Qatar football getting ready for busy season

Posted by Admin July 17, 2024 Football

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Qatari football clubs and national teams are gearing up for a busy 2024-2025 season which will feature both domestic and international engagements.

The season will kick off with the Ooredoo Stars League from August 9 and will be followed by Qatar Cup, and the prestigious HH the Amir Cup.

The seasonal calendar also includes preliminary rounds of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Champions League in August, as well as the 3rd stage of the AFC Asian qualifiers for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, something that necessitates early preparations.

Qatari clubs will face new challenges when it comes to AFC competitions, when Qatar’s league champions, Al Sadd, and the runners up, Al Rayyan, gained two direct spots in the AFC Champions League Elite, which will see 24 clubs compete, 12 clubs from East Asia and 12 from West Asia, with each club playing against eight different opponents within their region, in four home and four away matches.

The group stage will take place from September 16 to February 19, 2025. The Round of 16 will be held from March 3-12, with the final stage taking place from April 25 to May 4.

Saudi Arabia will be the host of the 2024-2025 and 2025-2026 finals.

Ranking third domestically, Al Gharafa will partake in the preliminary round, facing the winner of the match between Iran’s Sepahan FC and UAE’s Shabab Al Ahli, which will be held at Al Bayt Stadium on August 13. Winning teams in the preliminary round advance directly to the league stage, while losing teams move to the AFC Champions League 2 group stage.

The official draw ceremony for the AFC Champions League Elite group stage will take place at the AFC headquarters in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on August 16.

Al Wakrah, ranked fourth in the Expo Stars League last season, hope to achieve good results in their group stage journey in the AFC Champions League 2 tournament, which features thirty-two clubs competing in the group stage from September 16, 2024, to February 19, 2025.

Al Arabi, ranked fifth in the Qatari League last season, will participate in the Gulf Co-operation Council Club Cup, a newly established tournament by the Arab Gulf Cup Football Federation, held on a home-and-away format from September 24 to April 25, 2025.

Qatar’s first football team is preparing to compete in the third round of the Asian qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup, after the draw placed it in Group A, alongside the teams of Iran, Uzbekistan, the UAE, Kyrgyzstan, and North Korea.

The Maroons will begin their matches by facing UAE in Doha on September 5, after which they will face North Korea away on September 10, before facing the Kyrgyz national team at home on October 10, then heading to Tehran to face Iran away on October 15.

It will then host the Uzbek national team in Doha on November 14 at the end of the first round.

Qatar will begin the second round by facing the UAE away on November 19, before hosting North Korea on March 20, 2025, Kyrgyzstan on November 25 and return to host Iran on June 5, 2025.

The team will conclude the third round by facing Uzbekistan away in Tashkent on June 10.

Next, the Qatar team will also participate in the Gulf Cup (Gulf 26), scheduled in Kuwait from December 21, 2024, to January 3, 2025. Following the resounding success of organising the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, Doha will be on the verge of an important event in 2025, after FIFA decided to assign the organisation of the next five editions of the FIFA U-17 World Cup to Qatar, with the participation of 48 teams for the first time. The tournament will be held annually until 2029.

Qatar will also host the Group F qualifiers for the 2025 AFC U-17 Championship (October 19-27, 2024), where the draw was drawn for the Qatar junior national team alongside Japan, the defending champions and four times winner of the tournament, and Mongolia and Nepal. The Qatar U-20 team will participate in the AFC U20 Asian Cup China 2025 in Group J alongside Jordan, Singapore, and Hong Kong.

Doha will host the group qualifiers from December 21-29, 2024.