Qatar’s football will gear up to compete in both domestic and international tournaments this upcoming season. 

Qatar’s football clubs and national teams are poised for an action-packed 2024-2025 season, set to compete in both domestic leagues and international tournaments.

Internationally, Qatar is set to participate in the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) tournament and the qualifiers for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

Qatar’s Al Sadd and Al Rayyan have qualified for the AFC Champions League Elite stage.

Al Gharafa, which finished third, will play in the indirect spot.

Qatar ranks fifth in the AFC Club Competitions Ranking with 70.330 points, just behind the United Arab Emirates.

Both nations have secured spots in the 2025/26 season slot allocation for AFC Club Competitions. This tournament features 24 clubs divided evenly between East and West Asia, each facing eight opponents from their respective regions.

Teams will compete in four home and four away matches.

The group stage will kick off from September 16 to February 19, 2025.

The round of 16 will be held from March 3 to 12, with the final stage from April 25 to May 4.

Rebranded from the previous AFC Champions League, the ACL Elite adopts a UEFA-style format, reducing the number of participating teams from 40 to 24.

The division between East and West Asian clubs remains, but the group stage will now feature a single league of 12 teams per region, instead of five groups of four.

Qatar will also host the Group F qualifiers for the 2025 AFC U-17 Championship from October 19-27.

The draw has placed Qatar’s junior national team alongside Japan, the defending champions and four-time winners of the tournament, as well as Mongolia and Nepal.

Meanwhile, Qatar’s U-20 team will compete in Group J of the AFC U20 Asian Cup China 2025. Their group includes Jordan, Singapore, and Hong Kong.

World Cup 2026 qualifiers

Following a successful group stage campaign, Qatar’s national football team is gearing up for the third Round of the Asian qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup.

Drawn into Group A, they will face Iran, Uzbekistan, the UAE, Kyrgyzstan, and North Korea.

The Maroons will begin their matches by facing the UAE on the home pitch in Doha on September 5.

Qatar’s national team will play North Korea away on September 10 following their fixtures.

The team will return home on October 10 to host the Kyrgyz national team.

Just five days later, the team will travel to Tehran to face Iran on October 15.

After wrapping up the first round, Qatar will host the Uzbek national team in Doha on November 14.

Moving into the second round, the team will start with an away match against the UAE on November 19.

Qatar’s team will host North Korea on March 20, 2025, followed by a home match against Kyrgyzstan on November 25 next year.

Qatar will finish the second round by hosting Iran on June 5, 2025.

Local league

The local season will commence with the Ooredoo Stars League on August 9, followed by the Qatar Cup and come to an end with the Amir Cup.

Last year, several Qatar leagues clubs announced that teams will train overseas, a with the hopes of enhancing their technical game before the season. 

Austria, Turkey, and Spain have all been picked as destinations for Qatar’s local teams. Austria has hosted the Qatar national team for years in its overseas training camps. 

Al Sadd, Al Rayyan, and Al Shamal have all traveled to Austria for the summer break and competed in several friendly matches. 

The relocation of training camps for the league comes after Qatar Football Association’s (QFA) leaders voiced measures to enhance approaches on and off the pitch.

In interviews last year, QFA’s Director of Development Fahd Thani Al Zaraa noted that a joint education agreement is being developed to facilitate football regulations and training programs.

The collaboration with the AFC also means enlisting training courses for coaches and specialists in Qatari football clubs, while also emphasising budget and scheduling management.