As the Saudi Pro League continues its rapid rise as one of the world’s fastest-growing football competitions, and the Kingdom strengthens its position as a major destination for international sport, ensuring safe, consistent and professionally managed matchday environments has become an increasingly important strategic priority. And one which global event public safety consultancy UK-based, ESM Operations, has been working closely with the organisation to achieve.
With rising attendances, expanding infrastructure and growing international attention, the league recognised the need to benchmark operational performance across its venues and establish a clear framework for long-term public safety excellence. To support this ambition, the Saudi Pro League partnered with ESM Operations to undertake a comprehensive review of public safety and operational standards across league stadiums, creating a roadmap for greater consistency and continuous operational improvement.
The Saudi Pro League’s accelerated growth has created significant opportunity, while also increasing operational complexity.
As clubs continue to evolve their matchday offering, differences in stadium infrastructure, venue capacity and operational procedures can create inconsistencies in public safety delivery. For a competition growing in scale and international visibility, these variations present a challenge.
The SPL required a clear understanding of how each stadium was performing against recognised international standards, while also identifying opportunities to create a more unified operational approach across the league.
Mohammed AlAqeel, Director of Fan Experience at Saudi Pro League, commented: “As the league continues to evolve, our collaboration with ESM Operations marks an important step in strengthening safety, improving operational consistency and enhancing the overall matchday experience across all venues. By establishing league-wide standards and supporting our clubs in achieving them, we are building a stronger operational foundation that aligns with international best practice and supports Saudi Arabia’s wider ambitions as it prepares to host major global sporting events in the years ahead.”
The challenge was not simply to identify operational gaps, but to establish a strategic framework capable of supporting continuous improvement across all clubs while ensuring future scalability as the league continues to grow.
To address these challenges, ESM Operations delivered Phase One of a league-wide operational review programme covering 16 Saudi Pro League stadiums, with two venues excluded due to ongoing construction and capacity-related considerations.
The assessment focused on public safety and crowd management across the full spectator journey, with evaluations covering key operational areas including arrival, last mile, ingress and egress, stadium operations, internal circulation, pitch protection, and egress and dispersal.
A consistent scoring methodology was applied across all venues to ensure fairness and transparency. Detailed reports were produced for each stadium, assessing performance across 11 categories and multiple subcategories, benchmarked against international best practice and ESM’s extensive operational expertise.
Results were presented using a clear traffic-light-style framework, categorising performance as poor, medium, good, or very good. This enabled direct comparison across venues and provided league stakeholders with a clear, evidence-based understanding of operational strengths and development priorities.
David Dymitrow, Head of Public Safety and Crowd Management at ESM Operations, said: “This first phase has provided a clear and structured understanding of current operations across the league. By applying a consistent methodology rooted in international standards, we’ve been able to identify both strengths and opportunities for improvement.
“As the Saudi Pro League continues to develop and evolve its matchday environment, there is an increasing focus on delivering safe, secure, and professionally managed event operations. We are proud to support the league on this journey and look forward to building on these strong foundations in the next phases of the project.”
The project has provided the Saudi Pro League with a robust league-wide benchmark for public safety and operational performance, giving stakeholders a clear view of how venues are performing and enabling more informed decision-making around future planning and investment.
The review has identified examples of existing best practice while delivering targeted recommendations to strengthen public safety and operational consistency across the competition, creating a clear framework for ongoing assessment and long-term strategic development.
Significantly, the review has established the foundation for Phase Two of the programme. Building on these insights, the next steps will focus on supporting the development of a unified public safety and crowd management platform across all Saudi Pro League clubs. This will involve establishing consistent operational principles, strengthening collaboration with clubs and stakeholders, and aligning practices with recognised international standards and guidance to support safer and more effective event operations across the league.
This approach is intended to create greater consistency in planning, delivery, and oversight across matchday operations, while also supporting long-term capability development and continuous improvement throughout the league environment.
As Saudi Arabia continues to strengthen its position as a global destination for elite sport, this proactive investment ensures the Saudi Pro League is building the operational resilience required to deliver world-class matchday experiences for years to come.
Operating across three international hubs, ESM Operations supports clients across all phases of an event, from early planning and design through to live operations and post-event review across the events, sports and entertainment sectors, delivering consistent standards of public safety across diverse and complex environments.
For more information, visit https://esmoperations.com/
