Qatar Football AssociationNews
16.09.2014 19:31 in :

DOHA: Qatargas and Qatar Football Association (QFA) today announced the start of the 2014-2015 season of the Qatargas League. The announcement was made at a joint press conference held at the Four Seasons Hotel in Doha.

The new season of the “Qatargas League” launched last year, will kick off on Saturday, 20th September and will witness the participation of 18 reserve and second division teams.

The press conference was attended by Khalid Al-Kuwari, Chief Operations Officer, QFA and Mansour Rashid Al-Naimi, Public Relations Manager, Qatargas, in addition to representatives of QFA and Qatargas as well as the local media. Following the press conference, 18 First and Reserve team coaches attended the pre-season press conferences to discuss with the media their preparation for the season.

Addressing the media, Khalid Al-Kuwari, Executive Director, Operations (Acting), QFA, said: “We thank Qatargas for their continued support and look forward to continuing 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. Qatargas League is one of the most important leagues in Qatar as two teams from the second division will ascend to Qatar Stars League (QSL) based on their ranking, whilst the 13th and 14th place teams in QSL will be relegated directly from QSL to Qatargas League.”

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He added: “The Qatargas League will play a very significant role in developing the future of Qatari football and specifically the performance of our players.”

Mansour Rashid Al-Naimi, Qatargas Public Relations Manager said: “We are delighted to continue our partnership with the Qatar Football Association. We would like to thank and congratulate the Association for organizing 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 talents.”

“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 participating teams success in the tournament”, he added.

The new season of the Qatargas League kicks off on 20th September, 2014 and will run until mid April with a short break in December. Matches will be played in eight different stadia including Al Sadd, Qatar, Al Gharrafa, Lekhwiya, Al Arabi, Al Wakrah, Al Khor, and Al Sailiya. The Qatargas League will be played according to a standard league format where the first and second place teams from the second division clubs will promote to Qatar Stars League (QSL) based on their ranking. The two second division clubs must be in the top five teams in Qatargas League in order to ascend to QSL and if they’re not, then the first place second division team from Qatargas League will play a decisive match against the 14th place team from QSL and the second place team from second division in Qatargas League will play the 13th place team from QSL. The losing teams from the decisive match will then be relegated directly from QSL to Qatargas League.