Al-Taawoun will play their next two home Saudi Pro League matches in an empty stadium after the Saudi Arabian Football Federation’s disciplinary and ethics committee ruled that supporters at the King Abdullah Sport City Stadium in Buraidah chanted the name of Diogo Jota at Al-Hilal midfielder Ruben Neves, Jota’s close friend and former Portugal team-mate, who died in a car crash in July 2025.
The club were also fined 100,000 riyals (£19,800) for a breach of article 51-2 of the federation’s regulations. The ruling is not subject to appeal.
What happened in Buraidah
The chants came during Saturday’s round-seven fixture, which Al-Hilal won 6-0 — the heaviest home defeat of Al-Taawoun’s season. Footage circulated within minutes: sections of the home support repeatedly chanting “Jota” in Neves’ direction, and the 29-year-old responding with sarcastic applause and a thumbs-up before pointing to the sky, then to his own eye, then back towards the stand.
Neves was direct afterwards. “I just hope they don’t go to pray later after what they did,” he said.
The context is not incidental. Jota, 28, died alongside his brother Andre Silva when their car crashed in Zamora, Spain, in July 2025, days after Jota’s wedding. Neves flew from the Club World Cup in the United States to carry his friend’s coffin. He has since worn Portugal’s number 21 shirt — Jota’s number — at international level.
Al-Hilal lodged a formal complaint with the federation, describing what they heard as “collective offensive and unacceptable chants” that “contradict sporting values and ethics”. The club’s statement argued that “sporting competition, however intense it may be, cannot be a justification for infringing on the human and personal circumstances of players”.
Al-Taawoun condemned the behaviour and said it “did not represent the club or their supporters”, characterising the chanting as the act of individuals and pledging to work with the authorities to identify those responsible. That distinction did not spare them: under article 51-2, clubs carry liability for conduct inside their own stadium regardless of who started it.
Ronaldo’s intervention and why the sanction matters
The case escalated when Cristiano Ronaldo, who played alongside both Jota and Neves for Portugal, demanded action publicly.
“The league must take action and punish this kind of fan behaviour,” the Al-Nassr forward wrote. “This is no longer football, and there have to be limits. People who behave like this should never be allowed to enter a stadium again.”
Ronaldo’s call for lifetime bans went further than the ruling delivered. The committee punished the club, not identified individuals, which is the conventional route across most federations — European precedent from tragedy chanting cases involving Hillsborough, the Munich air disaster and the death of Emiliano Sala has tended to combine collective stadium closures with separate criminal or club-level bans pursued afterwards. Al-Taawoun say that process is under way on their end.
Two closed-door matches is a meaningful penalty by Saudi Pro League standards, where crowd sanctions have more often meant partial stand closures or fines alone. The speed matters too: the incident was on Saturday, the ruling landed within days. For a league that has spent three years and several billion pounds recruiting players like Neves, Ronaldo and Karim Benzema partly on the promise of a professional, well-regulated environment, a slow or soft response would have been read internationally as tolerance.
The financial element is close to symbolic — 100,000 riyals is a rounding error against Saudi Pro League budgets. The deterrent is the empty stadium: lost gate revenue, lost atmosphere, and a visible mark against the club for two fixtures.
Neves answers on the pitch
Three days after the abuse, Neves gave the sharpest reply available to him. In Al-Hilal’s AFC Champions League Elite opener on Tuesday, he converted a penalty in first-half stoppage time and set up Sergej Milinkovic-Savic’s 72nd-minute goal in a 2-1 win over Al-Gharafa — a chaotic match in which both sides were reduced to ten men in the 32nd minute, Crysencio Summerville and Ismael Bennacer dismissed within seconds of each other. Alaaeddin Hasan pulled one back in stoppage time.
Simone Inzaghi’s side, chasing a fifth Asian title, next face Al-Sadd on 13 October. Al-Taawoun, meanwhile, will serve their sanction across their next two home league fixtures, playing to silence.
Whether the ruling changes behaviour in Saudi stands will be tested the next time an opponent carries a visible grief into an away end. The federation has now set the price.
Sports journalist and editor at SportsPortal.net. Covers cricket, football, Formula 1, tennis, and basketball with a focus on how global sports connect with Pakistani audiences. Follows the PSL, Pakistan national cricket team, Premier League, and major international tournaments. Has reported on sports for digital audiences since 2021.
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