Saudi Pro League postpones three matches after Houthi attacks, including one involving Cristiano Ronaldo’s Al Nassr.
Saudi Arabia’s football league has postponed three fixtures, including one involving Cristiano Ronaldo’s Al Nassr team, following the dramatic escalation in the threat of missile attacks from Yemen’s Houthis.
The Saudi Pro League’s (SPL) matchweek nine fixtures have been pushed back in the calendar for “logistical considerations, taking into account the mandatory minimum rest period between matches”, according to a statement published late on Tuesday on the SPL website.
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The meeting between league leaders Al Hilal and Al Riyadh and the match between Al Ittihad and Al Shabab have been postponed to December 19, while the clash between Al Ahli and Ronaldo’s Al Nassr has been rescheduled for March 6, 2027.
The SPL added, however, that the other matchweek nine fixtures “will be played according to the previously announced schedule with no changes”.
On Monday, Al Nassr’s AFC Champions League match against Uzbek side Neftchi Fergana in Riyadh was delayed by an hour after the coalition announced it had intercepted a missile fired by the Houthis towards the Saudi capital.
Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces have launched a counteroffensive in Yemen to retake coastal territory from the Houthis in recent days, with missile strikes on airports and energy facilities across the kingdom.
The latest round of fighting was triggered after two separate strikes that hit Riyadh’s King Khalid international airport left 14 people dead and hundreds injured, and operations suspended in the worst attack since 2015.
Reporting from the Qatari capital Doha, Al Jazeera’s Zein Basravi said any notion that the Saudi-led coalition could contain the conflict to Yemen had been shattered over the last 10 days, which saw the targeting of several sites in Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia’s civil defence agency said on Wednesday that one person was injured by falling debris after the kingdom downed a Houthi ballistic missile launched towards Riyadh.
Yemen’s Houthis are threatening to keep targeting Saudi airports and oil sites in the coming days, with their attacks on Saudi Aramco facilities in Dhahran and Riyadh adding to the assault on King Khalid International Airport.