JEDDAH: Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz will attend the final match and hand over the trophy to the winner of the King's Cup football tournament Thursday night at King Abdullah Sports City stadium in Jeddah.
The match is set for 8:30 p.m. with Riyadh-based Al-Hilal aiming to win back-to-back titles against Al-Ahli of Jeddah having defeated Al-Nasr, another Riyadh-based club, in last year's final.
The championship that started in 1957 included only teams of the Western Region clubs and was won by Makkah’s team Al-Wehda.
The tournament format then was points system, where teams that had the most points qualified for a three-group league. The three leading teams, in addition to a team qualifying by draw, play knockout last-four matches. Central region teams started participating in the championship in 1961 with one of them, Al-Hilal, winning the cup. Two years after that, Eastern Province teams joined the competition, with Al-Ettifaq being the first of the region to win the trophy in 1968.
In 1976, the championship format was changed to knock-out, which is being followed to date. Since 2013, the tournament has been expanded to include all 153 clubs in the Kingdom.
Ahli and Jeddah's Al-Ittihad are the top two teams with the most number of cups won at 12 and 8 respectively, followed by Hilal at 7, Nasr at 6 and Al-Shabab at 3. Ettifaq and Wehda each have two titles.
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King Salman to attend King's Cup final
King Salman to attend King's Cup final
Lando Norris crowned Formula One world champion
ABU DHABI: Lando Norris claimed his maiden Formula One world drivers’ title in Abu Dhabi on Sunday, ending Max Verstappen’s four-year reign.
The Briton finished third in the season-closer behind race winner Verstappen and the other title challenger, McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri, to claim the crown by two points.
Norris, in tears on the team radio, said: “Thanks so much. I love you mum, I love you dad.”
“That was exciting, a little too exciting, awesome,” said McLaren team principal Zak Brown.
Norris becomes Britain’s first world champion since Lewis Hamilton in 2020 with this 13th drivers’ crown for McLaren.
The 26-year-old’s success comes over half a century after Emerson Fittipaldi claimed the British marque’s first drivers’ title in 1974.
A galaxy of F1 greats followed — James Hunt (1976), Niki Lauda (1984), Alain Prost (1985, 1986, 1989), Ayrton Senna (1988, 1990, 1991), Mikka Hakkinen (1998, 1999) and Hamilton in 2008.
McLaren, headed by team principal Andrea Stella and CEO Brown, secured back-to-back constructors’ titles in Singapore last month.
Sunday’s season-closer was the first time the title was decided by a contest involving more than two drivers since a four-way scrap at the final race in Abu Dhabi in 2010.
The Briton finished third in the season-closer behind race winner Verstappen and the other title challenger, McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri, to claim the crown by two points.
Norris, in tears on the team radio, said: “Thanks so much. I love you mum, I love you dad.”
“That was exciting, a little too exciting, awesome,” said McLaren team principal Zak Brown.
Norris becomes Britain’s first world champion since Lewis Hamilton in 2020 with this 13th drivers’ crown for McLaren.
The 26-year-old’s success comes over half a century after Emerson Fittipaldi claimed the British marque’s first drivers’ title in 1974.
A galaxy of F1 greats followed — James Hunt (1976), Niki Lauda (1984), Alain Prost (1985, 1986, 1989), Ayrton Senna (1988, 1990, 1991), Mikka Hakkinen (1998, 1999) and Hamilton in 2008.
McLaren, headed by team principal Andrea Stella and CEO Brown, secured back-to-back constructors’ titles in Singapore last month.
Sunday’s season-closer was the first time the title was decided by a contest involving more than two drivers since a four-way scrap at the final race in Abu Dhabi in 2010.
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