ESM Operations Limited-Saudi Pro League public safety deal

Article posted by Coliseum, June 15^th, 2026

Image: Coliseum GSVA

The global public safety and event management consultancy ESM Operations Limited has secured a landmark contract with the Saudi Pro League (SPL) (Saudi Arabia) marking a significant step in enhancing public safety and operational standards across the fast-growing football league as the Kingdom continues its rapid evolution as a major destination for international sport.

‘BUSINESS MONDAYS’ stated that the company has successfully completed Phase One of the project delivering comprehensive stadium reviews across the league. This initial stage involved detailed assessments of 16 Saudi Pro League stadiums with the remaining two excluded due to the ongoing construction and capacity considerations.

Scoring Methodology

A consistent scoring methodology was applied across all the venues to ensure fairness and transparency. A detailed report was completed for each stadium assessing performance across 11 categories and multiple subcategories and benchmarked against the international best practice and ESM’s extensive operational expertise. The results were presented using a clear, traffic-light-style framework categorizing the performance as poor, medium, good, or very good.

The traffic light framework is a simple, intuitive decision-making and categorization tool that uses the universal red, yellow and green colors to assess the conditions, prioritize actions, or communicate risk. It visually simplifies complexity thus allowing the teams and the individuals to immediately see what requires intervention.

Manchester (UK)-based the ESM Operations Limited is a global public safety consultancy trusted to design, standardize and evidence safe delivery of mega events operating at the national and international scale.

The Saudi Pro League (SPL), also known as the Roshn Saudi League (RSL) for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Saudi Arabia and the highest tier of the Saudi football league system.

Key Operational Areas

‘BUSINESS MONDAYS’ further stated that the work focused on public safety and crowd management with evaluations covering the key operational areas including arrival, last mile, ingress and egress, stadium operations, internal circulation, pitch protection, and egress and dispersal.

‘Structured Understanding’

Maintained David Dymitrow, Head of Public Safety and Crowd Management, ESM Operations, “This First Phase has provided a clear and structured understanding of the current operations across the league. By applying a consistent methodology rooted in international standards we’ve been able to identify both strengths and opportunities for improvement. As the Saudi Pro League continues to develop and evolve its matchday environment there is an increasing focus on delivering safe, secure and professionally managed event operations. We are proud to support the league on this journey and look forward to building on these strong foundations in the next phases of the project.”

Standardized Public Safety

Building on these insights the next steps will focus on supporting the development of a more standardized public safety and crowd management platform across all the Saudi Pro League clubs. This will involve establishing consistent operational principles, strengthening collaboration with the clubs and the stakeholders and aligning the practices with recognized international standards and guidance to support safer and more effective event operations across the league.

This approach is intended to create greater consistency in planning, delivery and oversight across the matchday operations while also supporting long-term capability development and continuous improvement throughout the league environment.

Operating across three international hubs ESM Operations supports clients across all phases of an event, from early planning and design through to live operations and post-event review across the events, the sports and entertainment sectors and delivering consistent standards of public safety across diverse and complex environments.

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