Jordan Henderson just played in front of 696 people – how small are Saudi Pro League crowds?

For Jordan Henderson’s final Liverpool appearance at Anfield in May, there was a crowd of 53,306.

When he turned out for Al Ettifaq against Al Riyadh last Sunday, there were 696 people watching.

Henderson has played nine matches in the Saudi Pro League (SPL) since joining his new side in July and, although last weekend’s match in the Saudi capital was the lowest attendance he has experienced, he played in front of 976 people during a 3-1 win away to Abha last month.

So far, the biggest SPL crowd to watch Steven Gerrard’s side was away at Al Ahli last month, where there were 14,045 spectators. The biggest Al Ettifaq home crowd Henderson has seen, at the Prince Mohamed bin Fahd Stadium in Dammam, was for his debut against Al Nassr in August — 13,930 people watched.

The combined attendance for all nine fixtures Henderson has played in is 64,476 — not much more than the capacity at Anfield.

In promotional material given to international media ahead of the 2023-24 SPL season, it was claimed that “80 per cent of the nation’s population now engages with football, either through watching, playing, or following”. However, despite the big-name recruits over summer, that engagement is yet to translate to full terraces.

Of the 95 SPL matches for which attendance figures have been released this season, 18 had a crowd lower than 1,000. That was not confined to a couple of clubs — eight teams have had home crowds smaller than four figures.

The SPL’s smallest crowd this season was 133, when Al Riyadh lost 1-0 to Al Akhdoud at the Prince Faisal bin Fahd Stadium in Riyadh on September 1, which is the same stadium where Henderson played last week.

The SPL club with the lowest average home attendance is Abha, who were 16th out of 18 in the table at the time of writing. Abha lack the big-name foreigners recruited this summer by the SPL’s four Public Investment Fund-owned clubs — Al Ahli, Al Hilal, Al Ittihad and Al Nassr — and their average home attendance is 1,988 this season. For their home match against Al-Riyadh, the crowd was 210. Away to Al Wehda it was 661.

Most of the stars recruited to the SPL over the summer have so far avoided playing in front of crowds of under 1,000, an attendance far lower than last season’s National League average of 3,349 — the fifth tier of English football.

The smallest SPL crowd that current Ballon d’Or holder Karim Benzema has played in front of for his new team Al Ittihad was 4,149, when they played at Al Raed at the start of the season, a match in which former Premier League stars N’Golo Kante and Fabinho also featured. Al Itthad’s average home attendance this season is 25,658, the highest in the league, although on Thursday against Al Hazem there were only 12,113 fans.

Karim Benzema playing in front of a sparse crowd against Al Raed (AFP via Getty Images)

As well as having the highest average home attendance, reigning SPL champions Al Ittihad had the second highest attendance for a single match, when 55,764 people watched them lose 1-0 at home to Al Ahli on October 6 at the King Abdullah Sports City stadium just north of Jeddah. Playing for the opposition in that match were Roberto Firmino, Riyad Mahrez, Edouard Mendy and Allan Saint-Maximin.

That foursome signed for Al Ahli over the summer and they all appeared in a 5-1 loss away to Al Fateh in front of 11,715 spectators, which is the smallest SPL crowd they have played in front of this season.

The third biggest SPL crowd this season was Al Hilal at home to Al Ahli yesterday, which was watched by 50,896. The fourth biggest SPL crowd was Al Ittihad at home to Al Hilal, which was watched by 23,742 people.

The biggest SPL crowd this season was at the King Fahd International Stadium in Riyadh, when 59,600 turned up, presumably because they wanted to see the pre-match unveiling of Al Hilal’s new signing Neymar ahead of the team’s 1-1 draw with Al Fayha. Neymar didn’t play in that match.

Neymar’s first start for his new team came away to Damac, a match played in front of 11,072 people. Neymar made his debut as a substitute in a 6-1 win over Al-Riyadh, a home match with a crowd of 15,373 in which Kalidou Koulibaly, Aleksandar Mitrovic and Ruben Neves also played. Neymar’s only other SPL appearance before getting injured came against Al Shabab at home in front of 14,769 people.

The smallest SPL crowd that Cristiano Ronaldo has played in front of this season was away to Al Tai, a match which his team Al Nassr won 2-1. Also playing for Al Nassr were Sadio Mane and Aymeric Laporte. The crowd that day was 10,898, a far cry from what the former Premier League stars were once used to.

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(Top photo: Jordan Henderson, left, with his Al Ettifaq team-mates as they prepared to face Al Riyadh; Adam Nurkiewicz/Getty Images)