The Damac club has recently been in turmoil, marked by fiery statements from former club figures directing harsh criticism at the current board of directors, headed by Engineer Khaled bin Mash'at. This criticism stems from the first football team's poor performance in the Saudi Professional League and what the critics describe as poor administrative and financial planning.
Abu Nakha: Contracts that embroil the club and an uncertain future
Saleh Abu Nakhah, the former president of Damac FC and one of the club's most prominent figures in previous administrations, expressed his deep dissatisfaction and profound sadness regarding what he described as the "mess" surrounding foreign player contracts. Abu Nakhah emphasized that signing foreign players to two-year contracts, despite their failure to provide the desired technical contribution and their poor initial selection, places the club in a significant financial and technical predicament from which it will be difficult to extricate itself.
Abu Nakhah asked bitterly, "Who will hold the club's management accountable? What is the stance of each official responsible for this mess, and whose interests does it serve?" These statements come at a critical time, as Al-Faris Al-Janoub (Knight of the South) began the second half of the Roshan League season with a painful loss to Al-Hazm, leaving the team stuck at 11 points. This meager tally indicates a real threat to the team's survival in the top division, especially given the fierce competition this season.
The context of the competition and the challenges of the Roshan League
These criticisms take on added significance given the historic transformation Saudi sports are undergoing. The Saudi Professional League is no longer just a local competition; it has become a global spectacle thanks to international recruitment and substantial government support. In this context, there is no room for administrative errors, as survival and competitiveness demand meticulous institutional work and carefully considered technical decisions. The presence of a club the size of Damac, representing the Asir region and the south of the Kingdom, in the lower ranks poses a threat to the club's achievements of recent years.
Al Sahab: Half a billion riyals with no achievements
For his part, Saad Al-Sahab, the former media center director of Damac FC, amplified the wave of criticism with shocking figures. Al-Sahab pointed out that the current four-year presidential term drained a massive budget of nearly half a billion riyals (an average of 125 million riyals per season), yet the final result was "unsatisfactory" and disproportionate to the scale of the expenditure.
Al-Sahab raised a series of fundamental questions reflecting the disappointment of the sports community in Khamis Mushait, asking: "Did you win the First Division League title? Did you secure a position that qualifies you for an Asian Champions League spot? Did you lift the King's Cup?" His questions weren't limited to the technical aspects, but extended to the investment and administrative side, questioning the absence of sustainable investment projects, the failure to utilize the club's real estate assets, and the extent to which the executive management had achieved its strategic objectives.
Al-Sahab concluded his remarks by pointing out that the answers to these questions are often absent or "hanging on the empty shelf," in a symbolic reference to the club's lack of championships and tangible achievements throughout the current presidential term, which puts the club's future at stake and calls for a serious pause to correct the course before it is too late.
