History

Club history

In addition to British Aerospace’s Dhahran Football Club, there existed in 1997 two ragbag football organisations for expatriate players to continue their enjoyment of the game here in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia.  Saudi Aramco had their own closeted set-up led by Mick Couzens, while down in Khobar John Patterson and Jon Keen had started the Khobar Eagles.  With Aramco offering players but not access to facilities, and Khobar Eagles players and facilities, it was decided to join forces to enhance competitiveness and open up football to a wider competitive audience.

On 29th May 1997, the two clubs got together for a ‘mini tournament’ that laid the foundation for the subsequent 7-a-side league that began with four teams in October 1997. The amalgamation into Khobar Expats Football Club allowed 11-a-side teams to be put out against British Aerospace. In spring 1998, the league format was changed to 8-a-side, with the league expanded to six teams.

At its peak, the league hosted 10 sides drawn from the members of both Khobar Expats Football Club and Dhahran Football Club.  Mick Couzens set himself up as President of the club in 1997, with John Patterson and Jon Keen as his assistants. However, John Patterson disappeared after that first season, as did Jon Keen after the spring 1998 season.  Matt Knight stepped up as Vice President, and included in his tenure the honour of hosting two of the most popular social events ever to grace the region! Matt left to travel the world in summer 2001, and was replaced as VP by Lee Suter.

When Mick “Mr. Football” Couzens shocked the expat community by leaving in September 2003, Lee stepped into the yawning chasm left by Mick’s departure, ably assisted by Harry de Roo. When Harry left in 2006, Lee Cockram stepped into the gap for a couple of years, before Sean Gale took over as Vice President for two seasons in 2009.  The 2010/11 season started with two unfortunate announcements. Firstly, the pitch at Al Hada had not been maintained to a playable standard and so the Autumn league had to be cancelled. The second and most regrettable announcement was that Lee Suter, KEFC veteran and Club President for some 7 years, was stepping down as president. Thankfully Alex Waterson stepped into the breach, assisted in 2013 by Dave Smith as VP.

Dave left in September 2013 for Bahrain, and in December 2013 Alex retired to the UK.