BY D CHAKRABORTY
DOHA: As the second edition of the Qatargas League — the second tier football league in Qatar — kicks off on Saturday, all eyes will be on Al Rayyan as the popular club look to bounce back from relegation last season.
Earlier this year, Al Rayyan’s Qatar Stars League (QSL) season ended in disaster as the “Lions” failed to live up to their name and finished 13th in the 14-team event.
Speaking at the Four Seasons Hotel where Qatargas and the Qatar Football Association (QFA) yesterday announced the start of the 2014-2015 season of the Qatargas League — Al Rayyan coach Manuel Jiménez said hard work was the only way the club could bounce back.
“We have to work a lot to get back to the top level. We must realise that we made a lot of mistakes in the last season and that is why we are in the second division now. We must learn from those mistakes,” Jiménez said.
However, Al Rayyan will start as favourites for the Qatargas League, which includes 17 other reserve and second division teams. Al Shahaniya, Mesaimeer and Lekhwiya will also be strong contenders.
This competition offers a great chance for players to showcase their skills as most these teams act as tributaries for their respective first division clubs.
“We want to compete better (this time). We train our players with the first team and we have some under-19 players also in the team.” Lekhwiya coach Gerard Zaragoza said at yesterday’s press conference, which was also attended by the QFA’s chief operations officer Khalid Al Kuwari and the Public Relations Manager of Qatargas, Mansour Rashid Al Naimi.
“We thank Qatargas for their continued support and look forward to working with them for years to come. We are happy to be partners with a leading company such as Qatargas and are eager to organise a successful league again this year. The Qatargas League is one of the most important leagues in Qatar as two teams from the second division will ascend to the QSL based on their ranking, whilst the 13th and 14th place teams in the QSL will be relegated directly from QSL to Qatargas League,” Al Kuwari said.
Al Naimi, the Public Relations Manager of Qatargas, said: “We are delighted to continue our partnership with the QFA. We would like to thank and congratulate the QFA for organising an excellent tournament last season and look forward to an exciting new season. We are very optimistic that our support for the league will contribute in raising the standard of the game in Qatar and identifying new talent.”
“As one of the leading energy companies of the world, our support to the game of football forms part of Qatargas’ corporate social responsibility programme aimed at supporting the human development pillar of Qatar’s National Vision 2030. I would also like to take this opportunity to wish all the teams success in the tournament,” he added.
The Qatargas League will be played according to a standard league format where the first and second placed teams will be promoted to the QSL based on their ranking. These two second division clubs must be among the top five teams in the Qatargas League in order to ascend to the QSL and if not, then the first place team from Qatargas League will play a decisive match against the 14th place team from the QSL and the second place team from the Qatargas League will play the 13th place team from QSL.
The losing teams from the decisive matches will then be relegated directly from the QSL to the Qatargas League.
THE PENINSULA
