Players and officials of Al Rayyan celebrate with the winning league trophy at Al Gharafa Indoor Arena in this May 2012 file photo taken in Doha.
DOHA: 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 on November 3. On the same day, Al Arabi battle 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.
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.
“We want more activities even after the league comes to an end. You see that basketball league is the first event that ends on our national sports calendar.”
A QBF official yesterday 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 yesterday. “For the very first time, some games of the PIBAQ (Pinoy Basketball in Qatar) which is the premier Philippine League in Qatar, will be played alongside Qatar League’s matches,” the official added.
“The 2012-2013 Season promises to be more exciting with the addition of new players that we will see in action in the league,” the QBF official confirmed.
THE PENINSULA
