"I bear full responsibility," wrote Yasser Al-Misehal on Sunday — and then he acted on it. Saudi Arabia's football federation president resigned after the national team crashed out of the World Cup at the group stage, finishing bottom of Group H with just two points from three games.
Two draws against Uruguay and Cape Verde, a loss to Spain, and seven years in the job erased in one painful tournament.
A chaotic buildup that haunted them
The preparation was a mess before a ball was even kicked. Replacing coach Herve Renard with Georgios Donis less than two months before the tournament started was an eyebrow-raising call that now looks catastrophic. Renard had delivered Saudi Arabia's famous win over Argentina at the 2022 World Cup. Donis delivered a group-stage exit to Cape Verde.
This is Saudi Arabia's third consecutive World Cup and seventh overall — a program with genuine pedigree. The government has thrown enormous resources at the sport in recent years, luring Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar, and a string of other high-profile players to the Saudi Pro League in a bid to raise domestic standards. The theory was that a rising tide would lift the national team. The group stage table says otherwise.
The 2034 problem
Al-Misehal spent seven years in the role and played a central part in securing Saudi Arabia's hosting rights for the 2034 World Cup. That's the real awkward context here. The country is set to host the biggest sporting event on the planet in under a decade, and it just couldn't get out of a group containing Spain, Uruguay, and Cape Verde.
Whoever takes over the federation has a steep climb. The infrastructure investment is real, the ambition is genuine, but a coaching reshuffle and an early World Cup exit are exactly the kind of warning signs that don't disappear with a resignation. Saudi Arabia's odds of putting on a credible home performance in 2034 just got a harder question mark attached to them.
"The national team's failure to qualify for the next round," Al-Misehal wrote, "is a result that falls short of all our ambitions." On that, at least, everyone agrees.
