DOHA: The wait is finally over for basketball fans in Qatar.
Doha giants Al Sadd will take on Al Shamal in the first match of the new Qatar Basketball League (QBL) season.
The first match will be played at Al Rayyan Stadium.
In another match today, Al Arabi tackle Qatar SC in a game that starts at 7:15pm.
Al Rayyan - the defending champions - will take on Al Shamal in their first match of the season on November 6, according to the QBL schedule released by officials.
Al Rayyan are unbeaten since the 2008-2009 season.
At the end of last season, Sheikh Saoud bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, President of the Qatar Basketball Federation (QBF), said new events and programmes would be added to the calendar in the coming seasons.
“The reason we are planning to organise so many events so that we create an infrastructure of excellence that leads us to become an Olympic Games squad,” Sheikh Saoud said in an interview in May.
“We seek improvement in the skills of the local players. We have strategies in mind that we intend to implement to help players improve their skills. Quality will only improve if the players improve their skills on the court,” Sheikh Saoud added. “We will have courses for referees to make sure that we try to contribute or make elaborate plans for our officials. We also want to try and follow our dream of reaching the Olympic one day,” he said at the time. “We may try to make some adjustments in the league so that they league is more attractive. We want the fans to enjoy quality action.”
A QBF official last week said the new season will have one additional team on the roster.
“The number of participating clubs has increased from 8 to 9 with the addition of Al Shamal Sports Club,” an official of the QBF said in a statement.
THE PENINSULA
