There is not much crime, poverty or conflict, but life still isn't easy in Riyadh. The heat is oppressive, the sun blinding and the whole city is painted in the colour of sand. If it wasn't for the sunburst reflection off glass towers, it would be hard to tell where the city ends and the desert starts.

Order is a requirement as authority bombards daily life. Socialising is restricted, with segregation a routine. Cut-price petrol fuels rush-hour traffic for almost a day, clogging the arteries of a city that has swelled to 10 times its size in 40 years.

There is little respite from the daily demands of Riyadh. That is, apart from football.

"Here in Saudi Arabia, there is nothing to do. No cinema, nothing. Only football," a leading Saudi football journalist said.

There are few vices in this dry country other than the world game where matches are the only form of public entertainment. It is an autocratic state delicately balancing a puritanical lifestyle with capitalist ideologies, and somewhere between the two lies their football system.

All clubs are owned by the government, whose governance is sold for specified terms to oligarchs who become presidents after paying handsome fees, some multi-year deals done for in excess of $100 million.

Teams are owned by members of the royal family or those with close ties to them, providing little to no variation in each club's background and identity.

In Riyadh, all three big clubs - Al-Hilal, Al-Shabab and Al Nassr - predominantly play out of the King Fahd International Stadium in a uniform approach fitting with much of the greater society.

In a largely monocultural society, there is almost no social, ethnical or geographic divide between any of the major Riyadh clubs, but the bitterness between the three is deeply entrenched. Simply, thier distain boils down to football matters.

There is a different kind of passion for Saudi football where relevance is more important than ability. Local jerseys occupy shopfront real estate over those of European powerhouses, while billboards portray Yasser Al-Qahtani, not Lionel Messi.

As you read this, fans of Al-Hilal are already setting up visual displays inside the stadium, while rivals continue to follow Western Sydney Wanderers around town for days to support the enemy of their enemy.

Al Nassr fans stopped the Wanderers for photos at their hotel, lurked outside a training session, and awaited their arrival at the airport to spur them on against the "Blue Crescent".

The Middle Eastern country was late to introduce television, but free-to-air coverage now has half a dozen football channels, twice that number for foreign and pay TV stations.

It isn't just the English Premier League on display, but games from all over Europe, Asia, the Middle East and at least two channels dedicated solely to Saudi Arabian football of all tiers and age levels.

"It's definitely a country that's underestimated," Wanderers striker Tomi Juric said. "They play some good football and they're certainly investing in it as well, which is great to see. You turn the TV on and there's nearly 15 football channels on TV."

Modern football is a young person's game and that is no different for Saudi Arabia. The oil-rich state isn't just spending money on high-profile foreign players, coaches and fans, but also on their youth development tiers.

In a country where more than half the population is under 25, they're not ignoring their emerging market. National competitions for under-20s and under-17s were established to restore Saudi football to an Asian benchmark.

The results are slowly developing, with Western Sydney Wanderers' own Brazilian, Vitor Saba, surprised by the standard that's followed.

"I expected a lower level. Technically and physically they're higher than I thought. I like to see the passion of the fans here as well. It's surprising," he said.

A glimpse at the expenditure of Al-Hilal explains a lot. The club turned over more than $42 million in seasons past and forked out more than $8.5 million to bring Brazilian star Thiago Neves back to the club for a second stint.

They have a penchant for flair and their attack is sharper than it has been for a long time. Money has been splashed on foreign defenders to complement their strengths and shows the sincerity of the investments of president Abdulrahman bin Musa'ad, all of which have been made for one goal only.

For 14 years, have has worked towards one honour that sets the club apart from its domestic rivals: conquering Asia.

It's a club that in many ways represents the nation more than its rivals, boasting the luxury of wealth and having the greatest support from the powerbrokers.

There is not so much an expectation to win the Asian Champions League, but a desperation. It's showing with free tickets distributed to drum up support and greater financial rewards dangling in front of the players.

But most of all, these suggest that in Saudi Arabia, football isn't just respite for the fans.