Around half of last season’s Roshn Saudi League matches featured remarkably little time with the ball in play, with Al Ahli identified as the club most closely associated with what has been described as a serious problem for the competition.
A report by Saudi newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat, using figures from statistics company Opta, examined the amount of actual playing time recorded during matches in the previous Roshn Saudi League campaign.
The findings highlighted an unusual situation across the competition, where approximately 50% of matches were played with the ball in motion for only part of the scheduled game time. Al Ahli was singled out as the biggest contributor to that pattern.
“Actual playing time” refers to the periods when the ball is actively in play. It excludes stoppages caused by fouls, injuries, substitutions, set-pieces and video assistant referee reviews, as well as delays before play resumes.
The measure is intended to show how much of a match is spent in active football rather than how long the game lasts on the official clock. A standard fixture is scheduled to run for 90 minutes, plus added time, but the ball may be out of play for significant periods during that span.
Those interruptions can occur for a range of reasons. A foul may stop an attack, an injury may require treatment, or a substitution may delay the restart. Set-pieces can also lead to extended pauses, particularly when players and officials take time to organise before a free-kick, corner or penalty is taken.
VAR checks represent another possible break in the flow of a match. Even when a review does not lead to a change in the referee’s decision, the process can prevent play from restarting for a period of time.
The Opta-based report therefore focused not on the official duration of matches, but on the time during which the ball was actually being played. Its figures pointed to a wider issue affecting the Roshn Saudi League last season, with roughly half of the competition’s matches containing limited active playing time.
Al Ahli was placed at the centre of the report’s criticism, described as the club most responsible for the situation. The findings gave the club particular prominence in a discussion that concerns the overall pace and continuity of football in the Saudi top flight.
The report did not present the issue simply as a matter of individual stoppages. Instead, it used the accumulated time lost through fouls, injuries, substitutions, dead-ball situations, VAR interventions and delayed restarts to assess how much football spectators were actually seeing.
The figures from Opta provide a statistical view of match flow in the previous season and underline the difference between the scheduled length of a fixture and the amount of time in which the ball remains in play.
