The Qatar Football Association (QFA) and the Football Association of the Czech Republic (FACR) signed a co-operation agreement yesterday at Al Bidda Tower.
Prior to the signing ceremony, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa bin Ahmed al-Thani, President of the QFA, received Roman Berbr, Second Vice-President of the FACR, Rudolf ?epka, FACR General Secretary, and FACR delegation in his office to discuss matters of mutual interests while stressing on the importance of building on the relationship between the two associations and developing it further in the future for the mutual benefit of both parties.
Following the meeting, the QFA Vice President Saoud al-Mohannadi and Roman Berbr, Second Vice-President of the FACR, inked the agreement in the presence of the QFA General Secretary Mansoor al-Ansari, Executive Director of the QFA President office Ali Dawood, QFA Director of Operations of National Teams Department Ahmed Abbassi, FACR General Secretary Rudolf ?epka, FACR Chairman of the League Football Association (LFA) Dušan Svoboda and General Director of STES (FACR’s marketing partner) Martin Malík.
The upcoming period will witness the establishment of a joint working group which will study the legal frameworks in detail in order to activate the agreement. A plan of action will also be prepared, which will include a report on the most important achievements, schedule of activities and events that will bring together the two associations in the coming period. The agreement is also set to establish a framework to strengthen co-operation between both associations and to enhance football growth and development in the two countries.
The signing of the co-operation agreement demonstrates both associations’ objectives to co-operate and support the development of football in both countries by organising training sessions and camps, friendly matches, development workshops for technical staff, and exchanging knowledge and expertise for the mutual benefit of both parties.
General Secretary of the QFA, Mansoor al-Ansari, said: “I would like to welcome everyone here today. There is a large scope of work we can co-operate in through this co-operation agreement. We have a lot of state of the art facilities in Qatar, this includes Aspire Zone Foundation, Aspire Academy and Aspetar which can be used by the FACR in the future.” We have an interesting referees programme as we have a very strong presence in Asia and the average age of our professional referees is mid-twenties.
“We will look at other opportunities to benefit from the FACR as they have a great football history and made many achievements in the football sector. There will also be a dedicated taskforce that will oversee how the terms of the MoU can be activated in the future for the benefit of both associations.”
General Secretary of the FACR, Rudolf ?epka of FACR, commented: “Firstly, we as the Football Association of Czech Republic, we would like to really thank QFA for their great hospitality and for their invitation for the November friendly games.
“They are friendly matches, but they are very competitive and we are very glad that we played a great game against Iceland, the team that qualified for the upcoming World Cup in Russia, and we look forward to playing Qatar on Saturday.”
Commenting on the friendly match played against Iceland on Wednesday 8 November, the FACR General Secretary said: “As a spectator attending a match in Qatar in November, the weather was nice in the stadium and the players were also happy with it. The stadium and pitch quality were in excellent condition and we were happy we won the friendly match against Iceland.”

Related Story