“We reviewed the previous mechanism where the 13 regions competed against one another. After several workshops with the national sports federations, we found that many areas will struggle to compete due to the lack of official regional governing bodies to recruit and train athletes for the Saudi Games. Therefore, we have identified competition between clubs representing regions and cities across the kingdom as the optimal way to achieve our objectives in this milestone event.” 

Abdulaziz bin Turki Al Faisal, Minister of Sport and President of the Saudi Arabian Olympic and Paralympic Committee. Saudi Games sets new dates for inaugural tournament [Zawya]