Saudi Arabia OVERVIEW 
Saudi Arabia qualified for their third successive FIFA World Cup™ finals in 2002. The royal family had forbidden football in the kingdom until 1951. In 1994, shock wins over Belgium and Morocco saw them reach the second round, where Sweden proved too strong and triumphed 3-1.
Four years later they failed to progress from the group stage after being overpowered by Denmark and eventual winners France. In 2002, Saudi Arabia opened their tournament with an 8-0 defeat to Germany. Subsequent, though more moderate, defeats to Cameroon and Republic of Ireland were merely exercises in damage limitation. Improvement is the only way forward in 2006 for the Saudi's.
Scroll down the page for world cup statistics of Saudi Arabia and
background information on the country.
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Saudi Arabia World Cup Statistics
Confederation: AsiaPrevious World Cup Appearances: 1994, 1998, 2002 Best Finish: Last 16 (1994) Saudi Arabia General Information
Capital City: RiyadhCurrency: Rial Population: 24.3 million Official Languages: Arabic Country History and Background
In 1902, Abd Al-Aziz bin Abd al-Rahman Al Saud captured Riyadh and set out on a 30-year campaign to unify the Arabian Peninsula. Today, the monarchy is ruled by a son of Abd Al-Aziz, and the country's Basic Law stipulates that the throne shall remain in the hands of the aging sons and grandsons of the kingdom's founder. Following Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1990, Saudi Arabia accepted the Kuwaiti royal family and 400,000 refugees while allowing Western and Arab troops to deploy on its soil for the liberation of Kuwait the following year. The continuing presence of foreign troops on Saudi soil after Operation Desert Storm remained a source of tension between the royal family and the public until the US military's near-complete withdrawal to neighboring Qatar in 2003. The first major terrorist attacks in Saudi Arabia in several years, which occurred in May and November 2003, prompted renewed efforts on the part of the Saudi government to counter domestic terrorism and extremism, which also coincided with a slight upsurge in media freedom and announcement of government plans to phase in partial political representation. A burgeoning population, aquifer depletion, and an economy largely dependent on petroleum output and prices are all ongoing governmental concerns. Player to Watch
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