The Saudi Professional League (SPL) has revealed the criteria and factors it relied on in building the match schedule for the Saudi Professional League "Roshn Saudi League" for the 2026-2027 season, which begins on August 13, 2026 and concludes on May 29, 2027, ahead of the announcement of the season's match schedule.

The announcement of the scheduling criteria comes before the release of the schedule, with the aim of clarifying the principles adopted in the distribution and sequencing of matches, given the exceptional density of international, continental, and domestic commitments in the upcoming season's sports calendar, and to enhance clarity of the schedule-building mechanism for clubs, fans, and media.

In this context, the league indicated that a workshop was held with all clubs to present the scheduling mechanism and calendar, and all clubs were given the opportunity to share their requests regarding the sequence of matches and scheduling of dates.

Eight Saudi clubs will participate in four external tournaments next season, alongside FIFA international breaks and the Saudi national team's commitments, which take up about 80 days of the calendar, in addition to hosting the 2027 AFC Asian Cup, which requires over 44 days, not including the handover period of stadiums before the tournament.

The calendar also includes 59 days allocated to various Saudi and continental tournaments, and 43 days for rest periods between matches, while the league has 102 actual days to schedule 306 matches across 34 rounds of the Saudi League.

The schedule construction was based on three main factors that control the sequence of matches and their temporal and geographical distribution throughout the season: schedule-building criteria, classification of clubs according to their sports performance, and stadium readiness and availability.

The league adopted ten main criteria for building the schedule, most notably that no club plays more than two consecutive home or away matches, and that each club plays one home and one away match in the first two and last two rounds of the season. The criteria also stipulate that the rest period between two consecutive matches for a club shall not be less than two days, regardless of the competition in which it participates, taking into account player safety and the regularity of clubs' participation in various tournaments.

Regarding club classification, they were categorized into four levels: Level A and Level B each include five clubs, while Level C and Level D each include four clubs. The classification aims to achieve greater balance in the match sequence, so that no club faces Level A clubs in two consecutive rounds, limiting the clustering of difficult matches in close time periods. The evaluation is based on results from three seasons, using fixed time weights that give greater weight to the most recent season.

As for stadiums, their operational requirements and availability, given the commitments related to regional, continental, and international hosting, were among the influencing factors.

The league confirmed that the season schedule was built in light of studying these factors together, to serve the regularity and competitive fairness of the competition, take into account the various clubs' participations, and contribute to providing a better experience for fans, in an exceptional season in terms of the density and overlap of sports commitments.

The league is scheduled to announce the match schedule for the 2026-2027 Roshn Saudi League in the next phase, including the distribution of round matches throughout the season.