This was announced by Ali bin Ghanem al-Kuwari, President of QVA and West Asian Volleyball Federation, at a press conference on Monday.
Yousef Ahmed, Secretary-General of QVA, Walid Abdel Samad, Technical Secretary of the Referees Committee of QVA, Amna al-Kuwari, chief of QVA’s Women’s Sports Committee, Hussein Imam, QVA technical expert, Nour Loubani, the committee’s co-ordinator, and representatives of the participating teams featured at the press conference.
The championship, which will be held in a single-round league system, is set to begin on October 20 with the participation of 10 teams: Qatar SC, Al Arabi, Al Gharafa, Hamad Bin Khalifa University, Qatar University, Doha University, Wa’ed Academy, F45, Lions Sri Lanka, and Academy team Sportlab. Al-Kuwari said the championship will be the beginning of a series of events – whether local, Gulf or Asian in women’s sports – to be organised in the coming season.
Al-Kuwari praised the co-operation between the Air Force Federation and the Qatari Women’s Sports Committee (QWSC), headed by Lulwa al-Marri. “We are looking forward to forming a strong women’s squad capable of competing in international tournaments. We have to host such tournaments in order to attract the best female players so that they provide strength to our national volleyball player base,” al-Kuwari said.
The QVA president also revealed that the federation is in the process of finalising the first edition of a beach volleyball tournament, which will be held next March, in addition to preparing the clubs to participate in the women’s beach volleyball league next season.
Ahmed, Secretary-General of QVA, thanked the QWSC for its ‘great efforts in preparing for this tournament, which will be the first of many women’s volleyball tournaments during the coming period’.
Hussein Imam, the technical expert, said the competitions will be scheduled every Friday while some fixtures could be be held during weekdays if the teams agreed to do so.
“Every team will consist of a maximum of 12 to 14 players with 6 players on the field and a maximum of 6 to 8 on the bench. The final ranking of the teams in the league will be based on the number of wins. In the event of a tie in the number of wins, the teams will be ranked according to the total points obtained from matches,” Imam said.
Amna al-Kuwari, chief of QVA’s Women’s Sports Committee, said: “These are exciting times for women’s sport. I am happy to see first edition of the Open Volleyball Championship set to be launch this week with participation 10 teams.”
Nour Loubani, co-ordinator of QVA’s Women’s Sports Committee, said: “It is important for each side to have media co-ordinators so that fan engagement is managed properly with right kind of information going out to volleyball fans.”
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