europe for Saudi Arabia during the summer was that they had made the switch to be 'part of a new project'.

It was nothing to do with the eye-watering sums of money on offer, it was the promise of expanding the global reach of football and exposing a new corner of the world to the beautiful game that sealed the deal. Well, if you believe that, you'll believe anything.

Fast forward several months, the likes of Karim Benzema, Jordan Henderson and N'Golo Kante are learning the reality of the situation as they play in front of embarrassing attendances in fixtures that don't have an ounce of the competitiveness of matches in Europe's top divisions.

What has been particularly noteworthy are the minuscule crowds in the Saudi Pro League as the competitions struggles to capture the imagination of audiences.

But how do the crowds in the Saudi Pro League compare to those in English football?

It's fair to say Saudi Pro League crowds pale in comparison to those in the majority of Europe's big leagues, while also struggling to compete with attendances in South America and North America.

The club with the largest attendance in the Saudi Pro League in 2023/24 is Al Hilal, Neymar's side who average 27,148 spectators per home game. Despite that not being a significantly low number, their King Fahd International Stadium houses just under 68,752 people, meaning their average attendance sits at just under 40% capacity.

It's a similar story for some of the other big hitters in the Pro League. Benzema's Al Ittihad average 23,003 fans despite a 62,345 capacity, while Al Ahli manage just 17,916 per match with a capacity of just over 62,000 as well.

On average, Cristiano Ronaldo