(L toR) Qatar Cancer Society’s Dera al-Dosari, QSL Chief Commerical Officer Abdulrahman al-Dosari, Qatar Airways Vice-President, Commercial, Ahab Amin and Qatar Cancer Society’s Ibrahim al-Bloushi pose at the launch of the Community Football Tournament

 

Sports Reporter/Doha

 

THE Qatar Stars League along with the Qatar Cancer Society yesterday launched a Community Football Tournament in partnership with the Qatar Stars League and Qatar Airways.

The event will begin on February 4 and run until February 19. Markhiya Sports Club will host all the maches, except the final which will be played on Feb 19 at Al Sadd Sports Club alongside the QSL match between Al Sadd and Al Rayyan.

The Qatar Cancer Society recently signed an agreement with the Qatar Stars League, and together have activated some of their key community initiatives such as the ‘Community Football Tournament’. Together, their social responsibilities are a crucial platform to enhance the lifestyles and wellbeing of local and multi-cultural communities who call Qatar ‘home’.

The Community Football Tournament organised by QSL and QCS will not only promote the fundamental benefits a healthy lifestyle can bring, but also highlight the impact football has on lives as a Universal language the world over.  Together the Qatar Stars League and Qatar Cancer Society will bring together local communities from Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, Spain, Nigeria, Iran etc through their love of football.

The Qatar Stars League is very serious about its’ social responsibility programme and is committed to enriching lives. The idea behind the tournament is to bring fun and a sense of belonging to the participating communities whilst highlighting and delivering the vital  messages of cancer awareness, the QSL said

As the tournament will kick off only days from now, the draw for the 18-team knock out tournament was made yesterday at Al Bidda Tower by Abdulrahman al-Dosari, Chief Commercial officer for  the QSL, Dera al-Dosari of the QCS and Ehab Amin, Vice-President, Commercial,  Qatar Airways.

Teams from all over Qatar were invited to participate as the tournament will be played amongst local communities. Each team must be made up of players of the same nationality who will represent their countries.

Speaking at the draw, Abdulrahman al-Dosari of the QSL, said: “This is a great collaboration between both companies and institutions. We are committed to our responsibilities. We are very glad to work with the Cancer Society to try and help prevent the disease. It is important to promote the philosophy of prevention.”

 Speaking on the initiative, Qatar Airways Chief Executive Officer Akbar al-Baker said: “Qatar Airways is delighted to be the Official Sponsor of this very special sporting event, bringing together teams from different backgrounds and nationalities across Doha in celebration of our diverse community and supporting a worthy cause, the Qatar Cancer Society.

“Sport is, and always has been one of the pillars of Qatar Airways’ strategy and football in particular will continue to feature largely in our marketing activities this year and going forward. It’s been quite a football-themed past few months, with our recent tie-up with Qatar’s national soccer team and the tremendous news that from this year we will form an alliance with the world’s biggest football club FC Barcelona.”

Ehab Amin, Vice-President, Commercial, Qatar Airways, said: “As official partners it is a pleasure to announce a partnership with the Qatar Cancer Society and the Qatar Stars League.

“We are now thrilled to be supporting the Qatar Cancer Society and the Qatar Stars League - two extremely worthwhile community organisations in Qatar.

“They are to be congratulated on organising such a tournament as this, bringing the community together to play and celebrate the great sport of football. They should be immensely proud of the work they do.”

Dera al- Dosari, of the QCS, said:  “We are proud the QSL want to focus on the general health and well-being of people in Qatar.

“The number of people who suffer from cancer has risen here, partly because of the huge influx of foreigners and partly because people are living longer. Since the QSL are focused on sport and living well, we want to try and educate people about cancer in a much less scary way than they are perhaps used to.”

The draw was divided into two group, Group A and Group B.

Group A fixtures: Lebanon v Palestine, QSL v Sudan, Qatar 2v Nigeria, Egypt v Syria then Al Markhiya.

Group B fixtures: Algeria v Kenya, Jordan v Morocco, Iraq v Iran, Spain v Qatar 1 then Tunisia