The Saudi Pro League (SPL for short) (, Dawriyy al-Muḥtarifayni as-Suʿūdī), known as the Roshn Saudi League (RSL for short) (, Dawriyy Roshan as-Suʿūdī) for sponsorship reasons, is the top division of association football in the Saudi Arabian league system. It has been operating as a round-robin tournament from it inaugural season until the 1989–90 season, after that the Saudi Federation decided to merge the football League with the King's Cup in one tournament and the addition of the Golden Box. The Golden Box would be an end of season knockout competition played between the top four teams of the regular league season. These teams would play at a semi-final stage to crown the champions of Saudi Arabia. The league reverted to a round-robin system in the 2007–08 season. The Saudi Pro league is regarded as one of the best football leagues in Asia, hosting several of Asia's biggest and most wildly supported clubs such as Al-Hilal, Al-Ittihad, Al-Nassr, and Al-Ahli. The association is also regularly ranked with the highest coefficient in Asia due to having successful and consistent performances in the AFC Champions League by its clubs. The first season of competition was the 1976–77 season. Al Hilal is the most successful team, holding 18 titles in its history and most recently winning the title in 2021–22. History Up until the late 1950s, football in Saudi Arabia was organized on a regional basis, with the only nationwide tournament being the King's Cup. In 1957, the first qualification process consolidated the regional tournaments of the Central, West, East and North regions. Clubs competed in their regional leagues to qualify for the King's Cup, which was the final stage of the competition. The winner of the King's Cup was not the league winner. 1976 saw the start of the first ever professional football league in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia with eight teams, the following season the number of clubs increased to ten. The 1981–82 season saw the merger of both the Saudi Premier League and the Saudi First Division for that season exclusively to the concern of the 1982 FIFA World Cup qualification process. Twenty teams were divided into two groups, A and B. The top two in each group would enter a semi-final stage to determine the overall champions. In the following season which reverted back to regular round robin competition, the number of first-division clubs was later increased