Saudi Arabia football federation

Two platforms, two audiences: positioning the Saudi league for fans worldwide.

The federation needed a digital presence that matched the ambition of Saudi football while serving two audiences: deeply local fans and international followers with no prior relationship to the league.

It was a pivotal moment for Saudi football. The federation was moving from a little-known institution with almost no international impact to one of the most consequential: driven by the calibre of players signed into the league and, above all, because in the same period the country was chosen to host the 2034 World Cup. Its digital presence did not reflect that ambition or that scale. We had to reposition that presence for two different audiences at once: the local fan, deeply embedded in the culture and context of Saudi football, and the international fan, arriving with no prior relationship to the league or its clubs. Designing for one without alienating the other called for cultural intelligence, not only screen craft.

I led end-to-end UX across web and app for a federation repositioning itself for global audiences. The work was structured in three clear phases.

## Research Before touching a single wireframe, we opened discovery. With support from a designer, I ran remote interviews with the international fan: how someone with no prior link discovers, engages with, and eventually follows a league. That material was crossed with research and analysis of expectations, content priorities, and sports-media habits.

In parallel, the local track needed a different approach. I traveled to Riyadh for field research and had to improvise: the country made access hard. I found the contacts myself. Access to female fans was even harder. I reached a women’s football team and interviewed several players, alongside sessions with local fans in their cultural context and a federation stakeholder. Findings from a room are not the same as survey findings: that is where you learn what is negotiable and what is identity.

## Web design With a designer and a visual designer we chased a modern website for global and local audiences at once: one flexible architecture, without either side feeling compromised. Shared engagement moments (live data, news, competition structure) and cultural flex where it mattered most.

## App design When scope grew to include the app, the focus shifted toward the local audience and what the federation needed on mobile: real-time results, gamification, and an experience built to engage fans day to day, beyond informing.