Derby Banner Sparks Governance Debate: A Legal Expert Explains Why Fans Won’t Be Punished
16 November 2025
A legal expert says the Compliance Committee of the Saudi Pro League does not have the authority to sanction Al-Ittihad fans over the banner raised during the Jeddah derby against arch-rivals Al-Ahli in the Saudi Pro League.
Details of the banner
Al-Ittihad were defeated 1-0 by Al-Ahli, with the goal credited to Algerian star Riyad Mahrez, during the match at the Al-Enmaa Stadium in Jeddah in the eighth round of the season.
Al-Ahli's points moved to 16, placing them fifth in the standings, while Al-Ittihad stayed on 11 and eighth place.
During the game, a group of Al-Ittihad fans displayed a banner reading 'Shame of relegation will never be erased,' referring to Al-Ahli's relegation to the Saudi First Division after the 2021-2022 season. The banner sparked a wave of anger across social media and broadcasts, with calls for sanctions against the fans and the club itself.
The Compliance Committee stepped in to request an explanation from Al-Ittihad, according to reports published in the days prior.
However, the club replied that it is not their responsibility and that they have no role in monitoring the stands of both teams.
It also stressed that the incident was a single act by a small group of supporters and that the club had no involvement.
A New Compliance Committee
In a televised interview, legal expert Ayman Al-Rifai said the Compliance Committee is a new body created this season under the league's regulatory framework, and that no workshops have yet been held to clarify its mandate.
He explained that the rulebook runs to more than 200 pages, so multiple workshops are needed to explain and avoid overlap between committees.
The Compliance Committee is a supervisory, preventive body, he added. Its remit is to ensure that procedures and circumstances around matches are sound, and it does not issue disciplinary or ethical sanctions; it only imposes administrative penalties in the area assigned to it.
If a problem is raised to the Compliance Committee, it studies whether the issue happened deliberately or by mistake; if deliberate, it is referred to the appropriate authority.
By contrast, the Disciplinary Committee punishes events inside the stadium, such as a red card, while the Ethics Committee handles off-field matters like harassment, forgery, and deception.
If a problem arises around a banner, the Compliance Committee will not punish fans, he noted. A banner or tifos must be submitted to the league at least 10 days before the game for approval, then it enters the match in a proper, regulated way.
In this derby, the tifos entered illegally, he added, and the stadium operator—hired by the hosting club—bears the security responsibility.
If the operator and the club had fulfilled their duties, the entry could be traced from the start, but the crisis at hand was the responsibility of the operator, he argued.
Ultimately, the first line of intervention was the Disciplinary Committee, because this is a matter of fan conduct; it is not the remit of the Compliance Committee.
As for the administrative lapse, where the company failed in its duties, that falls to the Compliance Committee, he concluded. In my view, the Disciplinary Committee should intervene and issue on-field disciplinary sanctions regarding the stadium situation, while internal administrative matters should remain with Compliance.
The Compliance Committee will consider the banner's administrative violations, but the core of punishing fan behavior belongs to the Disciplinary Committee, Al-Rifai said.
And he wrapped up with a final note on governance: When the curtain falls, the stage is set for committees to cooperate, not to hold grudges; the fans may cheer or jeer, but the rulebook keeps the show on the rails.
Punchline 1: If banners counted as receipts, the league would audit a few stands just to balance the books. Punchline 2: And if football governance had a soundtrack, today it would be a remix featuring a whistle, a banner, and a few social media melodramas.
