The 1983 King Cup was the annual edition of the King Cup (also known as the King Cup of Champions), the premier knockout football competition in Saudi Arabia. Established in 1957, the tournament is organized by the Saudi Arabian Football Federation (SAFF) and traditionally features clubs from the top tiers of Saudi football.
General format
- Structure: Single‑elimination (knock‑out) format.
- Participants: Clubs from the Saudi Professional League and, in earlier years, selected teams from lower divisions.
- Match rules: Standard 90‑minute matches; ties after regular time were resolved by extra time and, if necessary, a penalty shoot‑out.
1983 edition overview
- Season: The competition took place during the 1982‑83 Saudi football season, with matches staged at various stadiums throughout the Kingdom.
- Number of teams: Contemporary reports indicate that the tournament typically featured 32 clubs during this period, though the exact number of entrants for the 1983 edition is not conclusively documented in widely accessible sources.
- Progression: The tournament proceeded through preliminary rounds, quarter‑finals, semi‑finals, and a final.
Outcome
- Champion: Reliable, publicly available records do not consistently confirm the champion of the 1983 King Cup. Some secondary sources list Al‑Hilal as the winner, while others provide no definitive citation.
- Runner‑up: Likewise, the runner‑up for the 1983 final is not definitively established in accessible reference works.
Historical context
The early 1980s were a period of growth for Saudi club football, with the King Cup serving as a prestigious national title alongside the Saudi Premier League. The competition has been historically significant for granting its winner a place in regional club tournaments organized by the Asian Football Confederation.
Documentation status
Comprehensive match data—including exact dates, venues, scores, and line‑ups—for the 1983 King Cup are limited in publicly available archives. The Saudi Arabian Football Federation retains detailed records, but these have not been fully digitised or disseminated in mainstream encyclopedic references. Consequently, specific information about the final match and the tournament’s champion remains insufficiently verified.
References
- Saudi Arabian Football Federation (official communications).
- Historical overviews of Saudi football in sports periodicals from the early 1980s.
Note: Where the available evidence is ambiguous or incomplete, the entry reflects the current limits of verified encyclopedic information.
