The Basketball Association ended its domestic season with a major flop, abandoning the most important success factor in any sport – attendance. This coincided with the wonderful planning of the Handball Federation, which ended its season with great success. The leaders of the hands understand that the Eastern Province is the stronghold of Saudi handball, so he chose to hold his final championship in it, so the hall in all matches seemed to be overcrowded with fans , in a scene that uplifts the game and the players. The Basketball Association deprived the Al-Ittihad team of fans by insisting on holding the elite championship during its two rounds outside of Jeddah, despite the fact that Jeddah is full of halls suitable for tournaments and in the presence of fans, in case Al – Jawhara and Prince Abdullah Al-Faisal stadiums are busy.
And the Basketball Association officials should have known that the attendance of the public adds to them and the game, as well as other errors that accompanied the tour in Medina or Riyadh, and even before two tours, the transfer of association matches to Mecca, which had the effect of depriving the game public support that was not hidden from anyone due to the lack of fans of Jeddah, especially the federal public.
Al-Madina polled the opinion of basketball experts on this matter.
Violation of equal opportunities
First, the former head of the Federation basketball team, Mohamed Khamis, said: “The absence of fans at the matches of this season has led to a decrease in the level of play. He added: “This season, Al Ittihad and Al Ahly have abandoned their home ground and moved their matches to Mecca and Medina, which greatly affected the strength of the competition and violated the principle of equal opportunity. It is unreasonable for basketball to clubs played on its grounds and between fans and clubs outside their stadium and bore the burden of travel and all other expenses He continued: “The Basketball Association should also look for sponsorship contracts that increase competition and better market the game.”
He said: “There is no doubt that refereeing errors have affected the competition this season, and this is an eternal problem, even with the presence of the rulers of the Persian Gulf in the Golden Square championship. Seconds remained, and everyone knows that basketball is a game of seconds, fractions seconds.
And all the unfair disqualification of the player Muthanna Al-Marwani after the match with Al-Hilal, despite the existence of such cases, but such decisions were not made. Finally, and to be honest, besides the negatives from the Basketball Association, there are also pluses, primarily the transmission of matches in private channels, as well as through YouTube channels, as well as the Statistics Committee created by the Basketball Association, as well as the presence of prominent local residents, the likes of Jaafar Smith and Al Amoudi and that’s a positive thing this season.
They deprived the union of fans
As for Hassan Atallah, the former captain of the Al Ittihad national team and club, he said: “The Al Ittihad team surprised me personally this season after a shaky level last season due to the departure of some of its influential players. , the team performed well this season and were close to winning the Elite Championship and the Fed Cup, but there were reasons that prevented the march of Al-Ittihad this season, including depriving the team of the opportunity to play on their ground and stressing the players a lot of travel and transport .
He added: “There has been a clear lack of fans this season and this has been the result of Al Ittihad being denied the opportunity to play at their stadium, in addition to the declining level of Uhud and Al Ansar. as well as Al-Ahli and Al-Wahda. Atallah emphasized the need to take care of marketing their role in the return of basketball, and the Game Association Board of Directors should pay attention to this point, especially since they are former players on the field and have sufficient experience.
Regarding refereeing mistakes that Al Ittihad suffered, Hassan Atallah said: “All clubs suffer from refereeing and I consider these mistakes part of the game, but a serious mistake was made in the match between Al Ittihad and Al Nasr . from the referee and focus on the development of Saudi basketball. Finally, I wish the Basketball Association the best of luck. Change this number. And, of course, the need to pay attention to schools and universities in order to help the development of Saudi basketball.